Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense, revolutionary opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism."Why I Write" in The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 1 – An Age Like This 1945–1950 p.23 (Penguin)

Considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote fiction, polemical journalism, literary criticism and poetry. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945). This pair of books has sold more than those of any other twentieth-century author. His Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his expe...