There are five full-length biographies of Orwell, by Bernard Crick (1980 and revised editions), Michael Shelden (1991), Jeffrey Meyers (2000), Gordon Bowker (2003), and D.J. Taylor (2003). Each of them contains useful material on the writing of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell’s Complete Works have been edited in twenty volumes by Professor Peter Davison (1998). Of particular relevance are Volume XV: Two Wasted Years: 1943; Volume XVI: I Have Tried to Tell the Truth: 1943–1944; Volume XVII: I Belong to the Left: 1945; Volume XVIII: Smothered Under Journalism: 1946; Volume XIX: It Is What I Think: 1947–1948; Volume XX: Our Job Is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949–1950. See also Davison’s supplementary volume, The Lost Orwell (2006).
Among recent critical studies, Christopher Hitchens, Orwell’s Victory (2002, later editions are titled Why Orwell Matters); John Rodden, ed., The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell (2007); Robert Colls, George Orwell: English Rebel (2013); and David Dwan, Liberty, Equality & Humbug: Orwell’s Political Ideals (2018) are recommended. See also Dennis Glover’s recent novelisation of Orwell’s later life, The Last Man in Europe (2017). For a valuable psychological sketch of Orwell by a close friend, see Anthony Powell, To Keep the Ball Rolling: Volume I: Infants of the Spring (1976), 129–42.
For a selection of reviews of Nineteen Eighty-Four, see Jeffrey Meyers, ed., George Orwell: The Critical Heritage (1975), 247–93. ‘The book seems to have had a good reception’, Orwell to Leonard Moore, 22 June 1949, Davison, ed., Complete Works Volume XX, 140. For Bernard Crick’s comment, see ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four: context and controversy’, in Rodden, ed., The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell, 146. On the international political background, Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing, Cold War (1998), 22–61.
Anthony Powell remembers visiting Orwell in hospital in October 1949 in Infants of the Spring, 141. The friend who saw him on Christmas afternoon 1949 was Malcolm Muggeridge.
‘His imaginative powers, remarkable in one direction’, Anthony Powell, Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers 1946–1989 (1990), 283. For his relationship with Jacintha Buddicom, see her Eric and Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell (1974, rev. edition 2006). Richard Rees remembers the conversation about seeing your name in print in George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory (1961), 44.
For Orwell’s pre-war reputation, Fredric Warburg, An Occupation for Gentlemen (1959), 231. ‘If I should peg out in the next few years’, Orwell to Richard Rees, 5 July 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 340. Anthony Burgess writes about Orwell’s fondness for ‘rural’ metaphors in 1985 (1978), 237. For ‘Clink’, see Davison, ed., Complete Works Volume X: A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, 254–60. On Jack Bumstead, D.J. Taylor, ‘He Put My Brother in His Book’, in Mark Bostridge, ed., Lives for Sale: Biographers’ Tales (2004), 177–80.
‘Why I Write’ was originally published in Gangrel. See Complete Works Volume XVIII, 316–21. ‘I don’t understand or take any interest in politics’, letter to Eleanor Jaques, 22 October 1931 [private collection]. ‘Now that my book is published’, letter to Eleanor, 15 January 1936 [private collection]. On Orwell in Wigan, Colls, English Rebel, 55–6. The publisher who met him shortly before he went to Spain was Fred Warburg, An Occupation for Gentlemen, 231.
‘But the thing that I saw in your face’, lines taken from a poem beginning ‘The Italian soldier shook my hand’, which appears in the essay ‘Looking Back on the Spanish War’. Davison, ed., Complete Works Volume XIII: All Propaganda Is Lies, 496–511. This originally appeared in the magazine New Road in 1943, but the exact date of composition is unknown. The Dos Passos letter is quoted in Powell, Miscellaneous Verdicts, 251.
Orwell’s Tribune review of dystopian novels by Jack London, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and Ernest Bramah appeared in Tribune on 12 July 1940 and is reprinted in Davison, ed., Complete Works Volume XII: A Patriot After All: 1940–1941, 210–13. On Orwell’s time at the BBC, W.J. West, The Larger Evils: Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Truth Behind the Satire (1992), 55–65; Desmond Avery, George Orwell at the BBC in 1942 (2017). ‘The Germans announce’, diary entry of 11 June 1942, Davison ed., All Propaganda Is Lies, 355–6.
For his opinion of the BBC (‘something halfway between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum’), diary entry of 14 March, 1942, Complete Works Volume XIII, 229. ‘Two wasted years’, letter to Philip Rahv, 9 December 1943, Complete Works Volume XVI, 22. The remarks about ‘keeping our propaganda slightly less disgusting than it might otherwise have been’ are contained in a letter to George Woodcock, 2 December 1942, Complete Works Volume XIV: Keeping Our Little Corner Clean: 1942–1943, 213. ‘The only time when one hears people singing’, diary entry of 10 June, 1942, ibid, 354.
‘I first thought of it in 1943’, Orwell to Fred Warburg, 22 October 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 457. The letter to Roger Senhouse was sent on 26 December 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 487–88. Davison prints and usefully discusses Orwell’s notes for ‘The Quick and the Dead’ and ‘The Last Man in Europe’ as an appendix to Complete Works Volume XV, 356–70.
The ‘As I Please’ column about totalitarianism’s disregard for objective truth appeared in Tribune on 4 February 1944, Complete Works Volume XVI, 88–9. The review of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom appeared in the Observer on 9 April 1944, Complete Works Volume XVI, 149. For the letter to Noel Willmett, ibid, 190–1. On Baker, and Orwell’s correspondence with C.D. Darlington, Davison, ed., The Lost Orwell, 128–33.
The letter to Rayner Heppenstall was sent on 17 July 1944, Complete Works Volume XVI, 290–1. George Woodcock’s memory of listening to Orwell’s tea-table conversations is in The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell (1967), 28. Warburg reprints the internal Secker memorandum in All Authors Are Equal (1973), 93.
‘. . . quite an unpleasant thing to have’, Orwell to Anne Popham, 15 March 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 153. For the diary entry about ‘my island in the Hebrides’, Complete Works Volume XII: A Patriot After All: 1940–1941, 188. ‘Freedom and Happiness’ appeared in Tribune on 4 January 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 13–16. The letter to Warburg about Zamyatin was sent on 22 November 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 471–2. ‘Just Junk—But Who Could Resist It?’ appeared in the London Evening Standard, 5 January 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 17–19.
The letter to Hugh Slater, whom Orwell addresses by his alternative name of ‘Humphrey’, was sent on 26 September 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII 408. For Orwell’s relationship with David Holbrook, see Taylor, Orwell: The Life, 377–79.
‘You and the Atom Bomb’ appeared in Tribune on 19 October 1945, Complete Works Volume XVII, 319–21. ‘Second Thoughts on James Burnham’, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 268–284. Introduction to Jack London, Love of Life and Other Stories, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 351–7. ‘The Prevention of Literature’ appeared in Polemic, January 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 369–80. ‘Politics and the English Language’, Horizon, April 1946, Complete Works Volume XVIII, 421–30.
The letters sent from Jura in the spring of 1947 which refer to progress on Nineteen Eighty-Four were sent, respectively, to Frank D. Barber (15 April), George Woodcock (26 May), and Leonard Moore (21 May). Complete Works Volume XIX, 126, 146–7, 144–5. Orwell wrote to Warburg on 31 May, ibid, 149–50.
Davison prints the text of ‘Such, Such Were the Joys’ in Complete Works Volume XIX, 356–87. See also his prefatory note.
The letter to Sonia was sent on 12 April 1947, Complete Works Volume XIX, 122–4. On Sonia and her possible contribution to Nineteen Eighty-Four, see Hilary Spurling, The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell (2002), passim. The letter to Eleanor Jaques of 19 September 1932 is reproduced in Complete Works Volume X, 269. Michael G. Brennan discusses Orwell’s attempt to equate religious faith with left- and right-wing forms of autocracy in George Orwell and Religion (2017), passim. The unpublished review of Laski’s Faith, Reason and Civilisation is printed in Complete Works Volume XVI, 122–5. For ‘End of the Century’, see Sally Conian, ‘Orwell and the Origins of Nineteen Eighty-Four’, Times Literary Supplement, 31 December 1999.
‘My book is getting on very slowly’, letter to George Woodcock, 9 June 1947, Complete Works Volume XIX, 154–5. ‘I am getting on fairly well’, letter to Leonard Moore, 28 July 1947, Complete Works Volume XIX, 177–8. The letter to Warburg was sent on 1 September, ibid, 196–7.
‘I have been in wretched health’, letter to Arthur Koestler, 20 September 1947, Complete Works Volume XIX, 206–7. ‘I haven’t got on as fast as I should’, letter to George Woodcock, 21 October 1947, ibid, 221. The letter to Leonard Moore which complains of suffering from ‘inflammation of the lungs’ was sent on 31 October, ibid, 224. A subsequent letter about intending to stay in bed to try to recuperate followed on 7 November, ibid, 225. ‘I’ve really been very bad for several months’, letter to Koestler, 24 November, ibid, 226–7. The letter to Frederick Tomlinson of the Observer was sent on the same day, ibid, 227.
‘I think I am now really getting better’, letter to Moore, 30 November 1947, Complete Works Volume XIX, 231. Second letter dated 7 December, ibid, 233–4. Orwell wrote to Celia Kirwan on the same day, ibid, 233. The letter to Julian Symons from Hairmyres is dated 26 December, ibid, 236.
‘Today when I was X-rayed’, letter to Celia Kirwan, 20 January 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 257. The remark about being ‘frightfully weak & thin’ was made in a second letter to Celia, dated 27 May, ibid, 344. ‘I can’t do any serious work’, letter to Symons, 2 January 1948, ibid, 249–50. The progress report to Warburg was sent on 4 February, ibid, 264.
The letter to Roger Senhouse is dated ‘Thursday’ (either 13 or 20 May), Complete Works Volume XIX, 337–8. ‘Of course I have got to go on living a semi-invalid life’, letter to Moore, 15 July 1948, ibid, 403. Warburg’s letter of 19 July is reproduced in Complete Works Volume XIX, 408–9.
‘Jura was where Orwell wanted to be’, Warburg, All Authors Are Equal, 101. ‘I only get up for half a day’, letter to Moore, 3 August 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 414. Letter to Astor dated 9 October 1948, ibid, 450. Subsequent letters to Symons and Powell dated 29 October and 15 November, ibid, 460, 467. Letters to Moore and Warburg dated 22 October, ibid, 456–7. On the attempts to procure a typist, letter to Moore dated 29 October 1948 and from Senhouse, 2 November, ibid, 459–60 and 463. Warburg discusses the typing of Nineteen Eighty-Four’s final draft and the idea that Orwell ‘might have killed himself by gross negligence’ in All Authors, 101–2. Sonia’s remarks are quoted by Fyvel in George Orwell: A Personal Memoir, 160.
Letter to Warburg of 22 November 1948, Complete Works Volume XIX, 471–2. The letter to Gwen O’Shaughnessy is dated 28 November, ibid, 475–6. Letter to Moore sent 4 December, ibid, 478. Letter to Tosco Fyvel, 18 December, ibid, 484. Avril’s letter of 14 December, ibid, 482–3. ‘The latter I will do & send’, letter to David Astor, 21 December, ibid, 485–6.
Warburg’s report on Nineteen Eighty-Four, dated 13 December 1948, is reproduced in All Authors, 103–6. Farrer’s comments are printed in Complete Works Volume XIX, 482. Orwell’s letter to Warburg is dated 21 December, ibid, 486–7.
‘I hope the poor fellow will do well’, Bruce Dick to David Astor, 5 January 1949, Complete Works Volume XX, 13–14. For Tosco Fyvel and his wife Mary’s visit to Cranham, T.R. Fyvel, George Orwell: A Personal Memoir (1982), 162. ‘I don’t think he’ll live more than a year’, All Authors, 109. The letter to Richard Rees about proof-correcting was sent on 28 January, Complete Works Volume XX, 28–29.
‘I mucked it up really’, letter to Dwight Macdonald, 27 January 1949, Complete Works Volume XX, 27–28. ‘I will send you a copy of my new book’, letter to Celia Kirwan, 13 February, ibid, 41. The letter to Roger Senhouse was sent on 2 March 1949, ibid, 50.
Warburg reprises his letter of 8 March in All Authors, 110. ‘I feel too lousy’, letter to Celia Kirwan, 27 February or 6 March, Complete Works Volume XX, 49. The letters to Rees and Robert Giroux were sent, respectively, on 6 April and 14 April, ibid, 81 and 84–5. For the letter to Warburg of 22 April, ibid, 95. ‘Most deadly ill’, letter to S.M. Levitas dated 2 May, ibid, 104. ‘I’ve been rather bad’, letter to Astor, 9 May 1949, ibid, 108. For Warburg’s letter of 13 May, All Authors, 111.
For the letter of 16 May to Warburg, Complete Works Volume XX, 116–17. Morland’s report, ibid, 122. Orwell’s letter to Warburg about his examination, ibid, 121–2. For Muggeridge on Nineteen Eighty-Four, Taylor, Orwell: The Life, 402–3. Most of Warburg’s letter of 30 May is reproduced in All Authors, 113–14.
Meyers prints a selection of reviews of Nineteen Eighty-Four in George Orwell: The Critical Heritage. Warburg discusses sales figures in All Authors, 114–15. For the reactions of early readers, David Pryce-Jones to author; a summary of John Dos Passos’s letter of 8 October 1949 is included in Complete Works Volume XX, 174.
Orwell’s letter to Warburg of 22 August 1949, Complete Works Volume XX, 159. The description of his wedding to Sonia is taken from an unpublished memoir by her friend Janetta Parladé (private collection). For the final weeks, Orwell: The Life, 416–18.
For Orwell’s letter to Vernon Richards of 22 June 1949, Complete Works Volume XX, 140–1. Peregrine Worsthorne, quoted in Frances Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (1999), 300. Orwell’s ‘statement’ is reproduced and discussed by Davison, Complete Works Volume XX, 134–6. Orwell’s letter to Moore about Sidney Sheldon’s proposal was sent on 22 August, ibid, 158–9.
‘Found the P.M. absorbed in George Orwell’s book 1984’, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival: 1940–1965 (1966), 19 February 1953. Burgess quotation from 1985, 18; ‘Let’s be sensible’, ibid, 63, 67. For Orwell’s specific targeting of the Soviet regime, see Robert Conquest, ‘Orwell, Socialism and the Cold War’, in Rodden, ed., Cambridge Companion, 130.
For the CBS Studio One dramatization of 1953, see David Ryan, George Orwell on Screen: Adaptations, Documentaries and Docudramas on Film and Television (2018), 13–21. On Rathvon, Stein, and the CIA’s involvement in the 1956 Hollywood adaptation, Ryan, 53–62, and Stonor Saunders, 295–8. Ryan provides an extensive discussion of the 1954 BBC version and summarises press reaction, 22–38.
Kingsley Amis, letter to M.G. Sherlock of 5 April 1969, reproduced in Zachary Leader, ed., The Letters of Kingsley Amis (2000), 710–11. Czeslaw Milosz, quoted in Meyers, George Orwell: The Critical Heritage, 286. For Fyvel’s analysis of press comment, George Orwell: A Personal Memoir, 201. Timothy Garton-Ash, ‘Orwell For Our Time’, Guardian, 5 May 2001. Crick writes about differing interpretations of the novel in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four: context and controversy’, Rodden, ed., Cambridge Companion, 146. For British parliamentary proposals subjected to ‘the Orwell test’, David Dwan, Liberty, Equality & Humbug, 1.
David Ryan supplies useful details of the 1965 BBC version in George Orwell on Screen, 88–93. Gordon Phelps, ‘The Novel Today’ in Boris Ford, ed., The Pelican Guide to English Literature Volume 7: The Modern Age (1961), 492. Woodcock, The Crystal Spirit, 49. Raymond Williams writes about Nineteen Eighty-Four in his Fontana Modern Masters study Orwell (1971), 74–80.
Christopher Small, The Road to Miniluv: George Orwell, the State and God (1975), 13. On the UK political scene in the 1970s, Phillip Whitehead, ed., The Writing on the Wall: Britain in the Seventies (1985), passim. For an account of the 1980 Olympic Games and their Orwellian resonances, see Christopher Booker, The Games War (1980), passim.
On Sonia’s contract with Marvin Rosenblum, see Ryan, George Orwell on Screen, 141. For Michael Radford’s film, and the 1984 Apple ad, ibid, 135–156 and 221–2. Ian Macdonald writes about Love and Spirit in The People’s Music (2003), 117–22 and 163. Hugh Hopper, quoted in Graham Bennett, Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous (205), 246. The lyrics to ‘Tales from the Riverbank’ are reproduced in Paul Weller, Suburban 100: Selected Lyrics (2007), 17–18.
Christopher Hitchens, Orwell’s Victory, 52–4. On Burma in the late 1990s, see Emma Larkin, Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop (2005). Ron Suskind, quoted in Owen Bennett-Jones, ‘Trouble at the BBC’, London Review of Books, 20 December 2018, 32. Michael Brennan draws attention to the significance of the date 4 April in George Orwell and Religion, 147. Woodcock writes about Nineteen Eighty-Four’s ‘cathartic’ effect on Orwell in The Crystal Spirit, 55.