Shooting an Elephant

Born Eric Blair, George Orwell is most well known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel 1984 (1949). Both critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Orwell made a career being vocal about sociopolitical issues at home in England and abroad. Highly educated and well traveled, as his father was in the British civil service in India, where he was born, Orwell consistently wrote about the abuse of power and his disgust for totalitarianism. He served as an officer in Burma (now Myanmar) between 1922 and 1927, an experience that inspired his first novel, Burmese Days. After years of drafting the novel and being rejected by agents and publishers who feared a case of libel given the controversial subject matter, the novel was published under his pen name in 1934.

After being injured while working as a journalist during World War II, Orwell continued writing, venturing into essays and, of course, publishing the novels that cemented his literary legacy. A 2008 poll ranked Orwell second on a list of the top 50 British authors since 1945, behind only Philip Larkin.