George Orwell, born as Eric Arthur Blair, is best known for his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and for creating the enduring concept of *Big Brother*, a symbol of totalitarian surveillance and oppression.

George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, British India. He was of English origin. His father was a British civil servant stationed in India, and his mother was of French descent. When he was just one year old, his mother Ida took him and his older sister Jacintha to England. He grew up in an aristocratic environment. In 1911, he began his education at the strict Catholic school St Cyprian’s. He later attended Eton College, one of England’s oldest and most prestigious private schools, on a scholarship. After graduating from Eton, instead of going to university, he followed a family tradition and in 1922 traveled to Burma (now Myanmar), then a British colony. There, he served in the Imperial Police until 1927. The brutal practices he witnessed during this period contributed greatly to the deep anger he developed toward imperialism. Orwell’s life was filled with experiences that would later profoundly shape his writing.

During his years at Eton College, George Orwell became acquainted with his teacher, the writer Aldous Huxley. After returning from Burma to England, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. Inspired by Jack London, he spent 1927 living among the poorest districts of London. He then moved to Paris for two years, experiencing poverty in a distinctly French way. His money was stolen, he went hungry, washed dishes for survival, and stood in church lines for a bowl of soup. When he could no longer endure these conditions, he returned home and began writing about the brutality he witnessed in Burma and the poverty he experienced in London and Paris.

At the end of 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell traveled to Spain to join the volunteers fighting against Francisco Franco, who was supported by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Although he initially went as a newspaper correspondent, he joined the Republican militias. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was seriously wounded in combat. He later recounted his wartime experiences in the book Homage to Catalonia. During the war, he was shot through the throat by a sniper and narrowly escaped death before being sent to the rear.

After his experience in Spain, George Orwell adopted a more conservative outlook. He was appointed head of the BBC’s Indian broadcasts department. In 1943, he began managing the literary section of the newspaper Tribune.

George Orwell’s two most important works, Animal Farm written in 1945 and Nineteen Eighty-Four written in 1949, are powerful satires not only of totalitarian regimes but also of the human ambitions that create them. Combining deep observational skills with a clear and simple style, Orwell produced works in various genres, including novels, essays, and fables. He left behind ten books and countless articles.

In 1944, he wrote his most significant work, the political fable Animal Farm, which depicts the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin’s betrayal of its ideals. In the story, a group of farm animals overthrow their human oppressors to establish an egalitarian society, but over time the intelligent and power-hungry pigs distort the revolution and become even more oppressive dictators than the humans. Initially unable to find a publisher, the book was released in 1945 and brought Orwell great fame and financial success.

Although the success of Animal Farm ended his financial struggles, the tuberculosis he contracted during his years of poverty forced George Orwell to spend much of his final years in hospitals. He died in London in 1950.

Collections of his essays include Books and Cigarettes, Why I Write, Inside the Whale, and Fascism and Other Essays, which were published in later years.

George Orwell was married twice. His first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, whom he married in 1936, died in 1945 following a failed operation. In 1949, he married his second wife, Sonia Brownell.

George Orwell died on January 21, 1950, in London, England, at the age of 47, due to tuberculosis.

Animal Farm is another of his most famous works and is regarded as a modern classic. As a critique of “real socialism” of the 1940s, the novel is considered one of the masterpieces of satirical literature worldwide.

In 1984, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was adapted into a film directed by Michael Radford, starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, and Suzanna Hamilton.

An asteroid discovered in 1984 was named in his honor as 11020 Orwell.

Selected Books:
1933 – Down and Out in Paris and London
1934 – Burmese Days
1935 – A Clergyman’s Daughter
1936 – Keep the Aspidistra Flying
1937 – The Road to Wigan Pier
1938 – Homage to Catalonia
1939 – Coming Up for Air
1940 – Inside the Whale
1945 – Animal Farm
1946 – Why I Write
1949 – Nineteen Eighty-Four

Eric Arthur Blair published his novels under the pen name George Orwell. He never compromised his personal principles while writing and prepared a list of advice for aspiring writers:

Do not use metaphors that have already been used.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or jargon if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
If you must have rules, make your own—do not imitate others.

Source: Biyografiler.com