These essays were not escapist for Orwell; rather, they deepened his political commitments. Attending to the world through the senses, trusting your own judgement and valuing ordinary joys are ways of preserving individuality and humanity in the face of propaganda, totalitarianism and despair. These small pleasures, far from trivial, became for Orwell fortifications of the self.
George Orwell (Author)
Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name, George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.
Rebecca Solnit (External Editor)
Writer, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster. Her recent works include Men Explain Things to Me, No Straight Road Takes You There and Orwell's Roses.