A Life in Letters

by George Orwell

  28 January 1948

  Hairmyres Hospital

  East Kilbride

  Dear Mr. Reynal,1

  I must thank you very kindly for the food parcel which you so kindly sent me & which reached me here about a week ago. It was a very pleasant surprise. I was particularly thrilled to find in it a tin of olive oil, a thing we have not seen for years.

  I expect Leonard Moore told you I was ill, as I asked him to let anyone in the USA with whom I had any connections know I should be out of action for some months. It is TB of the left lung. I have been ill for three months or more, but actually I think ever since that vile winter of 1946-47. I feel better & I think I have just about turned the corner, but the cure is a slow one at best. Of course I can't do any serious work till I'm in good health, but I am beginning to do just a little journalism. After months of idleness, I'm afraid my handwriting is getting a bit funny, but that is because I have my right arm in plaster2 & haven't got used to this yet.

  Thank you so much again.

  Yours sincerely,

  George Orwell

  [XIX, 3335, p. 260; handwritten copy]

  1.Of Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, publishers of Dickens, Dali & Others (1946).

  2.Why Orwell's arm was in plaster is not known. He was confined to bed so could hardly have fallen. However, the phrenic nerve, crushed as part of the procedure described in his letter to his sister (see 1.1.48), affects the arms, and it might have been related to that.

  To David Astor*

  1 February 1948

  Hairmyres Hospital

  East Kilbride

  Dear David,

  Thanks so much for your letter. Before anything else I must tell you of something Dr Dick* has just said to me.

  He says I am getting on quite well, but slowly, & it would speed recovery if one had some streptomycin (streptomycin).1 This is only obtainable in the USA, & because of dollars the B.O.T.2 (or whoever it is) won't normally grant a licence. One can however buy it there if one has some dollars. He suggested that you with your American connections might arrange to buy it & I could pay you. He wants 70 grammes, & it costs about PS1 a gramme. I would be awfully obliged if you could put this transaction through for me, as no doubt you can do it quicker than I could myself. There is no twist or illegality about this, Dr Dick says, & the stuff is not difficult to send. I suppose it will mean paying out about 300 dollars. If you want to be repaid in dollars, I think I have enough, as I had started building up a reserve of dollars in the US, otherwise I can pay you in sterling. I must in either case pay you, as it is a considerable sum & of course the hospital can't pay it.

  I received from McIntyre3 a parcel of butter & eggs, & he told me you had instructed him to send this weekly. It is awfully kind, but I am going to ask him not to send the eggs, as I can't use them in those numbers & I expect the hens aren't laying too well now. I know ours at Barnhill are still doing very badly. I feel we ought to pay for Bob if we have him 10 months of the year--however. He only gets hay in the winter--of course he'd get oats if he were doing harder work--but he was in excellent condition when I came away. Our new cow has just arrived & my sister can't leave until it has calved. I'm afraid my writing is awful, but I have my arm in plaster. It's much better that way, as it doesn't hurt but it is awkward for certain purposes such as writing & eating. I also have to shave left-handed. Dr Dick says he will write to you. I suppose it will be best to have the drug sent to him. His correct designation is Mr Bruce Dick.

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3337, pp. 262-3; handwritten]

  1.Streptomycin was discovered in the United States in 1944 and was at this time being tested in Britain by the Medical Research Council.

  2.Board of Trade, which controlled imports, and at this time refused to allow as many as it could, especially if payment was in dollars.

  3.Presumably one of the Astor estate staff on Jura.

  To Fredric Warburg*

  4 February 1948

  Hairmyres Hospital

  East Kilbride

  Dear Fred,

  Thanks so much for your letter.1 As you inferred, my beginning to do articles in the Observer is a sign of partial revival, though even that is an effort, especially as I now have my right arm in plaster. I can't attempt any serious work while I am like this (11/2 stone under weight) but I like to do a little to keep my hand in & incidentally earn some money. I've been definitely ill since about October, & really, I think, since the beginning of 1947. I believe that frightful winter in London started it off. I didn't really feel well all last year except during that hot period in the summer. Before taking to my bed I had finished the rough draft of my novel all save the last few hundred words, & if I had been well I might have finished it by about May. If I'm well & out of here by June, I might finish it by the end of the year--I don't know. It is just a ghastly mess as it stands, but the idea is so good that I could not possibly abandon it. If anything should happen to me I've instructed Richard Rees, my literary executor, to destroy the Ms. without showing it to anybody, but it's unlikely that anything like that would happen. This disease isn't dangerous at my age, & they say the cure is going on quite well, though slowly. Part of the cure is to put the affected lung out of action for six months, which gives it a better chance to heal. We are now sending for some new American drug called streptomycin which they say will speed up the cure.

  Richard is getting enormous & is very forward in everything except talking. I'm going to have him thoroughly examined when my sister goes up to town, but I really don't think he's T.B. to judge by the look of him. It's sad that I can't see him again till I'm non-infectious. Please remember me to Pamela and Roger.

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3339, pp. 264-5; handwritten]

  1.Warburg wrote to Orwell on 2 February 1948 saying that Orwell's review of India Called Them by Lord Beveridge in the Observer (1 February, XIX, 3336, pp. 261—2), 'gave me heart to write and enquire how you are getting on'. He said there was nothing they needed to consult about but he would be greatly cheered by 'a line, however brief, as to how you are and how soon you hope to come out of that wretched hospital'.

  To David Astor*

  Monday [9 February 1948]

  Dear David,

  Just a hurried note to say thanks awfully your seeing about the streptomycin. Meanwhile you'll have had a telegram 1 which crossed your letter & which I hope you didn't bother to answer. Just having heard I got time to ring up last night, & as you were down in the country I then wired, as I did think it conceivable my original letter hadn't gone off. We get them posted in a rather sketchy way here.

  Of course I must pay you for the stuff. But I'll try & think of something else you'd like, or your little girl.

  I've just heard the Darrochs 2 are 'definitely leaving' Kinuachdrach[d], but I still can't find out what the row was about. It's a sad business after D.D. has broken his back reclaiming the farm, & awkward for the Fletchers3 too. However, they'll have to get another tenant if only to look after their cattle.

  All well here. They pump me so full of air once a week that I feel like a balloon for two days afterwards.

  Yours,

  George

  [XIX, 3342, pp. 265-6; handwritten]

  1.Not traced.

  2.Donald Darroch and his sister, Katie, had a croft a mile or so from Barnhill at Kinuachdrachd. Orwell went there every day for milk until he bought a cow. He and Donald, who worked on a profit-sharing basis with Orwell's laird, Robin Fletcher, were very friendly. Donald and Katie are very frequently mentioned in Orwell's diaries. In Remembering Orwell (pp. 174-5) Katie contributes a brief but telling memoir. She describes Orwell as 'cheery and happy in his own way' - and a great fan of her scones!

  3.Robin Fletcher inherited the Ardlussa Estate some eight miles south of Barnhill. He had formerly been a housemaster at Eton. He and his wife, Margaret, set about restoring the estate and developing crofting. Margaret in Orwell Remembered (pp. 225-9)
vividly describes Orwell: 'how ill, how terribly ill, he looked - and drawn: a sad face he had . . . I think he very much missed his wife . . . He was devoted to Richard.'

  To David Astor*

  Saturday [14 February 1948]1

  Dear David,

  Did you really not want the pens? They're very useful, as my Biro was out of action & also lost, & my Rollball not functioning very well. This is yours I'm writing with.

  The Van Gogh exhibition apparently begins on the 21st.

  I'd certainly love to come down to your Abingdon place in the summer for a weekend, if I'm about by then. It would be lovely having the river at your door. Probably in June or July there'd be good fishing, dace & chub. The Thames fishing can be quite good. I caught some good fish at Eton, but hardly anybody outside College knew the place, as it was in the backwater joining on College field.

  I still haven't got to the bottom of the row at Kinuachdrach[d], but I gather it was between Bill & Donald. I assume Donald won't leave immediately. The Fletchers are advertising for another tenant. They'll have to have someone to look after their herd of Highlands.

  By the way, I think you said poor old Nieldeg Darroch might want to sell his boat--do you remember whether it was petrol or paraffin?

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3344, p. 267; handwritten]

  1.Dated only 'Sat.' The Van Gogh Exhibition opened at the Tate Gallery, London, on 10 December 1947 and ran to 14 January 1948; it visited Birmingham, 24 January to 14 February 1948, and Glasgow--near where Orwell was in hospital--20 February to 14 March 1948. This letter is so fresh with hope that it must surely have been written before the course of streptomycin began: that, he would write to Middleton Murry on 20 February 1948, had 'just started'. Saturday, 14 February, is, therefore, the most likely date for this letter. That must place the next letter, here dated 16.2.48, to that particular Monday.

  To David Astor*

  Monday [16 February 1948]

  Dear David,

  I've had 2 letters from you today. I'll take the business one first. I'm perfectly willing to do the reviews for the U.S., in fact I'd like it, as they will probably want them rather longer than yours, & I prefer that. I presume that they will be for papers more or less on a level with the Observer & similar in tone. The only caveat is, that I might have a relapse or something, & any way I can only do about 2 hours work each day. They will be starting with the streptomycin soon, & though I don't suppose so, it may have unpleasant effects, like M. & B.1 But anyway, up to capacity I'll certainly do the reviews.

  As to the streptomycin. Thanks awfully for getting it on the wing so quickly.2 I suppose it will get here in only a few days. If you really don't want to be paid for it O. K., I won't press it. But I really could easily have paid, not only in PSs but even in dollars, because I remember now, I have at least 500 lying by in New York. I don't need [to] tell you I am grateful. Let's hope it does its stuff. I gather they aren't very satisfied with my case at present. I haven't gained weight for 2 weeks, & I have a feeling I am getting weaker, though mentally I am more alert. Dr Dick* seems anxious to start in with the strepto as early as possible.

  I'm sorry A[rthur] K[oestler]* has blown up. He's a bit temperamental. I thought his fi[rst] despatch from France was very good. The 'London Letters' he has been doing in P[artisan] R[eview] are shocking & I have been meaning to have a row with him about them--just one long squeal about basic petrol3 etc.

  I'll let you know how the strepto goes.

  Yours

  George

  [XIX, 3349, p. 272; handwritten]

  1.May and Baker, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals; their initials were a shorthand means of referring to sulphonamides.

  2.David Astor wrote to Dr Dick* on 19 February 1948 thanking him for encouraging Orwell to get the streptomycin and offering to help in getting anything else that would aid Orwell's recovery. He made it clear that he wished to pay for any drugs that would help and said he was 'in communication with Blair on this' and trying to convince him to accept help. He asked Dick not to discuss payment with Orwell, 'as I think the only possibility of persuading him to be reasonable is that it should be a very private matter between him and me.' He could make another visit to Hairmyres Hospital, he said, 'this coming Sunday [22 February] or on Sunday, 7th March', the latter being slightly more convenient. Was Orwell doing too much work, he asked; he could either increase or decrease it as would prove desirable.

  3.'Basic' petrol was the amount allowed before supplements for special purposes were added. Writing to Anthony Powell on 8 March (XIX, 3360, p. 283) Orwell said he was allowed six gallons of petrol a month and that his car did only ten miles to the gallon 'on a highland road'.

  To Ivor Brown*

  20 February 1948

  Hairmyres Hosp.

  Dear Ivor Brown,

  I'm sorry, but it was an awful book.1 It had all the marks of an amateur's writing, everything jammed in indiscriminately, a sort of matey facetious manner that failed to come off, & a most irritating trick of giving everything its Faeroese name, which meant one had to look up the glossary every few lines. Its only merit was that it was informative about a little-known subject, which I think I indicated. Linklater's introduction didn't impress me as sincere. I thought of saying that the book was stodgy, or heavy going, or words to that effect, but didn't want to be unkind to an amateur.

  I am not prepared to give praise on literary grounds to books of this type. One sinks one's standards below zero by pretending that they exist in a literary sense at all. This kind of book (eg.deg another you have sent me, about caves in France 2) are simply bits of topography, or travel diary set down by people who have no idea how to select or to write, & they get boosted because of local patriotism. If one is to review them, I do not see what we can do except to give an exposition.3

  Yours sincerely

  George Orwell

  [XX, 3351A, p. 564; handwritten]

  1.On 18 February 1948, an unsigned letter from Ivor Brown of the Observer questioned Orwell about the review he had submitted of Kenneth Williamson's The Atlantic Islands. He had noted that high claims had been made for the book and that Eric Linklater 'puts it very high'. Orwell, he said, had taken no line at all about the book but merely reported what Williamson said. Readers, publishers and authors 'like to see signs of enthusiasm and encouragement for good work, if it is good'. He himself had not read Williamson's book. He asked Orwell if he could 'give a bit more colour to your notice of it should you feel this is justified'. Eric Linklater (Robert Russell; 1899-1974), Scottish novelist (Juan in America, 1931), who wrote several war pamphlets (e.g., The Highland Division, 1942). Orwell's review appeared on 29 February 1948 (XIX, 3356, pp. 277-8).

  2.My Caves by Norbert Casteret reviewed 14 March 1948 (XIX, 3356, pp. 283-4).

  3.Ivor Brown replied on 24 February saying he quite understood how Orwell felt.

  To John Middleton Murry*

  5 March 1948

  Hairmyres Hospital

  East Kilbride

  Dear Murry,

  Thanks very much for the book,1 which I read with interest. I agree with your general thesis, but I think that in assessing the world situation it is very rash to assume that the rest of the world would combine against Russia. We have a fearful handicap in the attitude towards us of the coloured races, & the under-privileged peoples generally (eg. in S. America), which we possibly don't deserve any longer but which we have inherited from our imperial past. I also think it is rash to assume that most orientals, or indeed any except a few westernised ones, would prefer democracy to totalitarianism. It seems to me that the great difficulty of our position is that in the coming show-down we must have the peoples of Africa & the Middle East--if possible of Asia too, of course--on our side, & they will all look towards Russia unless there is a radical change of attitude, especially in the USA. I doubt whether we can put things right in Africa, at least in some parts of it, without quite definitely siding with the blacks again
st the whites. The latter will then look [to] the USA for support, & they will get it. It can easily turn out that we & America are alone, with all the coloured peoples siding with Russia. Perhaps even then we could win a war against Russia, but only by laying the world in ruins, especially this country.

  I'm sorry to hear about your illness. My own seems to be getting better rapidly. They can't say yet whether the streptomycin is doing its stuff, but I certainly have been a lot better the last week or so. I imagine however that I shall be in bed for another month or two, & under treatment at any rate until the summer. The lung has been collapsed, which is supposed to give it a better chance to heal, but of course it takes a long time, & meanwhile they have to keep on pumping air into one's diaphragm. Fortunately this is a very nice hospital & very well run. Everyone is extraordinarily kind to me. It is sad I cannot see my little boy until I am non-infectious, however he will be able to come & visit me when I am allowed out of doors. He is getting on for 4 & growing enormously, though he is a bit backward about talking, because we live in such a solitary spot that he doesn't see enough of other children. I have got our place in Jura running pretty well now. I myself couldn't farm the land that went with the house, but a young chap who was wounded in the war lives with us & farms it. We are pretty well found there, & better off for fuel & food than one is in London. The winters also are not quite so cold, funnily enough. The chief difficulties are that in bad weather one is sometimes cut off from the mainland, & that one is chronically short of petrol. However one can use a horse if one is obliged to. Of course I have to go up to London occasionally, but the journey only takes 24 hours, less if one flies. I was half way through a novel when I took to my bed. It ought to have been finished by May--possibly I might finish it by the end of 1948 if I get out of here by the summer.

  Please remember me to your wife.

  Yours sincerely

  Geo. Orwell

  [XIX, 3358, pp. 279-80; handwritten]

  1.The Free Society. In this Murry comes close to approving war against the Soviet Union, contrary to his long-held pacifist views and hence E.L. Allen's Pacifism and the Free Society: A Reply to John Middleton Murry (1948).