1984 George Orwell Biography

Eric Arthur Blair, known by his popular pen name George Orwell was born in British India on 25^th June, 1903. The son of Richard and Ida Blair, an eight-year-old Orwell returned to England to study in a boarding school. Later on, in 1917, he went to Eton on scholarship. He, too, like his father, became a member of the Civil Service in Burma, then part of India. Later, Orwell spent a year living among the lower classes in Paris and England.

In 1932, Orwell taught in a high school in West London. It was a small school that offered private schooling to children of local tradesmen and shopkeepers. Toward the end of that year, Orwell wrote to Moore, his literary agent, suggesting pseudonyms for himself—P.S. Burton (a name he’d used while tramping), Kenneth Miles, George Orwell, and H. Lewis Always were some of the suggested names. He finally adopted George Orwell, considering it to be “a good round English name.”