A Life in Letters

by George Orwell

  Islington N 1

  Dear Gollancz,

  I should have written several days earlier, but I have been ill in bed. Very many thanks for your generous action.1

  Yours sincerely,

  George Orwell

  [XIX, 3211, p. 122; typewritten copy]

  1.Gollancz's generous action was to relinquish his right to publish Orwell's next two novels - in effect, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

  To Sonia Brownell*

  12 April 1947

  Barnhill,

  Isle of Jura

  Dearest Sonia,

  I am handwriting this because my typewriter is downstairs. We arrived O.K. & without incident yesterday. Richard was as good as gold & rather enjoyed having a sleeper to himself after he had got over the first strangeness, & as soon as we got into the plane at Glasgow he went to sleep, probably because of the noise. I hadn't been by plane before & I think it's really better. It costs PS2 or PS3 more, but it saves about 5 hours & the boredom of going on boats, & even if one was sick itsdeg only three quarters of an hour whereas if one goes by sea one is sick for five or six hours, ie. if it is bad weather. Everything up here is just as backward as in England, hardly a bud showing & I saw quite a lot of snow yesterday. However it's beautiful spring weather now & the plants I put in at the new year seem to be mostly alive. There are daffodils all over the place, the only flower out. I'm still wrestling with more or less virgin meadow, but I think by next year I'll have quite a nice garden here. Of course we've had a nightmare all today getting things straight, with Richard only too ready to help, but it's more or less right now & the house is beginning to look quite civilized. It will be some weeks before we've got the transport problem fully solved, but otherwise we are fairly well appointed. I'm going to send for some hens as soon as we have put the hen house up, & this year I have been also able to arrange for alcohol so that we have just a little, a sort of rum ration, each day. Last year we had to be practically T.T. I think in a week everything will be straight & the essential work in the garden done, & then I can get down to some work.

  I wrote to Genetta1 asking her to come whenever she liked & giving instructions about the journey. So long as she's bringing the child, not just sending it, it should be simple enough. I want to give you the complete details about the journey, which isn't so formidable as it looks on paper. The facts are these: There are boats to Jura on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. You have to catch the boat train at Glasgow at 8 am, which means that it's safer to sleep the preceding night at Glasgow, because the all-night trains have a nasty way of coming in an hour or two hours late, & then one misses the boat train. [Directions for travel, for similar details about travel see 16.6.46] If you want to go by plane, the planes run daily (except Sundays I think), & they nearly always take off unless it's very misty. The itinerary then is: 10.30 arrive at Scottish Airways office at St Enoch Station, Glasgow (the air office is in the railway station).

  11.15 leave by plane for ISLAY. (Pronounced EYELY).

  12 noon arrive Islay.

  Hire a car (or take a bus) to the ferry that leads to Jura.

  About 1 pm cross ferry.

  Hired car to LEALT.

  It's important to let us know in advance when you are coming, because of the hired car. There are only 2 posts a week here, & only 2 occasions on which I can send down to Craighouse to order the car. If you come by boat, you could probably get a car all right by asking on the quay, but if you come by air there wouldn't be a car at the ferry (which is several miles from Craighouse) unless ordered beforehand. Therefore if you proposed coming on, say, June 15th, it would be as well to write about June 5th because, according to the day of the week, it may be 4 or 5 days before your letter reaches me, & another 3 or 4 days before I can send a message. It's no use wiring because the telegrams come by the postman.

  You want a raincoat & if possible stout boots or shoes--gum boots if you have them. We may have some spare gum boots, I'm not sure--we are fairly well off for spare oilskins & things like that. It would help if you brought that week's rations, because they're not quick at getting any newcomer's rations here, & a little flour & tea.

  I am afraid I am making this all sound very intimidating, but really it's easy enough & the house is quite comfortable. The room you would have is rather small, but it looks out on the sea. I do so want to have you here. By that time I hope we'll have got hold of an engine for the boat, & if we get decent weather we can go round to the completely uninhabited bays on the west side of the island, where there is beautiful white sand & clear water with seals swimming about in it. At one of them there is a cave where we can take shelter when it rains, & at another there is a shepherd's hut which is disused but quite livable where one could even picnic for a day or two. Anyway do come, & come whenever you like for as long as you like, only try to let me know beforehand. And meanwhile take care of yourself & be happy.

  I've just remembered I never paid you for that brandy you got for me, so enclose PS3. I think it was about that wasn't it? The brandy was very nice & was much appreciated on the journey up because they can't get alcohol here at all easily. The next island, Islay, distills whisky but it all goes to America. I gave the lorry driver a large wallop, more than a double, & it disappeared so promptly that it seemed to hit the bottom of his belly with a click.

  With much love

  George

  [XIX, 3212, pp. 122-4; handwritten]

  1.Janetta Woolley (now Parlade) was a friend of those who ran Horizon and Polemic. She may have met Orwell through her former husband, Humphrey Slater* but it seems more likely it was through Cyril Connolly*. At this time she had changed her name by deed-poll to Sinclair-Loutit, whilst living with Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit: their daughter, Nicolette, then nearly four years old, is the child mentioned in this letter. Sonia Brownell had suggested to Orwell that Nicolette would be a suitable same-age companion for young Richard, hence Orwell's invitation, but in the event Janetta and Nicolette did not go to Jura. Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit also knew Orwell, having been in the Spanish civil war as a doctor in the International Brigade and had first met him in Spain.

  The following letter is in reply to one from Dwight Macdonald of 9 April 1947. Macdonald said that since his last letter to Orwell he had decided to devote the May-June issue of Politics to the USSR and the issue after that to France. There would therefore be no room for even an abridged version of Orwell's 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool' until September-October at the earliest. He would hold on to the article but would give it to someone else if Orwell wished. It was never published in Politics. He asked Orwell for help in compiling a reading list of 50-60 books and articles 'which might be called the basic ones for the layman if he wants to understand Russia today'. Had Orwell any 'pet discoveries'? What ten books would he recommend to a friend ignorant of Russia but seeking enlightenment? He also wanted another 50-60 titles of more specialised books on the best in Soviet art, movies, literature. He said he had no friendly contacts with the higher editors of The New Republic. His friends were being 'weeded out at a great rate', and he guessed that Orwell's column 'As I Please' would not be published now that 'the mag has become well-vulgarized by the Wallace crowd'. He suggested Orwell ask his agents to approach The Nation. Macdonald had airmailed his profile of Henry Wallace, because, since Wallace was now in England, Orwell might care to tell his readers about it. He confirmed that he had received payment for the shoes he had obtained for Orwell (the shoes which, unfortunately, proved too small).

  To Dwight Macdonald*

  15 April 1947

  Barnhill

  Isle of Jura

  Dear Dwight,

  Many thanks for your very interesting and informative article on Wallace 1, which reached me yesterday--unfortunately a few days after I'd left London for the summer. I've sent it on to Tribune, as I should think they could well use parts of it, at least as background material. I left London the day before W[allace] had his big public meeting at the Albert Hall, but I heard him say a few words
of welcome on arrival and got the impression that he meant to be very conciliatory and not make the sort of remarks about 'British imperialism' which he has been making in the USA. His visit here has been timed to do the maximum of mischief, and I was somewhat surprised by the respectful welcome given to him by nearly everyone, incidentally including Tribune, which has given him some raps over the knuckles in the past.

  It doesn't matter about the Tolstoy article. If you feel you do want to use a piece of it sooner or later, hang on to it until then. Otherwise, could you be kind enough to send it on to my agents, Mcintosh & Otis, explaining the circumstances. It's possible they might be able to do something with it, though as they failed with another Polemic article (one on Swift), perhaps this one is no good for the American market either.

  As to books on the USSR. It's very hard to think of a good list, and looking back, it seems to me that whatever I have learned, or rather guessed, about that country has come from reading between the lines of newspaper reports. I tried to think of 'pro' books, but couldn't think of any good ones except very early ones such as Ten Days that Shook the World 2 (which I haven't read through but have read in, of course.) The Webbs' Soviet Communism,3 which I have not read, no doubt contains a lot of facts, but Michael Polanyi's little essay 4 on it certainly convicted the W.s of misrepresentation on some points. A nephew of Beatrice Webb 5 whom I know told me she admitted privately that there were things about the USSR that it was better not to put on paper. For the period round about the Revolution, Krupskaya's Memories of Lenin has some interesting facts. So does Angelica Balabanov's My Life as a Rebel.6 The later editions of Krupskaya's book have been tampered with a little, at any rate in England. Of the same period, Bertrand Russell's Theory and Practice of Bolshevism (a very rare book which he will not bother to reprint) is interesting because he not only met all the tops but was able to foretell in general terms a good deal that happened later. Rosenberg's History of Bolshevism is said to be good and unprejudiced, but I haven't read it and his book on the German Republic seemed to me rather dry and cagey. A book that taught me more than any other about the general course of the Revolution was Franz Borkenau's The Communist International. This of course is only partly concerned with the USSR itself, and it is perhaps too much written round a thesis, but it is stuffed with facts which I believe have not been successfully disputed. As for books of 'revelations,' I must say I was doubtful of the authenticity of Valtin's book, but I thought Krivitsky's book 7 genuine although written in a cheap sensational style. In one place where it crossed with my own experiences it seemed to me substantially true. Kravchenko's book 8 is not out in England yet. For the concentration camps, Anton Ciliga's The Russian Enigma 9 is good, and more recently The Dark Side of the Moon10 (now I think published in the USA) which is compiled from the experiences of many exiled Poles. A little book by a Polish woman, Liberation, Russian Style,11 which appeared during the war and fell flat, overlaps with The Dark Side and is more detailed. I think the most important of very recent books is the Blue Book on the Canadian spy trials,12 which is fascinating psychologically. As for literature, Gleb Struve's Twenty-five Years of Soviet Russian Literature is an invaluable handbook and I am told very accurate. Mirsky's Russian Literature 1881-1927 (I think that is the title) takes in the earlier part of post-revolutionary literature. There is also Max Eastman's Artists in Uniform. You've probably read everything I have mentioned except perhaps the Blue Book. If you haven't read the latter, don't miss it--it's a real thriller.

  I am up here for 6 months. Last year I was just taking a holiday after six years of non-stop journalism, but this year I am going to get on with a novel. I shan't finish it in six months but I ought to break its back and might finish it at the end of the year. It is very hard to get back to quiet continuous work after living in a lunatic asylum for years. Not that conditions are now any better than during the war--worse in many ways. This last winter has been quite unendurable, and even now the weather is appalling, but one is a little better off up here where it is a bit easier to get food and fuel than in London.

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3215, pp. 126-9; typewritten]

  1.For Henry Wallace see 5.12.46 n. 6.

  2.John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919). Reed (1887-1920) was involved in setting up the Communist Party in the United States. He died of typhus and was buried in the Kremlin wall.

  3.Sidney James Webb (1859-1947) and Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (2 vols, London, 1935; New York, 1936). Republished in London in 1937, but without the question mark, and in 1941 with a new introduction by Beatrice Webb.

  4.Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), The Contempt of Freedom: The Russian Experiment and After (1940). Includes his 'Soviet Economics - Fact and Theory' (1935), 'Truth and Propaganda' (1936), 'Collectivist Planning' (1940).

  5.Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-90), author and journalist. In 1930, after three years as a lecturer at the Egyptian University, Cairo, he joined the Manchester Guardian and was its Moscow correspondent, 1932-3 (see his Winter in Moscow, 1934). He then worked on the Calcutta Statesman and, from 1935-6, on the Evening Standard. He served throught the war (Major, Intelligence Corps) and afterwards was Daily Telegraph Washington correspondent, 1946-7, and its deputy editor 1950-2. From 1952-7 he edited Punch. His The Thirties (1940) is a useful account of that decade. Sonia Orwell asked him to write Orwell's biography; he agreed but never produced anything. The section of this letter from 'A nephew' to 'on paper' was marked in the margin, in Orwell's hand, 'Off the record.'

  6.Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869-1939), wife of Lenin and active in his revolutionary programme. Her Memories of Lenin is quoted more than once by Orwell. Angelica Balabanov (1878-1965), associate editor with Mussolini of Avanti, worked with Lenin and Trotsky during the Russian Revolution and was the first secretary of the Third International. Her memoir was published in 1937.

  7.Jan Valtin (pseudonym of Richard Krebs, 1904-1951), Out of the Night (New York, 1940; London and Toronto, 1941). He later became a war correspondent with the American forces in the Pacific. Walter G. Krivitsky (d. 1941), In Stalin's Secret Service (New York, 1939; I Was Stalin's Agent, London, 1963). He was head of the western division of the NKVD, but defected.

  8.Victor Kravchenko (1905-1966), I Chose Freedom: The Personal and Political Life of a Soviet Official (New York, 1946; London, 1947). During the Spanish civil war, Kravchenko served as an aide to General Dimitri Pavlov (shot on Stalin's orders, 1941). (See Thomas, p. 588, n. 1.) 9.Anton Ciliga (1898-1991), a founder of the Yugoslav Communist Party. His The Russian Enigma was published in English in 1940 (in French, Paris, 1938). It is concerned chiefly with Russian economic policy, 1928-1932, and with its prisons. His The Kronstadt Revolt (Paris 1938; London, 1942) was described by Orwell as an 'Anarchist pamphlet largely an attack on Trotsky'.

  10.Anonymous, The Dark Side of the Moon (London, 1946; New York, 1947), deals with Soviet-Polish relations. It has a preface by T. S. Eliot, a director of the book's English publishers, Faber & Faber.

  11.Ada Halpern, Liberation--Russian Style (1945); it is listed by Whitaker as August 1945 and so published not during the war but just as it was ending.

  12.In the left-hand margin, against one or both of Liberation--Russian Style and the Canadian Government Blue Book, is a marker arrow, presumably added by Macdonald. The Blue Book referred to reported on a Canadian Royal Commission which investigated Soviet espionage in Canada, 1946 and 1947. This found that a spy ring had been built up by the Soviet Military Attache, Colonel Zabotin. Amongst those sentenced to terms of imprisonment was Fred Rose, the only Canadian Communist MP.

  To Fredric Warburg*

  31 May 1947

  Barnhill

  Isle of Jura

  Dear Fred,

  Many thanks for your letter. I have made a fairly good start on the book and I think I must have written nearly a third of the rough draft. I have not got as far as I had hoped to do by this time, because I have rea
lly been in most wretched health this year ever since about January (my chest as usual) and can't quite shake it off. However I keep pegging away, and I hope that when I leave here in October I shall either have finished the rough draft or at any rate broken its back. Of course the rough draft is always a ghastly mess having very little relation to the finished result, but all the same it is the main part of the job. So if I do finish the rough draft by October I might get the book done fairly early in 1948, barring illnesses. I don't like talking about books before they are written, but I will tell you now that this is a novel about the future-- that is, it is in a sense a fantasy, but in the form of a naturalistic novel. That is what makes it a difficult job--of course as a book of anticipations it would be comparatively simple to write.

  I am sending you separately a long autobiographical sketch1 which I originally undertook as a sort of pendant to Cyril Connolly's Enemies of Promise, he having asked me to write a reminiscence of the preparatory school we were at together. I haven't actually sent it to Connolly or Horizon, because apart from being too long for a periodical I think it is really too libellous to print, and I am not disposed to change it, except perhaps the names. But I think it should be printed sooner or later when the people most concerned are dead, and maybe sooner or later I might do a book of collected sketches. I must apologise for the typescript. It is not only the carbon copy, but is very bad commercial typing which I have had to correct considerably--however, I think I have got most of the actual errors out.

  Richard is very well in spite of various calamities. First he fell down and cut his forehead and had to have two stitches put in, and after that he had measles. He is talking a good deal more now (he was three a week or two ago.) The weather has cheered up after being absolutely stinking, and the garden we are creating out of virgin jungle is getting quite nice. Please remember me to Pamela and Roger.2

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3232, pp. 149-50; typewritten]

  1.In the margin there is a handwritten annotation (in Warburg's hand?): 'Such, Such were the Joys'. For the development of this essay and for the nature of the 'commercial typing', see headnote to the essay, XIX, 3408, pp. 353-6. Cyril Connolly's Enemies of Promise was published in 1938. Warburg wrote to Orwell on 6 June saying, 'I have read the autobiographical sketch about your prep. school and passed it to Roger.'