George Orwell: A Life in Letters (91 page)

17 October 1
931
: ‘Hop-Picking’ published in
New Statesman & Nation.

14 December 1931
: Revised version of
Down and Out
(now called ‘A Scullion’s Diary’) submitted to Faber & Faber but rejected by T.S. Eliot, 15 February 1932.

26 April 1932
: Orwell writes to Leonard Moore following submission to him of
Down and Out
by Mrs Mabel Fierz; Moore becomes his literary agent.

April
1932–July 1933
: Teaches at The Hawthorns, a private school at Hayes, Middlesex.

Christmas 1932
: Writes and directs a school play,
Charles II.

3 September 19
32
: ‘Common Lodging Houses’ published in
New Statesman & Nation.

19 November 1932
: Submits pen-names under which his first book will be published; for a time writes both as Eric Blair (until December 1936) and George Orwell.

January 1933
:
Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell (first use of the name) published by Victor Gollancz Ltd. Published in New York on 30 June 1933.

March 1933
: Poem: ‘Sometimes in the middle autumn days’,
The Adelphi.

May 1933
: Poem: ‘Summer-like for an instant the autumn sun bursts out’,
The Adelphi.

Autumn 1933
: Teaches at Frays College, Uxbridge. Finishes
Burmese Days
.

December 1933
: In hospital with pneumonia. Gives up teaching.

October 1
933
: Poem: ‘On a Ruined Farm near His Master’s Voice Gramophone Factory’,
The Adelphi
.

January–October
1934
: Lives with his parents at Southwold; writes
A Clergyman’s Daughter.

25 October 1934
:
Burmese Days
published by Harper & Brothers, New York.

October 1934 – March 1935
: Takes a room at
3 Warwick Mansions, Hampstead.

October 1934–January 1936
: Part-time assistant (with Jon Kimche) at Booklovers Corner, 1 South End Road, Hampstead.

11 March 1935
:
A Clergyman’s Daughter
published by Gollancz.

May 1935
:
Down and Out
published as
La vache Enragée,
translated by R.N. Raimbault.

24 June 1935
:
Burmese Days
published by Gollancz, London, with modified text.

August 1935
: Moves to Kentish Town, London.

23 January 1936
: ‘Rudyard Kipling’,
New English Weekly
.

31 January–30 March 1936
: In North of England collecting material for
The Road to Wigan Pier
. Makes detour by Lake Rudyard following Kipling’s death; stays in hostel overlooking the lake (see his
Diary
, 3–4 February 19
36).

2 April 1936
: Moves to The Stores, Wallington, Hertfordshire.

20 April 1936
:
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
published by Gollancz.

May 1936
: Starts writing
The Road to Wigan Pier
; begins reviewing for
Time and Tide
.

9 June 1936
: Marries Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

Autumn 1936
: ‘Shooting an Elephant’,
New Writing
.

November 1936
: ‘Bookshop Memories’,
Fortnightly
.

December 1936
: Poem: ‘A happy vicar I might have been’,
The Adelphi.

15 December
1936
: Delivers MS of
The Road to Wigan Pier
to Victor Gollancz.

Christmas 1936
: Leaves to fight for the Republicans in Spanish Civil War.

January–June 1937
: Serves with
POUM
Militia on the Aragón Front.

8 March 1937
:
The Road to Wigan Pier
published in trade and Left Book Club editions.

c
. 28 April–10 May 1937
: On leave in Barcelona when Communists violently suppress
POUM
and other revolutionaries (‘The May Events’).

20 May 1937
: Wounded through the throat by a Fascist sniper at Huesca.

23 June 19
37
: Escapes from Spain with Eileen, John McNair, and Stafford Cottman.

1–7 July 1937
: Arrives back in Wallington and begins writing
Homage to Catalonia
.

July 1937
:
New Statesman and Nation
refuses to publish Orwell’s article on the
POUM
or his review of Borkenau’s
Spanish Cockpit
.

13 July 1937
: Report to Tribunal for Espionage and High Treason, Valencia, charging the Orwells as ‘rabid Trotskyists’ and agents of the POUM. In the ensuing trial, October–November 1938, his friend Jordi Arquer, was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

29 July and 2 September 1937
: ‘Spilling the Spanish Beans’,
New English Weekly.

August
1937
: ‘Eye-Witness in Barcelona’,
Controversy.

5 August 1937
: Addresses ILP Conference, Letchworth, Herts, on his experiences in Spain.

12 November 1937
: Invited to join
The Pioneer
, Lucknow.

Mid-January 1938
: Completes
Homage to Catalonia
.

8 March 1938
: Ill with tubercular lesion in one lung and so forced to abandon
Pioneer
offer.

15 March–1 September 1938
: Patient at Preston Hall Sanatorium, Aylesford, Kent.

25 April 1938
:
Homage to Catalonia
published by Secker & Warburg after rejection by Gollancz.

June 1938
: Joins the Independent Labour Party.

24 June 1938
: ‘Why I Join the I.L.P.’,
New Leader
.

2 September 1938–26 March 1939
: On 2 September the Orwells left Tilbury on board the P&O liner SS
Stratheden
bound for Gibraltar. They arrived in Morocco on 11 September. On 26 March 1939 they left Casablanca on board the NYK liner, SS
Yasukunimaru
homeward
bound. For details of their stay (mainly near Marrakech) see his Domestic and Morocco diaries (
Orwell: Diaries
, 2009). Whilst there he wrote
Coming Up for Air
.

30 September 1938
: Munich Agreement signed; Chamberlain returns to London waving the notorious piece of paper assuring ‘peace in our time’.

December 1938
: ‘Political Reflections on the Crisis’,
The Adelphi
.

11 April 1939
: Back in Wallington.

May–December 1939
: Writes
Inside the Whale and Other Essays.

12 June 1
939
:
Coming Up for Air
published by Gollancz.

28 June 1939
: Orwell’s father dies of cancer aged 82. Orwell was at his bedside.

24–31 August 1939
: Stays with L.H. Myers in Hampshire. Orwell never knew that Myers had, through an intermediary, Dorothy Plowman, paid for his and Eileen’s stay in Morocco. Orwell believed he had been loaned £300.

September 1939
: ‘Democracy in the British Army’,
Left Forum
.

1 September 1
939
: Germany invades Poland.

3 September 1939
: UK and France declare war on Germany. Shortly thereafter, Orwell leaves the Independent Labour Party because of its opposition to the war.

Christmas 1939
: ‘Marrakech’,
New Writing
.

February 1940
: Orwell makes his first contribution to
Horizon
(‘Lessons of War’, a review).

March 1940
: ‘Boys’ Weeklies’,
Horizon.

1 March 1940
:
Inside the Whale and Other Essays
published by Gollancz.

29 March 1940
: Orwell makes his first contribution to
Tribune
.

April 1940
: Projects long novel in three parts (probably not started).

May 1940
: Joins the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard) as platoon commander.

18 May 1940
: First of 25 theatre reviews for
Time & Tide
(until 9 August 1941
).

25 May 1940
: Lecture on Dickens to the Dickens Fellowship.

June 1940
: Eileen’s dearly-loved brother, Laurence O’Shaughnessy, a Major in the
RAMC
, killed in Flanders tending the wounded during the retreat to Dunkirk. According to Lydia Jackson (pen-name Elisaveta Fen), Eileen’s ‘grasp on life loosened considerably’ thereafter.

August–October 1940
: Writes
The Lion and the Unicorn
.

17 August 1940
: ‘Books in General’ (on Charles Reade),
New Statesman.

Autumn 1940
: ‘My Country Right or Left’,
Folios of New Writing
.

5 October 1940
: First of 27 film reviews for
Time & Tide
(until 23 August 1941).

December 1940
: ‘The Ruling Class’,
Horizon
.

6 December 1940
: BBC broadcast (with Desmond Hawkins): ‘The Proletarian Writer’.

20 December 1
940
: ‘The Home Guard and You’,
Tribune.

January 1941
: ‘Our Opportunity’,
Left News
(see 3 March 1941 on page 497).

3 January 1941
: Writes ‘London Letter’, first of 15,
Partisan Review
(published March/April 1941).

19 February 1941
:
The Lion and the Unicorn
published by Secker & Warburg, the first of the‘Searchlight Books’ edited by Orwell and T. R. Fyvel.

3 March 1941
: ‘Fascism and Democracy’ and ‘Patriots and Revolutionaries (= ‘Our Opportunity’) as chapters 8 and 10 of
Betrayal of the Left
, published by Gollancz.

Early April 1941
: They move to St John’s Wood, London.

23 May 1941
: ‘Literature and Totalitarianism’, Oxford University Democratic Socialist Club.

May–June 1941
: Series of four talks broadcast by BBC Overseas Service published in
The Listener
as ‘Frontiers of Art and Propaganda’, 29 May 1941
; ‘Tolstoy and Shakespeare’, 5 June 1941; ‘The Meaning of a Poem’, 12 June 1941; and ‘Literature and Totalitarianism’, 19 June 1941.

August 1941
: ‘Wells, Hitler, and the World State’,
Horizon
.

17 August 1941
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

18 August 1941
: Joins the BBC Eastern Service Indian section as Talks Assistant.

18 August 1941–24 November 1943
: Talks Assistant, later Talks Producer, Indian Section, BBC Eastern Service.

September 1941
: ‘The Art of Donald McGill’,
Horizon.

21 November 1941
: First of Orwell’s weekly newsletters for broadcast to India and S.E. Asia. He wrote 104 or 105 to be broadcast in English and 115 or 11
6 for translation into Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, or Hindustani. Of those in English, most were broadcast to India, 30 to Malaya, and 19 to Indonesia. Orwell only read his scripts from 21 November 1942.

22 November 1941
: Talk: ‘Culture and Democracy’, Fabian Society.