George Orwell: A Life in Letters

by Peter Davison

  After seeing George I am pretty confident that we shall be home before the winter—& possibly much sooner of course. You might write another letter to the aunt6 some time. I have never heard from her & neither has Eric,7 which worries me rather. I think she may be very sad about living in Wallington. By the way, George is positively urgent about the gas-stove—he wanted me to write & order it at once, but I still think it would be better to wait until just before our return, particularly as I have not yet heard from Moore about the advance on the book.8 Which reminds me that the reviews are better than I anticipated, as the interesting ones haven’t come through yet.

  I had a bath last night—a great excitement. And I’ve had 3 superb dinners in succession. I don’t know whether I shall miss this café life. I have coffee about three times a day & drinks oftener, & although theoretically I eat in a rather grim pension at least six times a week I get headed off into one of about four places where the food is really quite good by any standards though limited of course. Every night I mean to go home early & write letters or something & every night I get home the next morning. The cafés are open till 1.30 & one starts one’s after-dinner coffee about 10. But the sherry is undrinkable—& I meant to bring home some little casks of it!

  Give Maud9 my love & tell her I’ll write some time. And give anyone else my love but I shan’t be writing to them. (This letter is to the 3 O’Shaughnesseys 10 who are thus ‘you’ not ‘they’.) It is a dull letter again I think. I shall do this life better justice in conversation—or I hope so.

  Much love

  Eileen

  [XI, 363, pp. 13–15; handwritten]

  1.Offices of the POUM journal The Spanish Revolution.

  2.Robert Edwards (1905–90), unsuccessful Independent Labour Party parliamentary candidate in 1935, was a Labour and Co-operative MP from 1955 to 1987. In January 1937 he was Captain of the ILP contingent in Spain, linked to the POUM. He left Spain at the end of March to attend the ILP conference at Glasgow. In 1926 and 1934 he led delegations to the Soviet Union meeting Trotsky, Stalin and Molotov; was General Secretary of the Chemical Workers’ Union, 1947–71; National Officer, Transport and General Workers’ Union, 1971–76; and member of the European Parliament, 1977–79. (See Orwell Remembered, pp. 146–48, and especially Shelden, pp. 264–65, which demolishes Edwards’s accusation that Orwell went to Spain solely to find material for a book.)

  3.Eileen started to write ‘Eric’ but overwrote ‘George.’

  4.Fenner Brockway (1888–1988; Lord Brockway, 1964) was General Secretary of the ILP, 1928, 1933–39, and its representative in Spain for a time. A devoted worker for many causes, particularly peace, he resigned from the ILP in 1946 and rejoined the Labour Party, which he represented in Parliament, 1950–64.

  5.In a footnote to Homage to Catalonia (p. 151), Orwell gives the purchasing value of the peseta as ‘about fourpence’ in pre-metric currency; 500 pesetas would be about £8 6s 8d – say £320 at today’s values.

  6.Orwell’s aunt Nellie Limouzin, then living at The Stores, Wallington, the Orwells’ cottage.

  7.Eileen must here mean her husband.

  8.The Road to Wigan Pier.

  9.Possibly an aunt of Eileen’s whose second name was Maud.

  10.Eileen’s mother, her brother, ‘Eric’ and his wife Gwen.

  To Eileen Blair*

  [5? April 1937]

  [Hospital, Monflorite]

  Dearest,

  You really are a wonderful wife. When I saw the cigars my heart melted away. They will solve all tobacco problems for a long time to come. McNair* tells me you are all right for money, as you can borrow & then repay when B[ob] E[dwards] brings some pesetas, but don’t go beggaring yourself, & above all don’t go short of food, tobacco etc. I hate to hear of your having a cold & feeling run down. Don’t let them overwork you either, & don’t worry about me, as I am much better & expect to go back to the lines tomorrow or the day after. Mercifully the poisoning in my hand didn’t spread, & it is now almost well, tho’ of course the wound is still open. I can use it fairly well & intend to have a shave today, for the first time in about 5 days. The weather is much better, real spring most of the time, & the look of the earth makes me think of our garden at home & wonder whether the wallflowers are coming out & whether old Hatchett1 is sowing the potatoes. Yes, Pollitt’s review 2 was pretty bad, tho’ of course good as publicity. I suppose he must have heard I was serving in the POUM militia. I don’t pay much attention to the Sunday Times reviews3 as G[ollancz] advertises so much there that they daren’t down his books, but the Observer was an improvement on last time. I told McNair that when I came on leave I would do the New Leader an article, as they wanted one, but it will be such a come-down after B.E’s that I don’t expect they’ll print it. I’m afraid it is not much use expecting leave before about the 20th April. This is rather annoying in my own case as it comes about through my having exchanged from one unit to another—a lot of the men I came to the front with are now going on leave. If they suggested that I should go on leave earlier I don’t think I would say no, but they are not likely to & I am not going to press them. There are also some indications—I don’t know how much one can rely on these—that they expect an action hereabouts, & I am not going on leave just before that comes off if I can help it. Everyone has been very good to me while I have been in hospital, visiting me every day etc. I think now that the weather is getting better I can stick out another month without getting ill, & then what a rest we will have, & go fishing too if it is in any way possible.

  As I write this Michael, Parker & Buttonshaw4 have just come in, & you should have seen their faces when they saw the margarine. As to the photos, of course there are lots of people who want copies, & I have written the numbers wanted on the backs, & perhaps you can get reproductions. I suppose it doesn’t cost too much—I shouldn’t like to disappoint the Spanish machine-gunners etc. Of course some of the photos were a mess. The one which has Buttonshaw looking very blurred in the foreground is a photo of a shell-burst, which you can see rather faintly on the left, just beyond the house.

  I shall have to stop in a moment, as I am not certain when McNair is going back & I want to have this letter ready for him. Thanks ever so much for sending the things, dear, & do keep well & happy.5 I told McNair I would have a talk with him about the situation when I came on leave, & you might at some opportune moment say something to him about my wanting to go to Madrid etc. Goodbye, love. I’ll write again soon.

  With all my love

  Eric

  [XI, 364, pp. 15–17; handwritten]

  1.Old Hatchett was a neighbour at Wallington who often helped Orwell in his garden.

  2.Harry Pollitt (1890–1960), a Lancashire boiler-maker and founder-member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920, became its general secretary in 1929. With Rajani Palme Dutt (1896–1974, expelled from Oxford in 1917 for disseminating Marxist propaganda; member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party and from 1936–38 editor of the Daily Worker) he led the party until his death. He was, however, removed from leadership in the autumn of 1939 until Germany’s invasion of Russia in July 1941 for his temporary advocacy of a war of democracy against fascism. His review of The Road to Wigan Pier appeared in the Daily Worker, 17 March 1937.

  3.The Road to Wigan Pier was reviewed by Edward Shanks in the Sunday Times and by Hugh Massingham in the Observer, 14 March 1937.

  4.Michael Wilton (English), also given as Milton, Buck Parker (South African), and Buttonshaw (American) were members of Orwell’s unit. Douglas Moyle, another member, told Ian Angus, 18 February 1970, that Buttonshaw was very sympathetic to the European left and regarded Orwell as ‘the typical Englishman—tall, carried himself well, well educated and well spoken’.

  5.Orwell would not have realised the irony in his use of ‘happy’. Sir Richard Rees wrote in his For Love or Money (1960), p. 153, of the strain of Eileen’s experience in Barcelona: ‘In Eileen Blair I had seen for the first time the sympt
oms of a human being living under a political Terror.’

  Eileen Blair* to Dr Laurence (‘Eric’) O’Shaughnessy*

  1 May 1937

  10 Rambla de los Estudios

  Barcelona

  Dear Eric,

  You have a hard life. I mean to write to Mother with the news, but there are some business matters. Now I think of these, they’re inextricably connected with the news so Mother must share this letter.

  George is here on leave. He arrived completely ragged, almost barefoot, a little lousy, dark brown, & looking really very well. For the previous 12 hours he had been in trains consuming anis, muscatel out of anis bottles, sardines & chocolate. In Barcelona food is plentiful at the moment but there is nothing plain. So it is not surprising that he ceased to be well. Now after two days in bed he is really cured but still persuadable so having a ‘quiet day’. This is the day to have on May 1st. They were asked to report at the barracks, but he isn’t well enough & has already applied for his discharge papers so he hasn’t gone. The rest of the contingent never thought of going. When the discharge is through he will probably join the International Brigade.1 Of course we—perhaps particularly I—are politically suspect but we told all the truth to the I.B. man here & he was so shattered that he was practically offering me executive jobs by the end of half an hour, & I gather that they will take George. Of course I must leave Barcelona but I should do that in any case as to stay would be pointless. Madrid is probably closed to me, so it means Valencia for the moment with Madrid & Albacete in view but at long distance. To join the I.B. with George’s history is strange but it is what he thought he was doing in the first place & it’s the only way of getting to Madrid. So there it is. Out of this arises a further money crisis because when I leave Barcelona I shall leave all my affiliations—& my address & even my credit at the bank; & it will take a little time to get connected again perhaps. Meanwhile we spend immense sums of money for Spain on new equipment etc. I did write to you about getting money through banks—i.e. your bank buys pesetas with your pounds & instructs a bank in Barcelona to pay me the number of pesetas you bought. If this can be done will you do it (about another 2000 pesetas I should think), & will you ask the bank to cable. Probably I shall be here for a couple of weeks but I’m not sure where I shall go next & I want if possible to have some money in hand before leaving. If the bank business can’t be done I frankly don’t know what can—i.e. I must use the credit at 60 to the £. before leaving here & find some method of getting money through my new friends, whoever they may be (I have met the Times correspondent at Valencia).

  The other business is the cottage. I gather & hear from Mrs Blair that the aunt is not only tiring but tired, & I have written to her suggesting evacuation with all the arrangements under headings. You take over in a manner of speaking. If she shows you the letter it may alarm you, but twenty minutes will settle most of the problems. There are several things to be paid, but they’re all matters of shillings & the shop may have—should have—a few pounds in hand. The shop will be closed. I’ve said you can buy any perishables. It is not of course suggested that you should pay for these, except in the aunt’s eyes, but she will never give anything away so you might dump doubtful stuff in the car & dispose of it anyhow you like. If Mother is at Greenwich she might perhaps go over after the aunt is out & see that there is nothing to attract mice. There is a chance that Arthur Clinton,2 who was wounded, may go & recuperate in the cottage. He is perhaps the nicest man in the world & I hope he may be able to use it. He’ll return to England unfit, ineligible for dole & penniless. If he wants the cottage he’ll ask you about it of course.

  We shall owe you money. We have money in our sense of the word, but I haven’t much fancy for sending cheques if they get lost in the post.

  I must take this to the office now—one of the contingent is going home tomorrow & will take it. I have in progress an immense letter to mother, started two or three weeks ago, which will arrive in due course. I am very well.

  About the L.C.C. pay I fully agree that there must be no sessional payment—it is a vicious system.3

  My love to Gwen. By the way, I gather from the correspondence that she isn’t coming. If this is wrong & she is coming of course I’ll wait in Barcelona.

  Yours

  Eileen.

  For the bank’s information my name is Eileen Maud Blair & my passport number 174234.

  I really am sorry for you—but what can I do?

  [XI, 367, pp.20–2; handwritten]

  1.The International Brigade was composed of foreign volunteers, mostly Communist, and played an important part in the defence of Madrid. Its headquarters was at Albacete where the Brigade’s prison was sited. George Woodcock commented that Orwell ‘would not long have survived the attention of Marty’s political commissars if he had joined the International Brigade’. André Marty (1886–1956) a leading member of the French Communist Party, was known as Le Boucher d’Albacete. He claimed to have executed some 500 brigaders – and there were slightly fewer than 60,000 foreigners in the International Brigade.

  2.A member of the ILP contingent. He was with Orwell in the Sanatorium Maurín (see Homage to Catalonia, VI, p. 153).

  3.Eileen was objecting to payment by the London County Council of a fee for each session worked instead of at an annual rate. If one was booked for a session but not required, time had been set aside for no financial recompense.

  To Victor Gollancz*

  9 May 1937

  Hotel Continental

  Barcelona

  Dear Mr Gollancz,

  I didn’t get an opportunity earlier to write & thank you for the introduction you wrote to Wigan Pier, in fact I didn’t even see the book, or rather the L[eft] B[ook] C[lub] edition of it, till about 10 days ago when I came on leave, & since then I have been rather occupied. I spent my first week of leave in being slightly ill, then there was° 3 or 4 days of street-fighting in which we were all more or less involved, in fact it was practically impossible to keep out of it. I liked the introduction very much, though of course I could have answered some of the criticisms you made. It was the kind of discussion of what one is really talking about that one always wants & never seems to get from the professional reviewers. I have had a lot of reviews sent on to me, some of them very hostile but I should think mostly good from a publicity point of view. Also great numbers of letters from readers.

  I shall be going back to the front probably in a few days & barring accidents I expect to be there till about August. After that I think I shall come home, as it will be about time I started on another book. I greatly hope I come out of this alive if only to write a book about it. It is not easy here to get hold of any facts outside the circle of one’s own experience, but with that limitation I have seen a great deal that is of immense interest to me. Owing partly to an accident I joined the P.O.U.M. militia instead of the International Brigade, which was a pity in one way because it meant that I have never seen the Madrid front; on the other hand it has brought me into contact with Spaniards rather than Englishmen & especially with genuine revolutionaries. I hope I shall get a chance to write the truth about what I have seen. The stuff appearing in the English papers is largely the most appalling lies—more I can’t say, owing to the censorship. If I can get back in August I hope to have a book ready for you about the beginning of next year.

  Yours sincerely,

  Eric A. Blair

  [XI, 368, pp. 22–3; handwritten]

  Orwell was shot through the throat by a sniper at 5.00 a.m. on 20 May 1937. He discusses the incident in Homage to Catalonia, VI, pp. 137–39. Eileen sent a telegram from Barcelona at noon on 24 May 1937 to Orwell’s parents in Southwold. This read: ‘Eric slightly wounded progress excellent sends love no need for anxiety Eileen.’ This reached Southwold just after 2.00 p.m. Orwell’s commandant, George Kopp,* wrote a report on his condition on 31 May and 1 June 1937. When this report was lost, Kopp wrote another, for Dr Laurence O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s brother-in-law,
dated ‘Barcelona, the 10th of June 1937’. It differs slightly from the version given in Orwell Remembered, pp. 158–61. Kopp illustrated his report with a drawing of the bullet’s path through Orwell’s throat:

  Bert Govaerts, who uncovered details of Kopp’s life, suggests that this shows his training in engineering drawing. (See XI, 369, pp. 23–6.)

  To Sergei Dinamov,* Editor, International Literature, Moscow

  Professor Arlen Blyum of the St Petersburg Academy of Culture, in ‘An English Writer in the Land of the Bolsheviks’ (The Library, December 2003) records the fascinating exchange of letters between Dinamov and Orwell. International Literature was allowed considerable leeway and introduced such writers as John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, and John Dos Passos to its readers, so creating ‘a favourable image of the Land of the Soviets’. The editor wrote to Orwell on 31 May 1937 saying he had read reviews of The Road to Wigan Pier and asked for a copy so that it could be introduced to the journal’s readers. This is Orwell’s reply, found in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.

  2 July 1937

  The Stores

  Wallington

  Dear Comrade,

  I am sorry not to have answered earlier your letter dated May 31st, but I have only just got back from Spain and my letters have been kept for me here, rather luckily, as otherwise some of them might have been lost. I am sending separately a copy of The Road to Wigan Pier. I hope parts of it may interest you. I ought to tell you that parts of the second half deal with subjects that may seem rather trivial outside England. I was preoccupied with them at the time of writing, but my experiences in Spain have made me reconsider many of my opinions.