George+Orwell+Biography

George Orwell was born as Eric Blair in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal. His dad worked for the Opium Department of the Civil Service. His mom took him to England when he was one. Eric had two sisters; Marjorie and Avril. He described his family's class as "lower-upper-middle class."

When he was five, Eric was sent to a small private school in Henley. Eric attended St Cyprian's on a scholarship that his parents would only pay half the price. He did well enough here that he earned scholarships to both Wellington and Eton colleges. Eric went to Wellington for a while then decided to go to Eton, where he was a King's Scholar. The teachers disliked him because he had a lack of respect for their authority. During his time here, though, he started writing some and made many friends.

After being at Eton, Eric joined the Indian Imperial Police. He later quit and returned to England in because he started to hate imperialism. He then changed his name to George Orwell because he was ashamed of his background. He lived for many years in poverty and even homeless at times. He was a teacher for a while then became sick and started working in a bookstore.

During the Spanish Civil War, Orwell volunteered to fight for the Republicans against Franco's Nationalist outbreak. Orwell was shot in the neck and he decided to leave Spain with his wife.

Orwell began writing book reviews for the New English Weekly. During World War II he was a member of the Home Guard and began work for the BBC Eastern Service. He knew that he was contributing to propaganda. So, he resigned to become editor of the Tribune.

In 1944 Orwell finished his anti-Stalinist story Animal Farm, which was published the next year with large success. Animal Farm paid him a lot and Orwell finally had a comfortable income for the first time. In 1949 his best-known work, the dystopian __1984__, was published.

Orwell was married to Eileen O'Shaughnessy, they had adopted a son, Richard Horatio Blair. His wife later died in 1945. He soon married Sonia Brownell. Orwell died at the age of 46 from tuberculosis which he had probably contracted when he was living in poverty or while being homeless. He was in and out of hospitals for the last three years of his life**.**

During most of his career Orwell was known for his journalism. Some of his more famous work was, __Homage to Catalonia__ (describing his experiences during the Spanish Civil War), __Down and Out in Paris and London__ (describing a period of poverty in these cities), and __The Road to Wigan Pier__ (which described the living conditions of poor miners in northern England). According to Newsweek, Orwell "was the finest journalist of his day.”

Orwell is known for his awareness of the political uses of language. Orwell's invention of Newspeak showed that he believed that language could shape reality. Newspeak was the official language of the imaginary country of Oceania in his novel __1984__. Newspeak is a where the vocabulary is limited by the government. The goal was to make it extremely difficult to express individual ideas. Some of words and phrases that Orwell created in __1984__ are used in the standard vocabulary today.