A Life in Letters
I am instructing my agent to send you copies of the Italian translation of Homage to Catalonia & of the Observer of the 27th February. Please let me know if they do not arrive, & forgive me for not being more helpful. Please forgive also the bad handwriting, but I am writing this in bed.
Yours fraternally
Geo. Orwell.
[LO, p. 121; XX, 3650A, p. 140; handwritten]
1.PS10 may not sound very much but its present-day value is roughly twenty-five times greater than in 1949. In that year I was paid just under PS5 a week for editing a magazine about railways.
To David Astor*
18 July 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear David,
I wonder how you are getting on. I was slightly dismayed to hear from Charoux1 that you were getting along 'as well as can be expected.' I had thought the operation you were having was something very minor.2 Let me know how you are when you get a chance to write.
Richard went back to Jura yesterday, as he is going to the village school at Ardlussa for the Xmas term & it starts at the end of this month. He enjoyed himself at the kindergarten & had a good report, I am glad to say, though I didn't notice that he learned very much.
I have been so-so, up & down. I get what they call flare-ups, ie. periods with high temperatures & so on, but on the whole I am better I think. I have got Morland, the specialist, coming to see me again next week. When I am well & about again, some time next year perhaps, I intend getting married again. I suppose everyone will be horrified, but it seems to me a good idea. Apart from other considerations, I think I should stay alive longer if I were married & had someone to look after me. It is to Sonia Brownell, the sub-editor of Horizon, I can't remember whether you know her, but you probably do.
It is evident that I shall be under medical care for a long time yet, & I shan't even be able to get out of bed until I stop being feverish. Later on I might move to a sanatorium nearer London, & Morland may have some ideas about that, but at present I don't think I could face a journey.
Have you read The Naked & the Dead? 3 It's awfully good, the best war book of the last war yet.
Write when you can.
Yours
George
[XX, 3661, pp. 147-8; handwritten]
1.Charoux was a picture-framer and restorer (see 19.11.48).
2.Astor's operation was relatively minor but very painful.
3.By Norman Mailer (1948).
To Leonard Moore*
20 July 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Moore,
Recently some Russian DPs who run a Russian-language paper called possev in Frankfurt sent me a file of the papers containing a Russian translation of Animal Farm.1 They want to issue it as a booklet and say, what is no doubt true, that it would be quite easy for them to get a few thousand copies of it through the Iron Curtain, I suppose via Berlin and Vienna. Of course I am willing enough for them to do this, but it will cost money, ie. for the printing and binding. They want 2000 deutschdeg marks, which represents about PS155. This is more than I can pay out of my own pocket, but I wouldn't mind contributing something. As a start it occurs to me that the American army magazine Der Monat must owe me something.2 There was their serialisation of A.F., but in addition there was a mix-up about a previous article (reprinted from Commentary) which I believe has never been paid for. They sent some kind of official form which I thought was the cheque, and I believe I incorrectly told Melvyn Lasky, the editor, that I had received the cheque. Their bank account would show whether the money has actually been paid over. But any way, if Der Monat do owe me something which they have not yet paid to you, it would be a convenient way of financing the Russian translation of A.F. if they paid the money over in marks which wouldn't have to leave Germany. I can't remember whether there is anything else of mine appearing in Germany, but at any rate, could you let me know how many marks you think I could realise there? In the case of our carrying through any transaction of this kind, naturally you will draw your commission as usual.3
I am also trying to pull a wire at the Foreign Office to see if they will subscribe a bit. I'm afraid it's not likely. They will throw millions down the drain on useless radio propaganda,4 but not finance books.
If all this comes to anything we shall have to make sure that these Possev people are O.K. and not just working a swindle. Their notepaper etc. looks all right, and I know the translation must be a good one as it was made by Gleb Struve whom I know well. They gave me as the address of their English agent Mr Lew Rahr, 18 Downs Road, Beckenham, Kent, and suggested he should come and see me. I don't think I want to see him at this stage, but do you think you could write to him, say tentatively that we are trying to get this scheme financed and see from his answer whether he seems O.K. I have also asked a friend who is I think in Frankfurt 5 to contact the Possev people.
Yours sincerely
Eric Blair
[XX, 3662, pp. 148-9; typewritten]
1.Vladimir Gorachek, who described himself as the 'Authorized DP-Publisher' of Possev (the subtitle of which was 'Social and Political Review in Russian Language. Germany'), wrote to Orwell on 16 July 1949 with proposals for publishing Animal Farm in Russian for distribution gratis among Russian readers behind the Iron Curtain. It was planned to distribute the books through Berlin and Vienna 'and other channels further E[a]st'. The cost of distribution was to be met from selling 1,000 to 1,200 copies in West Germany. Gorachek apologised for the fact that an earlier letter had been written in Russian: 'We thought that such a perfect understanding of all events occurreddeg in our country after the revolution and of the very substance of the regime now established there could not be acquired without the knowledge of Russian language.'
2.Annotated in Moore's office: 'Paid PS50 for A.F.'
3.Annotated in Moore's office: 'PS250 owing from U.S. Army 1984.' This was money due for the serialisation of Nineteen Eighty-Four in Der Monat, November 1949 to March 1950.
4.The Foreign Office made no contribution; 'useless radio propaganda' is doubtless based on Orwell's experience during his 'two wasted years' at the BBC.
5.Ruth Fischer.
To Leonard Moore*
21 July 1949 1
Cranham Lodge,
Cranham
Dear Moore,
Thank you for two letters date the 19th, with various enclosures.
I enclose the photostats of the McGill article. I don't object to its being published in this form provided it is stated that this is an abridgement (they needn't of course say why it has been abridged.)2 Could you please make this clear to Harcourt Brace?
I am of course very pleased about the NBC broadcast of 1984,3 & the serialisation in Der Monat. This last would at need solve the difficulty I wrote to you about yesterday, of getting some marks to pay for the Russian translation of Animal Farm. Of course I'm not going to pay this myself if I can help it, but I haven't very great hopes of the government coming to my aid. Meanwhile, could you ask the editor of Der Monat to hold over the necessary sum (2000 deutschdeg marks) in case we want to disburse it in Germany. The editor, Melvyn Lasky, would be sympathetic to this idea & can no doubt make the necessary arrangements. As I said before, your commission will not be affected by this.
Yours sincerely
Eric Blair4
[XX, 3663, pp. 149—50; handwritten]
1.This letter was dated 20.9.49 but is date-stamped as having been received in Moore's office on 22 July 1949. The month is clearly incorrect, and Orwell seems also to have misdated the day of the month, since he refers to 'the difficulty I wrote to you about yesterday'.
2.'The Art of Donald McGill', Horizon, September 1941 (XX, 850, pp. 23-31), was published in an abridged form in A Writer's Reader, edited by P. W. Souers and others (New York, 1950).
3.Broadcast 27 August 1949 in NBC University Theatre with David Niven as Winston Smith. The excellent dramatisation was by Milton Wayne. The novelist,
James Hilton (1900-54), provided an interval commentary. The presenter described it as the 'current and widely discussed novel'. A CD of the broadcast was made available by the Old Time Radio Club, 2007.
4.A postscript refers to two slight proof corrections.
To Jack Common*
27 July 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Jack,
Herewith cheque for PS50--reply if whendeg you can, no hurry.
This place is a sanatorium. I've been under treatment for TB for the better part of 2 years, all of this year here, & half of last year in a hospital near Glasgow. Of course I've had it coming to me all my life. The only real treatment, it seems, is rest, so I've got to do damn-all, including not trying to work for a long time, possibly as long as a year or two, though I trust it won't be quite as bad as that. It's an awful bore, but I am obeying orders, as I do want to stay alive at least 10 years, I've got such a lot of work to do besides Richard to look after.
Richard is now 5 & very big & strong. He's been spending the summer here, so that I can see him every week, & going to kindergarten school, but shortly he's going back home so that he can start attending the village school in the winter term. We've lived since 1946 in Jura,1 but I'm afraid I personally shall only be able to spend the summers there from now on, because it's too remote & inconvenient in the winter for a semi-invalid. I suppose Richard, too, will have to start going to school on the mainland before long, as you can imagine what a village school in the Hebrides is like. So I shall probably have to have some sort of establishment in London or Edinburgh or somewhere-- however, I can't make plans till I know when I shall be on my feet again. I'm glad to hear you've been so philoprogenitive, or at any rate, progenitive.
I haven't ever remarried, though I sometimes think I would if I could get some of my health back.2 Richard Rees spends part of each year with us in Jura as he is sort of partner with the chap who farms the croft our house is on. Otherwise he is more & more wrapped up in painting.3
All the best
Eric
[XX, 3666, pp. 151-2; handwritten]
1.Common had evidently not been in contact with Orwell for some time. The amount lent to Common remained unpaid at Orwell's death.
2.Orwell suggests, contrary to what happened, that he might remarry if his health improved.
3.One of Rees's paintings of Barnhill is held in the Orwell Archive.
To Sir Richard Rees*
27 July 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Richard,
Thanks so much for your letter, with cutting. Do you think you could get your Mr Roberts to make me a bookcase, same dimensions as yours but 5' feetdeg wide, if he can manage it. If, as I assume, it will be of white wood, I suppose it should be stained or painted, I don't much mind which, except that if painted I think off-white is the best colour. I'd be much obliged if you could get him to do this & send it up to Barnhill.
I think you'll find at Barnhill one novel by Charles Williams, called The Place of the Lion1 or something like that (published by Gollancz.) He's quite unreadable, one of those writers who just go on & on & have no idea of selecting. I think Eliot's approval of him must be purely sectarian (Anglo-Catholic). It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Eliot approves of C.S. Lewis as well. The more I see the more I doubt whether people ever really make aesthetic judgements at all. Everything is judged on political grounds which are then given an aesthetic disguise. When, for instance, Eliot can't see anything good in Shelley or anything bad in Kipling, the real underlying reason must be that the one is a radical & the other a conservative, of sorts. Yet evidently one does have aesthetic reactions, especially as a lot of art & even literature is politically neutral, & also certain unmistakeabledeg standards do exist, e.g. Homer is better than Edgar Wallace. Perhaps the way we should put it is: the more one is aware of political bias the more one can be independent of it, & the more one claims to be impartial the more one is biassed.
1984 has had good reviews in the USA, such as I have seen of them, but of course also some very shame-making publicity. You'll be glad to hear Animal Farm has been translated into Russian at last, in a D.P. paper in Frankfurt. I'm trying to arrange for it to be done in book form.
Yours
Eric
[XX, 3669, p. 154; handwritten]
1.Charles Williams (1886-1945), poet, novelist, dramatist, and writer on theological subjects. He worked for the Oxford University Press for much of his life.
To Fredric Warburg*
22 August 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Fred,
Could you please send one copy each of Burmese Days & Coming Up for Air to Sonia Brownell, care of Horizon.
I have Morland coming to see me again this evening. On & off I have been feeling absolutely ghastly. It comes & goes, but I have periodical bouts of high temperatures etc. I will tell you what Morland says. Richard has just gone back to Jura & is going to the village school for the winter term. Beyond that I can't make plans for the moment. I have put him down for Westminster, but he wouldn't be going there till 1957, heaven knows what may have happened by then. As I warned you I might do, I intend getting married again (to Sonia) when I am once again in the land of the living, if I ever am. I suppose everyone will be horrified, but apart from other considerations I really think I should stay alive longer if I were married.
I have sketched out the book of essays I would like to publish next year, but I want it to include two long new essays, on Joseph Conrad and George Gissing, & of course I can't touch those till I am definitively better.
Love to all
George
[XX, 3678, p.159-60; handwritten]
To Sir Richard Rees*
30 August 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Richard,
I am removing to a London hospital on September 3rd, and my address will be: Private Wing, University College Hospital, Gower Street, London, W.C.1. This is Morland's own hospital and the idea is that I shall go there probably for about two months. I don't think you need fear my having too many visitors--in fact it may be easier to keep them off in London where people don't have to come for the whole day.
Of course itsdeg perfectly O.K. about the old Austin. Anything you can get for her should go towards the jeep. As to the motor boat it seems to me that it would be a good idea to leave her in the boat-yard at Ardrishaig for the winter unless they need her at Barnhill. I suppose you can do that with boats like leaving a car in a garage, and then next year it would be in good order when we picked it up.
I am going to send on the remaining books I have here. Could you be kind enough to see that the magazines etc., go in the right place. There are various bundles of papers which I have asked Avril to put in my desk upstairs.
I hope the harvest is going O.K. Avril told me she had started, or was starting another pig. If nothing has been decided yet you might suggest to Avril to think seriously about a sow which I am very in favour of, and would willingly pay the initial costs of. The only difficulty is about getting her to a hog once a year. I suppose one would buy a gravid sow in the Autumn to litter about March, but one would have to make very sure that she really was in pig the first time.
Do make Bill go to the dentist. It is nonsense to put it off when they can come across in the boat and go to Lochgilphead. He was already having trouble with that tooth when I came away in January, and at the last moment refused to go to Glasgow.
Love to all,
Eric
[XX, 3684, pp. 163-4; typewritten]
To David Astor*
5 September 1949
U.C.H.1
Dear David,
Thanks ever so for sending those beautiful crysanthsdeg & the box of peaches that actually met me on my arrival here. I feel ghastly & can't write much, but we had a wonderful journey down yesterday in the most ritzy ambulance you can imagine. This
beastly fever never seems to go away but is better some days than others, & I really quite enjoyed the drive down.
What a bastard that doctor 2 must have been. It seems that there's a regular tradition of withholding anaesthetics & analgesics & that it is particularly bad in England. I know Americans are often astonished by the tortures people are made to go through here.
I hope you're feeling better & that soon you will be able to meet Sonia. Morland says I mustn't see people much, but here in London it's easier for people to just look in for half an hour, which they hardly can at Cranham. Sonia lives only a few minutes away from here. She thinks we might as well get married while I am still an invalid, because it would give her a better status to look after me especially if, eg., I went somewhere abroad after leaving here. It's an idea, but I think I should have to feel a little less ghastly than at present before I could even face a registrar for 10 minutes. I am much encouraged by none of my friends or relatives seeming to disapprove of my remarrying, in spite of this disease. I had had an uneasy feeling that 'they' would converge from all directions & stop me, but it hasn't happened. Morland, the doctor, is very much in favour of it.
I remember visiting you when you had the sinus but I didn't know it was this hospital. It seems very comfortable & easy-going here. Can't write more.
Yours
George
[XX, 3686, p. 165; handwritten]
1.University College Hospital, a major teaching hospital in London, WC1.
2.The doctor attending Astor.
To Sir Richard Rees*
17 September 1949
Room 65 Private Wing
U.C. Hospital
Gower St WC 1
Dear Richard,
Thanks so much for seeing about the boat & for re-arranging my books. I suppose by the way they'll send on the bill for the bookcases to you--if so, forward it to me, won't you.deg It's all right about the literary executorship. You & Sonia wouldn't quarrel about anything. Some time I'll have to make another will, & then I'll regularise it.