George Orwell: A Life in Letters (27 page)

Let me have a line some time to hear how things are going.

Yours

Eric Blair

[XI, 504, pp. 237–8; typewritten]

1
.
Despite a thorough search, these have not been traced.

2
.
It did survive, but became
Left Forum
in June 19
39.

3
.
The New Leader.
It depended on voluntary contributions in order to survive. It recorded in November 1938 the results of two appeals in which £63 and £51 6s 7d were raised, averaging 6s 11d for each contribution. Orwell’s was 5s 7d.

4
.
In its issue for 9 December
1938,
The New Leader
reported what it described as ‘Amazing Stories’ of how Labour candidates had been ‘ousted’ at selection meetings for the constituencies of Bridgwater and Oxford by ‘Independent Progressives’. At Bridgwater, the ‘alleged Independent candidate’ was introduced to the constituency by Sir Richard Acland (1906–1990; Bt.), a Liberal MP from 1935 and very active in the popular front campaign from 1936. Orwell wrote a Profile of him for the
Observer
,
23 May 1943 (XV, 2095, pp. 103–6).
There was also intervention by ‘the new political party, the Left Book Club’. At Oxford, academics were blamed for manipulating the selection of an Independent Progressive. The report concluded: ‘These “intelligentsia” and their Left Book Clubs are the new instrument of the Communist Party.’ This manoeuvring was to little effect, because the Conservative, Quintin Hogg, took the seat.

To Charles Doran*

26 November 1938

Boîte Postale 48

Marrakech

Dear Charlie,

Thanks so much for your letter with the copy of
Solidarity
and the too kind review of my book. I see from the front page of
Solidarity
that those bloody liars in the
News Chronicle
reported the result of the P.O.U.M. trial under the heading ‘spies sentenced’ thus giving the impression that the P.O.U.M. prisoners were sentenced for espionage.
The Observer
also did something of the kind, though more circumspectly, and the French press of this country, which is in the main pro-Franco, reported the act of accusation against the P.O.U.M., stated that it had been ‘all proved’ and then failed to report the verdict at all! I admit this kind of thing frightens me. It means that the most elementary respect for truthfulness is breaking down, not merely in the Communist and Fascist press, but in the bourgeois liberal press which still pays lip-service to the old traditions of journalism. It gives one the feeling that our civilization is going down into a sort of mist of lies where it will be impossible ever to find out the truth about anything. Meanwhile I’ve written to the I.L.P. asking them to send me a copy of the issue of
Solidaridad Obrera
¹
which reported the case, so that if necessary I can write to the press, that is to say such papers as would print my letter, stating quite clearly what the P.O.U.M. prisoners
were
sentenced for. I trust, however, that someone has already done so. It’s difficult for me to get hold of foreign papers here, especially a paper like
Solidaridad Obrera
, which I couldn’t get nearer than Gibraltar and there only with difficulty.

As perhaps you know I was told to spend the winter here for the sake of my lungs. We’ve been here nearly three months now and I think it has done me a certain amount of good. It is a tiresome country in some ways, but it is interesting to get a glimpse of French colonial methods and compare them with our own. I think as far as I can make out that the French are every bit as bad as ourselves, but some what better on the surface, partly owing to the fact that there is a large indigenous white population here, part of it proletarian or near-proletarian. For that reason it isn’t quite possible to keep up the sort of white man’s burden atmosphere that we do in India, and there is less colour-prejudice. But economically it is just the usual swindle for which empires exist. The poverty of most of the Arab population is frightful. As far as one can work it out, the average family seems to live at the rate of about a shilling a day, and of course most of the people are either peasants or petty craftsmen who have to work extremely hard by antiquated methods. At the same time, so far as one can judge, there is no anti-French movement on any scale. If one appeared it would I think be merely nationalist at the beginning, as the great majority of the people are still at the feudal stage and fairly strict Mahommedans. In some of the big towns such as Casablanca there is a proletariat, both white and coloured, and there the Socialist movement just exists. But as for the Arab Socialist parties, they were all suppressed some time ago. I feel reasonably sure that unless the working class (it really depends on them) in the democracies change their tactics within a year or two, the Arabs will be easy game for the Fascists. French opinion here is predominantly pro-Franco, and I should not be greatly surprised to see Morocco become the jumping-off place for some French version of Franco in the years to come. I don’t altogether know what to think about the crisis, Maxton etc. I think Maxton put his foot in it by being too cordial to Chamberlain, and I also think it would be absurd to regard Chamberlain as really a peace-maker. I also quite agree with what anybody chooses to say about the way in which the Czechs have been let down. But I think we might face one or two facts. One is that almost anything is better than European war, which will lead not only to the slaughter of tens of millions but to an extension of Fascism. Certainly Chamberlain and Co. are preparing for war, and any other government that is likely to get in will also prepare for war; but meanwhile we have got perhaps two years’ breathing space in which it
may
be possible to provoke a real popular anti-war movement in England, in France and above all in the Fascist countries. If we can do that, to the point of making it clear that no government will go to war because its people won’t follow, I think Hitler is done for. The other fact is that the Labour Party are doing themselves frightful harm by getting stamped in the public mind as the war party. In my opinion they can’t now win the general election
²
unless something very unforeseen turns up. They will therefore be in the position of an opposition pushing the government in the direction in which it is already going. As such they might as well cease to exist, and in fact it wouldn’t surprise me in the next year or two to see Attlee and Co. cave in and take office in some new version of a national government.
³
I admit that being anti-war probably plays Chamberlain’s game for the next few months, but the point will soon come when the anti-wars, of all complexions, will have to resist the fascising°
processes which war-preparation entails.

I hope things are prospering with you. After all the frightful waste of time due to being ill I got started on my novel, which I suppose will be ready to come out about April. Eileen sends love.

Yours

Eric Blair

P.S. [
at top of letter
] Thanks so much for your good offices about my Spanish book. That’s what sells a book—getting asked for in libraries.

[XI, 505, pp. 238–40; typewritten]

1
.
A Spanish Anarchist daily newspaper of the time.

2
.
A largely Conservative government—with National Liberal and National Labour adherents—had assembled on 16 November 1935, with a majority of
247, for a maximum five-year term. Orwell is expecting a general election in 1939 or 1940, but because of the outbreak of war none was held until 1945.

3
.
With the fall of Neville Chamberlain and the appointment of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in May 19
40, Labour joined a genuinely national government, Clement Attlee becoming deputy prime minister. The Labour Party would win the 1945 election with a majority of 146.

To Leonard Moore*

28 November 1938

Boîte Postale 48

Marrakech

Dear Mr. Moore,

I have just had a letter from Allen Lane, who apparently runs the Penguin Series.
¹
He says:

‘I am writing to you to know whether it would be possible to include some of your work in my series. As a matter of fact I was very much impressed by one of your stories which I published some time ago in
New Writing
when I was at the Bodley Head.
²
If it is not possible for us to get one of your novels have you a collection of short stories sufficient for one volume?’

I think we ought to cash in on this if possible. Of course I haven’t any short stories for them. I simply can’t write short stories. But I gather from this that they would prefer one of my novels, and I have replied suggesting
Down and Out
,
³
Burmese Days
⁴
and
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
. I don’t know which if any of these they’d be likely to choose. But I have asked Mr Lane to get in touch with you if he is interested, and said you would supply him with copies of any book he wanted. If it is a question of
Down and Out
,
I haven’t a copy and I believe you have not either. The only person I know has one is my mother. If there should be a demand for one, could you write and ask for it from her, which would save time? Her address is Mrs R W Blair, 36 High Street, Southwold, Suffolk. I am writing to her asking her to hand it over if she hears from you. If the Penguin people
do
seem inclined to take one of these books, I don’t in the least know on what terms they deal. But I think it would be well worth letting them have one on not very advantageous terms for us, if necessary, because it is first-rate publicity.

Please don’t give yourself any more trouble with that wretched pamphlet.
⁵
I am sorry you have had so much already. As you say, there is no sale for pamphlets, and in any case the Hogarth Press is in the hands of Communists (at any rate Lehmann is one)
⁶
who won’t publish my work if they can help it.

The weather has got a lot cooler and I think the climate is doing me good. The novel is going pretty well. I think I can promise it for the beginning of April, which perhaps you could tell Gollancz if he makes further enquiries. If he does, tell him I was very sorry to let him down about the time, but I suppose he knows I was actually in the sanatorium till the end of August.

I hope Miss Perriam
⁷
is making some progress. My wife sends all the best.

Yours sincerely

Eric Blair

[XI, 506, pp. 241–2; typewritten]

1
.
Allen Lane (1902–
1970; Kt., 1952), one of the most influential British publishers of the twentieth century, was apprenticed to his uncle, John Lane, at the Bodley Head Press in 1919. He resigned in 1936 and founded Penguin Books, which revolutionised paperback publication in Britain – and, indeed, more widely.

2
.
New Writing
had published ‘Shooting an Elephant’ in its second number, Autumn
1936. Orwell’s ‘Marrakech’ appeared in the Christmas 1939 issue, and ‘Shooting an Elephant’ was reprinted in the first number of
Penguin New Writing
, November 1940.

3
.
Published by Penguin Books in December 1940.

4
.
Published by Penguin Books in May 1944.

5
.
‘Socialism and War’.
The pamphlet was never published.

6
.
John Lehmann was probably not, at least formally, a Communist, but he had been associated with Lawrence & Wishart briefly and he reviewed for the
Daily Worker.

7
.
Miss Periam was Moore’s secretary and had been seriously ill.

To Richard Walmsley Blair*

2 December 1938

Boîte Postale 48

Marrakech

Dear Father,

I am glad to hear from Mother that you have been a little better and getting up occasionally. If your appetite is very bad, did you ever think of trying Haliborange? I have taken it occasionally, and it is not at all unpleasant to take, nourishing in itself and seems to improve one’s appetite after a while. I should think Doctor Collings would approve of it. It’s only halibut’s liver oil flavoured with orange and a few other things.

The weather here has got a lot cooler and is rather like the cold weather in Upper Burma, generally fine and sunny but not hot. We have a fire most days, which one doesn’t actually need till the evening, but it is nice to have it. There is no coal in this country, all the fires are wood and they use charcoal to cook on. We have tried to do a bit of gardening but not been very successful because it’s hard to get seed to germinate, I suppose because it is generally so dry. Most English flowers do pretty well here once they are established, and at the same time there are tropical plants like Bougainvillea. The peasants are just getting in their crops of chilis,° like the ones they used to grow in Burma. The people here live in villages which are surrounded by mud walls about ten feet high, I suppose as a protection against robbers, and inside they have miserable little straw huts about ten feet wide which they live in. It is a very bare country, parts of it almost desert, though it’s not what is considered true desert. The people take their flocks of sheep, goats, camels and so forth out to graze on places where there seems nothing to eat at all, and the wretched brutes nose about and find little dried up weeds under the stones. The children seem to start work when they are five or six. They are extraordinarily obedient, and stay out all day herding the goats and keeping the birds off the olive trees.