Publisher Jonathan Cape almost took on the book, but the Ministry of Information advised against antagonizing the Soviet Union, an ally in World War II (however, the official who gave this warning was later discovered to be a Soviet spy). Eliot, a director of publisher Faber and Faber, noted, 'Your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm.' Victor Gollancz, who'd published much of Orwell's earlier work, was loath to criticize the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin. But despite the book's quality, in 1944 Orwell encountered trouble while trying to get it published. He had difficulties publishing 'Animal Farm'įinancial and popular success eluded Orwell until Animal Farm, his allegorical look at the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. In 1942, a police sergeant reported to MI5 that Orwell had 'advanced communist views' and dressed 'in a bohemian fashion, both at his office and in his leisure hours.' Fortunately, the MI5 case officer actually knew Orwell's work and that 'he does not hold with the Communist Party nor they with him.

The police also paid attention when Orwell visited coal miners in 1936 while gathering information for The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). This began in 1929 when he volunteered to write for a left-wing publication in France. In addition, his own government kept track of Orwell (a fact he was likely unaware of). Secret police in Spain also seized diaries Orwell had made while in the country and probably passed them to the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB). Biographer Gordon Bowker found the Soviet Union had an undercover agent spying on Orwell and other leftists while they were fighting in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

Orwell not only wrote about state surveillance, but he also experienced it. He was spied on during the Spanish Civil War In addition to George Orwell, which was his preference, the other choices were: P.S. Orwell provided his publisher with a list of potential pseudonyms. However, when his first book came out - Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) - a complete pseudonym was necessary (he felt his family wouldn't appreciate the public knowing their Eton-educated son had worked as a dishwasher and lived as a tramp). Blair, not his birth name, Eric Blair (he didn't feel the name Eric was suitable for a writer). Here are seven fascinating facts about Orwell's (often Orwellian) life: His real name is Eric BlairĪs a child, Orwell yearned to become a famous author, but he intended to publish as E.A. George Orwell's work changed the way people look at themselves and their governments and is still hailed to this day.

Animal Farm / 1984 by George Orwell