Eric Arthur Blair was the birth name of the writer with the pen name
George Orwell. Blair was born in Bengal,
India in 1903 and died in 1950. His family was "Lower-Upper-Middle-Class" and he attended
Eton on scholarship. This earned him the scorn of monied members, who were fond of reminding him that he was a financial parasite. He joined the
Indian Imperial Police instead of going to university, and later wrote about the experience in
Burmese Days, an indictment of imperialism.
In 1937 he fought in
Spain against the
Fascists, and saw the ugly face of
Stalinism. The war, and his experiences with imperialism, convinced him that
England needed
socialism to combat the tendancies of
Totalitarianism.
He chose the pen name
George Orwell after concern that his writing (e.g.
Down and Out in Paris and London) would embarass his family's name. His most famous book,
1984, was written in 1948, two years before his death from
tuberculosis in 1950.