George Orwell: The Political Pen

Born as Eric Blair in India in 1903, George Orwell was a sickly child who was sent away to boarding school at age eight. Later he won a scholarship to Eton, where he was not a good student and earned a reputation as a rebel. Following Eton, he returned to Burma as a police officer, deliberately postponing his dream of becoming a writer.

Orwell moved to Paris in 1928. He was concerned with the plight of the poor and was determined to find his own literary voice and themes. In the following ye...