George Orwell: A Life in Letters
Page 60
3.Orwell’s letter has been annotated here, ‘Yes.’
4.Konni Zilliacus (see 2.1.48, n. 5).
5.Michael Foot (see 31.3.46, n. 2).
6.Maurice Edelman (1911–1975), educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, entered the plywood business which led to visits to the USSR, about which he then wrote. He was a war correspondent in North Africa and in Normandy and a Labour MP in 1945, re-elected in 1950.
7.Harold Laski (see 20.9.47, n. 1).
8.Charles Curran, who ‘tired me so . . . arguing about polities’ (see 16.5.49).
9.Paul Potts (see letters to Humphrey Dakin of 1.7.46, n. 5 and to Sally McEwan of 5.7.46, n. 1).
10.A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990), historian and journalist. At this time he was Tutor in Modern History, Magdalen College, Oxford (to 1963); Fellow, 1938–76. He wrote prolifically and authoritatively (if not always uncontroversially), especially on Germany and World Wars I and II. The Wroclaw Conference was a Communist-front Conference of Intellectuals, August 1948, attended by scientists, writers, and cultural leaders from forty countries. It passed a resolution condemning the revival of Fascism. The conference backfired on the organisers; some participants saw through the proceedings, Taylor among them, and walked out.
To Fredric Warburg*
16 May 1949
Cranham
Dear Fred,
Thanks so much for your letter. As she may have told you, I had to put Sonia Brownell* off. I am in most ghastly health, & have been for some weeks. I am due for another X-ray picture, but for some days I have been too feverish to go over to the X-ray room & stand up against the screen. When the picture is taken, I am afraid there is not much doubt it will show that both lungs have deteriorated badly. I asked the doctor recently whether she1 thought I would survive, & she wouldn’t go further than saying she didn’t know. If the ‘prognosis’ after this photo is bad, I shall get a second opinion. Can you give me the name of that specialist you mentioned? Then I will suggest either him or Dr. Morlock, another specialist whom I consulted before the war. They can’t do anything, as I am not a case for operation, but I would like an expert opinion on how long I am likely to stay alive. I do hope people won’t now start chasing me to go to Switzerland, which is supposed to have magical qualities. I don’t believe it makes any difference where you are, & a journey would be the death of me. The one chance of surviving, I imagine, is to keep quiet. Don’t think I am making up my mind to peg out. On the contrary, I have the strongest reasons for wanting to stay alive. But I want to get a clear idea of how long I am likely to last, & not just be jollied along the way doctors usually do.
Yes, do come & see me. I hope & trust by the beginning of June I may be a bit better, at any rate less feverish. I am glad 1984 has done so well before publication. The World Review published a most stupid extract, abridged in such a way as to make nonsense of it.2 I wouldn’t have let Moore arrange this if I’d known they meant to hack it about. However I suppose it’s advertisement. That Evening Standard man, Mr. Curran, came to interview me, & had arranged to come again, but I’m thinking of putting him off, because he tired me so last time, arguing about politics. Please give everyone my love.
Yours
George
[XX, 3626, pp. 116–17; handwritten]
1.Dr Margaret Kirkman, one of the two resident physicians at Cranham.
2.‘A Look into the Future: 1984 and Newspeak’, an insensitive abridgement of the Appendix to Nineteen Eighty-Four, World Review, May 1949.
To David Astor*
20 May 1949
Cranham Lodge1
Cranham
Gloucester
Dear David,
Thanks so much for your letter. Do come on Sunday the 29th. I’ll look forward to seeing you both. If you can, let me know beforehand time of arrival, so that I can arrange for the car. Better have lunch here, if you arrive in time (it’s quite eatable.)
I have been absolutely ghastly. I am getting a second opinion, a London specialist, supposed to be very good. Of course they can’t actually do anything but I don’t want to feel I’m letting my case go by default, also a specialist called in for one consultation might be willing to give an expert opinion on whether I’m likely to stay alive, the thing most doctors will only hum & haw about.
I’m arranging for Richard to come & stay near here, near Stroud. I suppose it will take weeks to fix up, but it’s quite a good arrangement, the people he is going to stay with have 2 children, & he can go to kindergarten with them & come over & see me in the afternoons sometimes.
Yours
George
[XX, 3628, p. 118; handwritten]
1.Orwell was writing on headed notepaper that referred to the sanatorium as Cranham Lodge.
To Jacintha Buddicom*
22 May 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Jacintha,
Thanks so much for your letter, I’d have written before, but I’ve been most horribly ill & am not very grand now. I can’t write much of a letter because it tires me to sit up. Thanks awfully for the offer, but I am generally pretty well supplied with books & things. It looks as if I am going to be in bed for months yet. I have sent for my little boy to come & stay with friends near by. I think he’ll like it, & as he is now 5 he can perhaps start going to day school. I hope to see you when I am in Town if I ever am.
Yours
Eric
[XX, 3631, pp. 119–20; handwritten]
This is the last of Orwell’s letters to Jacintha Buddicom to survive. She replied on 2 June, and he wrote again on the 8th. Both letters have been lost, but she describes Orwell’s letter in Eric & Us: ‘My diary records: “Letter from Eric about Nothing Ever Dies.” As I remember . . . it defined his faith in some sort of after-life. Not necessarily, or even probably, a conventional Heaven-or-Hell, but the firm belief that “nothing ever dies”, and that we must go on somewhere. And it ended with our old ending, Farewell and Hail. He probably wrote it because I had told him that my mother was ill: though I had not stressed this unduly, since he was in such poor health himself’ (p. 157).
To Sonia Brownell*
24 May 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Sonia,
I was so very sorry to put you off, but at the time I was in a ghastly state. Now I seem to be somewhat better. I do hope you’ll come & see me soon. Any day would suit me except the day you think Cyril [Connolly*] might be coming, on the 29th, when I think someone else is coming. But any way when & if you can come let me know in advance because of ordering a car.
I’ve just had what is called a ‘second opinion’, incidentally the doctor who attended D. H. Lawrence in his last illness.1 He says I’m not so bad & have a good chance of surviving, but it means keeping quiet & doing no work for a long time, possibly a year or more. I don’t mind very much if I could then get well enough to do say another 5 years° work. Richard is coming down soon to stay near here. He will start going to kindergarten school in the mornings, & can sometimes come over & see me in the afternoons.
Please give everyone my love. By the way I cut the enclosed out of the N. Y. Times. If you see Stephen [Spender*] tell him to get another photo taken, for the honour of English letters. Looking forward to seeing you.
With love
George
[XX, 3633, p. 120; handwritten]
1.Dr Andrew Morland.
To Sir Richard Rees*
1 June 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Richard,
Thanks so much for your letter. Avril & R[ichard] arrived on Saturday & I think he’s settling in all right. I hope to see him once or twice this week. He seemed to me to have grown (his weight is now 3st 5lb.) & to be extremely fit.1 I think Avril returns to Jura on today’s boat, but I am not certain.
I have been a good bit better this last week, & after seeing my last plate they decided I am not so bad as they thought. Dr. Morland s
aid the same, but he said I shall have to keep still for a long time, possibly as long as a year (I trust it won’t be so long as that) & not attempt to work till I am definitely better. Another doctor 2 whom David Astor brought along, although a psychologist, said much the same as the others.
I enclose a copy of that article I wanted you to read.3 The magazine itself seemed quite unprocurable, but someone managed to get it typed out. Actually some of what I said in it I also said appropos° of Gandhi. I’ve just read the 4th vol. of Osbert Sitwell’s memoirs—not so good as some of the others, I think. I know nothing about Goethe, nor indeed about any German writer. I’m trying to read Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton, but it bores me unbearably. Also read a short book by Rex Warner Why was I killed?—very silly, I thought.
So looking forward to seeing you.
Yours
G
[XX, 3638, pp. 124–5; handwritten]
1.Richard stayed at Whiteway (see letter to Sir Richard Rees of 17.4.49, n. 2). In Remembering Orwell, Richard Blair recalls: ‘When I saw my father at Cranham I used to say, “Where does it hurt, Daddy?” because I couldn’t understand why he said it didn’t hurt, but he was in bed. I couldn’t relate to that at all’ (p. 203).
2.Unidentified.
3.‘Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool’, Polemic, March 1947 (XIX, 3181, pp. 54–67).
To Anthony Powell*
6 June 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Tony,
Thanks ever so for sending me the ‘Aubrey’ book.1 I’m so glad you did put in my favourite Mrs Overall after all, also the story about Sir W. Raleigh & his son. I was so sorry about Hugh Kingsmill.2 If they are trying to get a pension for his widow, if my signature would be useful in any way, of course include me. I’m a good deal better, & trust this will continue. I had a specialist from London, who said much the same as the people here, ie. that if I get round this corner I could be good for quite a few years, but that I have got to keep quiet & not try to work for a long time, possibly as long as a year or two years—I trust it won’t be as long as that. It’s a great bore, but worth while if it means I can work again later. Richard is staying nearby for the summer, & comes over & sees me once or twice a week. Please remember me to everybody. I hope you & Malcolm [Muggeridge] will come & see me some time—but of course don’t put yourselves out. I know what a tiresome journey it must be.
Yours
George
P.S. I’m reading Dante! (with a crib of course.)
[XX, 3641, p. 126; handwritten]
1.Brief Lives and Other Selected Writings of John Aubrey, edited by Anthony Powell (1949).
2.Hugh Kingsmill (= Hugh Kingsmill Lunn, 1889–1949), critic, editor and anthologist. In his Progress of a Biographer (1949), Kingsmill wrote that Animal Farm ‘revealed the poetry, humour and tenderness’ of Orwell.
To William Phillips
8 June 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Mr Phillips,1
I received your letter of the 2nd today. I need hardly tell you that I am delighted as well as very much astonished at your picking me out for the Partisan Review Award. It is the kind of honour I am quite unused to. Perhaps you will convey my thanks to the rest of the Advisory Board. I will not tell anyone about it until you make the announcement.
I will send you something when I can, but I have done no work since December & may not be able to work for a long time to come. The doctors tell me the best chance of recovery is to lie in bed & do nothing, possibly for as long as another year—I hope it won’t be as long as that, of course.
With very many thanks again, & best wishes to everybody.
Yours sincerely
Geo. Orwell
[XX, 3644, p. 130; handwritten]
1.Co-editor with Philip Rahv* of Partisan Review.
To Julian Symons*
16 June 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Julian,
I think it was you who reviewed 1984 in the T.L.S.1 I must thank you for such a brilliant as well as generous review. I don’t think you could have brought out the sense of the book better in so short a space. You are of course right about the vulgarity of the ‘Room 101’ business. I was aware of this while writing it, but I didn’t know another way of getting somewhere near the effect I wanted.
I have been horribly ill since last seeing you, but a lot better in the last few weeks, & I hope perhaps now I have turned the corner. The various doctors I have seen are all quite encouraging but say I must remain quiet & not work for a long time, possibly as much as a year—I hope it won’t be so long, of course. It’s a bore, but worth while if it means recovering. Richard is staying nearby for the summer & comes & sees me every week. He has started kindergarten school & this winter is going to the village school in Jura, I don’t know for how long. I have been thinking about Westminster for him when he is older. They have abandoned their top hats, I learn. It is a day school, which I prefer, & I think has other good points. Any way I’m going to make enquiries & put his name down if it seems suitable. Of course god° knows what will have happened by then, say 1956, but one has to plan as though nothing would change drastically.
Have you any news of the Empsons,2 who were in Pekin°? I don’t know whether you knew them. There have been various rumours, & I am trying to get some news from Empson’s American publishers.
Did you read Ruth Fischer’s book Stalin & German Communism? She’s coming to see me tomorrow, I think.
Hope all is well & baby flourishing. Please remember me to your wife.
Yours
George
[XX, 3647, p. 137; handwritten]
1.The review had appeared in The Times Literary Supplement on 10 June 1949.
2.William Empson (see 11.7.43, n. 7).
To Jordi Arquer*
22 June 1949
Cranham Lodge
Cranham
Dear Comrade,
Please forgive me for writing in English. Very many thanks for sending the press-cuttings.
I am & have been for a long time seriously ill with tuberculosis, & the doctors forbid me to do any work for a time to come, possibly as long as a year. In connection with the Federacion Española de Internados y Deportados, therefore, I cannot give more than my nominal support. If you wish merely to use my name, you are at liberty to do so, & I could manage a small subscription, say £10,1 if you can indicate someone in England where I can pay it to. But I cannot do any work such as writing letters, organising, speaking, etc. I am sorry, but I must try to recover from this disease, & the only way of doing so is to rest. I imagine that I shall not even be allowed to leave my bed for some months to come.
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.£10 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 £5 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 deutsch° marks, which represents about £155. 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