Well, as you see, my avatar is Eric Blair. I’ve felt very close to him all my life. I keep returning to his writings, the essays and journalism mostly, some of the novels.

Here’s a review of a very interesting & unusual book about George Orwell, Eric & Us by Jacintha Buddicom, the new edition published in 2006.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...well.biography

Buddicom was a childhood friend of Eric Blair’s, so this is an unusual perspective. (That Guardian review looks interesting, I didn’t read it yet but I will.)

One of the interesting things about Orwell bibliography is that he adamantly did NOT want any biographies written about him. This desire was honoured for many years, I believe. It had a great influence on folks reading about Orwell and studying him in the 1950s and 60s. It meant you read the voluminous books, novels, journalism that he left behind, and perhaps scholarly books that studied his influence on our world, but there wasn’t much in the way of straight biography.

Of course, when the dam broke, it broke with a vengeance - there are so many biographies of Orwell available now it’s ridiculous. The Buddicom one is interesting and worth a read, though. You meet a very different person than the one Eric Blair painstakingly invented.

Yes, and yes!

OK I just read that review article in the Guardian (my post two above this.) OMG. I realize now, I read the original edition of Buddicom’s book, 1973, but not the 2006 edition. Now I’ll have to find the 2006 ed.

One thing about Orwell’s legacy in the United States, in my experience - Americans are fixated on Animal Farm and 1984. He may as well have published nothing else. Further, his legacy seems firmly cooped by the conservatives and libertarians - little recognition that he was a socialist.