George Orwell: A Life in Letters (73 page)

There’s another instance of Wallace’s habit of issuing garbled versions of his speeches, which might be worth putting in. When he was over here, Wallace of course played down the Palestine issue, or at least didn’t make mischief about it. He was no sooner in France than he referred to the Jewish terrorists as a ‘maquis’ fighting against a British occupation. This appeared in French reports of his speech, but not in any English-language paper (except one, I think the
Christian Science Monitor
, which somehow got hold of it), presumably having been cut out from versions issued to them. The
Manchester Guardian
documented the facts at the time.

As you see I’m in hospital. [
Reference to illness omitted.
] I’m starting my uniform edition this year & shall start off by reprinting a novel which was published in 1939 & rather killed by the war.
I believe Harcourt Brace are going to reprint my Burma novel. They were BFs not to do so immediately after having that bit of luck with
Animal Farm
.

What’s happened to
Politics
? I haven’t seen it for months. I told my agent in New York to take out a subscription for me, but she seemed rather reluctant to do so, evidently thinking I ought to get all the American papers free.

Isn’t it funny how surprised everyone seems over this Czechoslovakia business?
³
Many people seem really angry with Russia, as though at some time there had been reason to expect different behaviour on the Russians’ part. Middleton Murry has just renounced his pacifism & written a book (practically) demanding a preventive war against the
USSR
! This after writing less than 10 years ago that ‘Russia is the only inherently peaceful country.’

Excuse bad handwriting

Yours

Geo. Orwell

[XIX, 3359, pp. 281–2; handwritten]

1
.
Letter not traced.

2
.
In the 194
8 election Henry Wallace (see
5.12.46
,
n. 6) was a candidate of the left-wing Progressive Party, which received over one million popular votes. Thomas E. Dewey was expected to win the election (and a famous headline prematurely showed him as doing so), but Truman won with a two-million majority of the popular vote.

3
.
On 27 February 1948, Klement Gottwald (1896–1953), Communist Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, announced that the resignation of twelve centre and right-wing ministers had been accepted by President Edvard Beneš (although a week earlier Beneš had stated that there would be no Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia). Jan Masaryk (son of Czechoslovakia’s ‘founding father’) remained Foreign Minister, and attention (and hopes) were focused on him as the means whereby a total victory for the Communists might be averted. However, on
10 March 1948 he was found dead in the courtyard beneath his flat in Prague. The Communist line was that Masaryk had committed suicide in ‘a moment of nervous breakdown’. Those who opposed the Communist takeover, which had become complete, interpreted his death as murder.

To Leonard Moore*

19 March 1948

Hairmyres Hospital

East Kilbride

Dear Moore,

Thank you for your letter. I didn’t object to the jacket, & it had ‘Uniform Edition’ on it, which I wanted to make sure of. But I did think the light green cover was unsuitable & asked Warburg whether he could manage to change the cloth for something darker.
¹
I favour dark blue, or any dark colour except red, which always seems to come off on one’s fingers. I thought the format was all right. Of course the price is fearful for a reprint, but I suppose subsequent volumes need not be so expensive.

I see that
Burmese Days
is supposed to come out in the same edition only a few months later. I believe the Penguin edition is still in print, as you sent me an account of sales recently. I suppose the Penguin people won’t print many more, otherwise it may damage the Warburg edition.

Warburg suggested that I should bring out another volume of essays in the fairly near future. I think it would be better not to do this for another 2–3 years, as people feel rather cheated if they buy a book & find it contains things which they have read in magazines only a year or so earlier.

Yours sincerely

Eric Blair

[XIX, 3362, pp. 285–6; handwritten]

1
.
Fredric Warburg had visited Orwell, probably on 10 March, bringing a specimen binding case (or cloth) for the Uniform Edition. Warburg took note of Orwell’s wish that a darker colour be selected. Orwell had some of his own books rebound in dark blue; these included a presentation copy of
Animal Farm
for his son, Richard.
Warburg wrote to Orwell on 15 March, expressing ‘real pleasure’ at finding him ‘in better shape and better spirits than I had anticipated’. He realised that Orwell would require all his patience and control ‘to overcome the obstacles to a complete restoration of health’, but he did not doubt that Orwell could do that ‘since you still have many books you still wish to write’.

To Sally McEwan*

27 March 1948

Hairmyres Hospital

East Kilbride

Dear Sally,

It seems literally years since I have heard from you, or of you? How are things going? I am going to send this to the Nature Clinic, hoping they’ll forward it if you aren’t still there. How is your young man? Are you married? And how is little Sally? Excuse this filthy pen. It is all I have, as my other one is being refilled.

I dare say you heard I am suffering from T.B. [
Details of illness; progress of novel; Richard
]

We have got more furniture at Barnhill now, & the place is running quite well. Transport is still the chief difficulty. We have got a car now, but the headache is tyres, apart from the everlasting petrol difficulty. However, we also have a horse which can be used in moments of emergency. A friend now lives with us & farms the croft, which is a good arrangement, because we don’t then feel guilty about occupying land & not using it, & also when we like we can go away, because there is someone to look after our animals. We have got a cow now, also of course hens, & am thinking of pigs. We’ve also got more of a garden now, & have made an end of all those awful rushes. I have planted a lot of fruit trees & bushes, but I am not sure yet whether trees will do much good in such a windy place.

Write some time & let me know how everything is going. The above address will find me for some time, I am afraid.

Yours

George

[XIX, 3373, pp.
305–6; handwritten]

To Mrs David Astor

5 April 1948

Hairmyres Hospital

East Kilbride

Dear Mrs Astor,

I believe it was you who sent me a 7 lb. bag of sugar from Jamaica, also a tin of pears & some guava jelly. It was extremely kind of you to think of it. I was especially delighted to get the sugar, which my sister will use for making jam. I have been getting on pretty well, but just this last week have been feeling rather bad with a sore throat & various other minor ailments which are probably secondary effects of the streptomycin I am having. I think they are probably going to stop the injections for a few days & then go on again when these effects have worn off.
¹

I haven’t seen Richard, my little boy, since before Christmas, as I can’t see him while I am infectious. However I have had him photographed & can see that he is growing fast & is in good health. My sister says he is learning to talk better. I had been rather worried about that, though he is not backward in any other way.

Please forgive bad handwriting. My writing is bad enough at the best of times, but whatever is wrong with me has affected my fingernails & it is difficult to hold on to the pen. With many thanks again.

Yours sincerely

Geo. Orwell

[XIX, 3376, p.309; handwritten]

1
.
Professor James Williamson, who was a junior doctor at Hairmyres Hospital when Orwell was a patient, remembers the arrival of the streptomycin and its adverse effect on Orwell (
Remembering Orwell
, p. 200). In a note for Professor Crick, written many years later, Dr Williamson said that Orwell’s TB was ‘pretty “chronic”… It was not the type that would have largely cleared with effective drug treatment and he would always have been breathless and incapacitated’ (Crick, p. 602).

To David Astor*

[14 April 1948]

Dear David,

I thought you’d like to hear that Bobbie is making himself useful. Part of the field behind the house was too steep a slope for the small tractor, so they harnessed Bobbie into the harrow & he behaved ‘like a lamb,’ Bill says. So perhaps now they can use him in the trap, which is as well, as the car needs new wheels as well as tyres.

They’ve stopped the streptomycin for a few days & the unpleasant symptoms have practically disappeared. Shortly they will continue with the strepto, which has about 3 weeks to go. It’s evidently doing its stuff as my last 3 tests were ‘negative,’ ie no TB germs. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all dead, but at any rate they must have taken a pretty good beating. I have felt better the last day or two & have nearly finished the article I promised for the
Observer
¹
The weather has at last improved, & I’m longing to go out, which I think they may soon let me do, in a chair, of course.

Yours

George

[XIX, 3379, p.
311; handwritten]

1
.
Probably his review of Wilde’s
The Soul of Man under Socialism
(XIX, 3395, pp. 333–4).

To Julian Symons*

20 April 1948

Hairmyres Hospital

East Kilbride

Dear Julian,

Thanks so much for sending the pen, & prospectively for some chocolate
you mentioned. I am so glad to hear you are going to have a baby. They’re awful fun in spite of the nuisance, & as they develop one has one’s own childhood over again. I suppose one thing one has to guard against is imposing one’s own childhood on the child, but I do think it is relatively easy to give a child a decent time nowadays & allow it to escape the quite unnecessary torments that I for instance went through. I’m not sure either that one ought to trouble too much about bringing a child into a world of atomic bombs, because those born now will never have known anything except wars, rationing etc., & can probably be quite happy against that background if they’ve had a good psychological start.

I am a lot better, but I had a bad fortnight with the secondary effects of the streptomycin. I suppose with all these drugs it’s rather a case of sinking the ship to get rid of the rats. [
Passage regarding progress of illness and Richard
.]

It’s funny you should have mentioned Gissing. I am a great fan of his (though I’ve never read
Born in Exile
, which some say is his masterpiece, because I can’t get hold of a copy), & was just in the act of re-reading two reprints, which I promised to review for
Politics & Letters
.
I think I shall do a long article on him, for them or someone else.
¹
I think
The Odd Women
is one of the best novels in English. You asked about my uniform edition. They’re starting with a novel called
Coming Up for Air
, which was published in 1939 & rather killed by the war, & doing
Burmese Days
later in the year. I just° corrected the proofs of the latter, which I wrote more than 15 years ago & probably hadn’t looked at for 10 years. It was a queer experience—almost like reading a book by somebody else. I’m also going to try & get Harcourt Brace to reprint these two books in the
USA
but even if they do so they’ll probably only take ‘sheets’, which never does one much good. It’s funny what BFs American publishers are about re-prints. Harcourt Brace have been nagging me for 2 years for a manuscript, any kind of manuscript, & are now havering with the idea of doing a series of reprints, but when I urged them to reprint
Burmese Days
immediately after they had cleaned up on
Animal Farm
, they wouldn’t do so. Nor would the original publishers of
B.D
, though they too were trying to get something out of me. Apparently reprints in the
USA
are done mostly by special firms which only take them on if they are safe for an enormous sale.

Yes, I thought the last number of
Politics
quite good, but I must say that in spite of all their elegies I retain dark suspicions about Gandhi,
²
based only on gossip, but such a lot of gossip that I think there must be something in it. Please remember me to your wife.

Yours

George

[XIX, 3386, pp. 321–3; handwritten]

1
.
The typescript of Orwell’s article on George Gissing only surfaced in the summer of 1959. It was published in the
London Magazine
, June 1960. (See XIX, 3406, pp. 346–52.)