Eric Arthur Blair

George Orwell
Orwell's press card portrait, 1943
Born	Eric Arthur Blair (1903-06-25)25 June 1903 Motihari, Bengal Presidency, British India (now East Champaran, Bihar, India)
Died	21 January 1950(1950-01-21) (aged 46) University College Hospital, London, England, United Kingdom
Resting place	Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Pen name	George Orwell
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, journalist, critic
Alma mater	Eton College
Genre	Dystopia, roman à clef, satire
Subject	Anti-fascism, anti-Stalinism, democratic socialism, literary criticism, news, polemic
Notable works	Animal Farm Nineteen Eighty-Four
Years active	1928–1950
Spouse	Eileen O'Shaughnessy (m. 1935; her death 1945) Sonia Brownell (m. 1949; his death 1950)
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Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.

Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction, and polemical journalism. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working class life in the north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, are widely acclaimed, as are his essays on politics, literature, language, and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian – descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices – has entered the language together with many of his neologisms, including Big Brother, Thought Police, Room 101, memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, proles, and thoughtcrime.