To Dwight Macdonald*
7 March 1948
Hairmyres Hospital
East Kilbride
Dear Dwight,
Thanks so much for sending me your book on Wallace, which I have read with the greatest interest. Have you done anything about finding an English publisher? In case you haven't, I am writing to Victor Gollancz bringing the book to his attention.1 If you're not already in touch with some other publisher, I would write to Gollancz & send him a copy. In spite of the awful paper shortage etc., the book should find a publisher here, as people are naturally interested in Wallace, as the man who is likely to cause 'our' candidate to lose the election.2 (It's difficult to keep up with American politics here, but it does look as though Wallace is making great strides lately. I'm afraid he may get the whole anti-war vote, as Chamberlain did before the war.) And I think Gollancz is your man, as he is politically sympathetic & is able to bring a book out quickly, as Warburg, for instance, can't. I suppose you know his address--17 Henrietta St. Covent Garden, London WC.2. The book might do with some minor modifications for the English public, but you could fix all that with G.
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 1948 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 Benes (although a week earlier Benes 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 justdeg 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 reprints. 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.) 2.Mahatma (Mohandas Karamchand) Gandhi (1869—1948), a major figure in the struggle for Indian independence and a continuing force in Indian life after his death. He was fatally shot on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu fanatic. See Orwell's 'Reflections on Gandhi', Partisan Review, January 1949, (XX, 3516, pp. 5-12).
To Gleb Struve*
21 April 1948
Hairmyres Hospital
East Kilbride
Dear Struve,
I'm awfully sorry to have to send this1 back, after such a long delay, having finally failed to find a home for it. But as you see by the above, I am in hospital (tuberculosis), & at the time of receiving your letter I wasn't able to do very much. I am better now, & hope to get out of here some time during the summer, but of course the treatment of this disease is always a slow job.
I have arranged to review We for the Times Lit. Supp., when the English translation comes out.2 Did you tell me that Zamyatin's widow is still alive & in Paris? If so, & she can be contacted, it might be worth doing so, as there may be others of his books which some English publisher might be induced to take, if We is a success. You told me that his satire on England, The Islanders, had never been translated, & perhaps it might be suitable.3
I hope you will forgive me for my failure to find an editor for Mandelstam's sketches. There are so few magazines in England now. Polemic died of the usual disease, & the other possible one Politics & Letters, was no good.
You asked about my novel, Burmese Days. I think it is still in print as a Penguin, but there won't be many copies left. It is being reprinted about the end of this year, as I am beginning a uniform edition, & that is second on the list. I may succeed in getting some of these books reprinted in the USA as well.
Yours sincerely
Geo. Orwell
P.S. This address will find me for some months, I'm afraid.
[XIX, 3387, pp. 323-4; handwritten]
1.Presumably the Mandelstam sketches mentioned later in the letter.
2.An English translation, by Gregory Zilboorg, was, in fact, published in New York by E. P. Dutton in 1924 and reprinted the following year. Although Orwell knew of the US edition, he had not seen it. The French translation, Nous autres, which Orwell reviewed in Tribune, 4 January 1946 (see XVIII, 2841, pp. 13—17), was published in Paris in 1929.
3.Yevgeny Zamyatin came to England in 1916 to supervise the building of Russian icebreakers in the northeast of England and Scotland. He wrote two amusing satires on English life, The Islanders, written in England in 1917, and The Fisher of Men, written in 1918 on his return to Russia. The first is set in Jesmond, near Newcastle upon Tyne and the second in Chiswick. A translation by Sophie Fuller and Julian Sacchi was published in 1984.
To John Middleton Murry*
28 April 1948
Hairmyres Hospital
/> East Kilbride
Dear Murry,
Thank you for your letter. I'm very sorry to hear the Adelphi is coming to an end.1 At any rate it's had a long run for its money, longer than most magazines. I could do you a review, but I'm not keen on doing the Joad book. I looked at it recently, & it didn't seem to me to be about anything. How about the third volume of Osbert Sitwell's autobiography, 2 which has come out recently & which I think is very good in a way? You wouldn't need to send a copy, as I have one already. It would be better to do more than 1000 words if you have the space. I note that you want the copy by May 15, but perhaps you could let me know whether you think this a suitable book.
[Brief account of illness and Barnhill] I would like to see what is going on [at Barnhill], also to see my little boy, whom I haven't seen since Christmas for fear of infection. I get photographs of him, & he is evidently growing enormous.
Yours
Geo. Orwell
[XIX, 3390, pp. 326-7; handwritten]
1.It survived until 1955.
2.Orwell reviewed Sitwell's Great Morning in the July-September 1948 issue of The Adelphi (see XIX, 3418, pp. 395-8).
To Dwight Macdonald*
2 May 1948
Hairmyres Hosp
East Kilbride
Dear Dwight,
Thanks so much for your letter, and prospectively for sending the books.1 Yes, I got Politics, as a matter of fact 2 copies, as you sent one to me direct here. It set me thinking again about Gandhi, whom I never met but whom I know a certain amount about. The funny thing is that though he was almost certainly used by the British for their own ends over a long period, I'm not certain that in the long run he failed. He was not able to stop the fight[ing] between Moslems and Hindus, but his major aim of getting the British out of India peacefully did finally come off. I personally would never have predicted this even five years ago, and I am not sure that a good deal of the credit should not go to Gandhi. Of course a Conservative government would never have got out without a fight, but the fact that a Labour government did so might indirectly be due to Gandhi's influence. One might say that they only agreed to dominion status because they knew they couldn't hold on to India much longer, but this doesn't apply for instance to Burma, a country which was extremely profitable to us and easy enough to hold down. I think, pace tua, that Gandhi behaved abominably, or at any rate stupidly, in 1942 when he thought the Axis had won the war, but I think also that his prolonged effort to keep the Indian struggle on a decent plane may have gradually modified the British attitude.