As a journalist and writer of autobiographical narratives, George Orwell was outstanding. But he will be remembered primarily for two works of fiction that have become 20th-century classics: 'Animal Farm', published in 1944, and 'Nineteen Eighty-four' (1949). George Orwell is a pen name. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair, and he was born in 1903 at Montihari in Bengal, India, where his father was a minor British official. His family had social status but little money, a …showed first 75 words of 332 total…

…showed last 75 words of 332 total…British Broadcasting Company and worked as a literary editor for the London Tribune. The success of 'Animal Farm' in 1944 allowed him to devote himself to writing. He bought a house on the island of Jura, where he wrote 'Nineteen Eighty-four'. By the time it was published, Orwell was already ill from the tuberculosis from which he died on Jan. 21, 1950, in London. --------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.