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A Remembrance of George Orwell (1974), P Notes Introduction 1. Jacintha Buddicom, Eric and Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell (1974), p. 11. Hereafter as Eric and Us. 2. See Tables 2.1 and 5.1, pp. 32 and 92-3, and, for full details, my 'Orwell: Balancing the Books', The Library, VI, 16 (1994), 77-100. 1 Getting Started 1. Sir Richard Rees, George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory (1961), pp. 144-5. Hereafter as 'Rees'. Mabel Fierz's report is quoted by Shelden, p. 127. 2. Eric and Us, pp. 13-14. 3. CEJL, iv.412. 4. Rees, p. 145. 5. See Bernard Crick, George Orwell: A Life, (third, Penguin, edition, 1992), p. 107; Michael Shelden, Orwell: The Authorised Biography (1991), p. 73; US pagination differs. Hereafter as 'Crick' and 'Shelden' respectively. 6. Stephen Wadhams, Remembering Orwell (1984), p. 44. As 'Wadhams' hereafter. Wadhams's interviews, conducted in 1983, are a particu­ larly valuable source of information. 7. Rees, p. 145. Mabel Fierz gave Wadhams a similar account, pp. 44-5. 8. Crick, pp. 48-9; Shelden, pp. 22-3. 9. VII.37. See also Crick, pp. 54-5; he identifies Kate of the novel with Elsie of the Anglican Convent Orwell attended from 1908 to 1911, with whom Orwell says in 'Such, Such Were the Joys' he 'fell deeply in love' - when aged about 6. 10. Eric and Us, p. 19. A footnote on that page reproduces part of a letter from Avril to Jacintha, 14 March 1973, in which Avril, having read a draft of Jacintha's book, says that she 'is making a very fair assess­ ment of Eric's boyhood'. Her brother, she wrote, was 'essentially an aloof, undemonstrative person, which doesn't necessarily mean to say that he had a blighted childhood and developed a "death wish" as so many biographers seem to think'. Avril's use of 'necessarily' is intriguing. 11. See the second paragraph of 'Why I Write', CEJL, i.23. 12. 'My Brother, George Orwell', BBC Third Programme broadcast, 1960; printed in Twentieth Century, March 1961; reprinted in Orwell Remem­ bered, ed. Audrey Coppard and Bernard Crick (1984), p. 27. As Orwell Remembered hereafter. 13. Eric and Us, pp. 68-9, 78-80. Jacintha reprints five letters from Mrs Blair. 14. Eric and Us, p. 39. 148 Notes 149 15. Eric and Us, pp. 39-41, 94. The Twilight of the Gods and The Fairchild Family are among books mentioned in Orwell's letter to Brenda Salkeld, September 1932 (CEJL, i.125-6). 16. Wadhams, p. 96. 17. Eric and Us, pp. 143-5. 18. Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise (1938), p. 213; Penguin Books, 1961, p. 179. 19. Laurence Brander, George Orwell (1954), p. 4. As Brander hereafter. 20. 'Some Are More Equal Than Others', Penguin New Writing, 40, Sep­ tember 1950; partially reprinted in Orwell Remembered, as 'That Cu­ riously Crucified Expression', pp. 171-6. Morris failed to realise that Orwell was often 'setting him up'. 21. Private communication from David Astor. 2 Foreign Fields 1. Three of Orwell's colleagues, George Stuart, Roger Beadon, and L. W. Marrison have left useful information about Orwell in Burma, the former in a recording held by the Orwell Archive and the latter two in Orwell Remembered, pp. 62-6. See also Peter Stansky and William Abrahams, The Unknown Orwell (1974), Part Three: Burma; Crick, 139-75; Christopher Hollis (who was two years behind Orwell at Eton), A Study of George Orwell: The Man and his Works (1956), Ch. 3: Burma; Shelden, 101-23 and 506 n. 2. Shelden doubts Stuart's testi­ mony but this has been shown by Crick to be genuine, pp. 586--9. For a fuller account than that given here, see Complete Works, 63. 2. Maung Htin Aung, 'George Orwell in Burma', Asian Affairs, 57 (ns 1), Pt I, February 1970 (the passages referred to are from pp. 23, 24 and 25); 'Orwell and the Burma Police', Asian Affairs, 60 (ns 4), Pt II, June 1973 (the passages referred to are from pp. 182 and 183). The first article is reprinted in The World of George Orwell, ed. Miriam Gross (1971), pp. 20-30; this also includes John Gross, 'Imperial Attitudes', pp.32-8. 3. Enemies of Promise, 1938, p. 213; 1961, p. 179. 4. Enemies of Promise, 1938, pp. 207-8; 1961, p. 175, R. D. Pearce's 'The Prep School and Imperialism: The Example of George Orwell's St Cyprian's', Journal of Educational Administration and History (Jan. 1991), pp. 42-53; and his 'Orwell and the Harrow History Prize' (with sam­ ple questions), N&Q, 235 (ns 37), (Dec. 1990), 442-3, are both very illuminating on this topic. 5. Although Newbolt, and this line in particular, might now be re­ garded with suspicion, even contempt, it echoes a passage in Wordsworth's 'Character of the Happy Warrior': ' ... the Man, who, lifted high ... Or left unthought-of in obscurity, ... Plays, in the many games of life, that one / Where what he most doth value must be won' (lines 65,67,70-1), another poem regularly learned in the hey­ day of imperialism. To Orwell, Wordsworth was an 'English institu­ tion', like tea, cricket, kindness to animals, Nelson, etc., at which 'professional' Roman Catholic columnists such as 'Beachcomber' 150 Notes 0. B. Morton) and 'Timothy Shy' (D. B. Wyndham Lewis) endlessly gibed; see'As I Please', 30, 23 June 1944, CEJL. iii.205-6. 6. Brander refers to Orwell as a preacher on, for example, pp. 4, 14-15, 17, 51, and 151; the passage quoted is from p. 127 of his George Orwell. See also above, p. 72, where the last lines of Brander's ac­ count are quoted. 7. See Crick, pp. 160-2 (which prints 'The Lesser Evil', 69, and 'Ro­ mance', 65) and pp. 170-1 (where 'When the Franks have lost their sway', 66) is reproduced. 'Romance' is also reproduced by Shelden, p.108. 8. Crick, p. 195. 9. Shelden, p. 127. 10. For Orwell's time in Paris, see Crick, pp. 188-210; Shelden, pp. 135- 47. Peter Lewis, George Orwell: The Road to 1984 (1981), has illustra­ tions of the Rue du Pot de Fer (p. 20), the Hopital Cochin (p. 19), and a typical small bistro of the period (pp. 24-5), as well a number of other evocative pictures illustrating Orwell's life. 11. Wadhams, pp. 41, 81 and 84. Milton was the unnamed American sentry who was standing by Orwell when he was shot through the throat (VI.138). Adam gave up the Esperantist movement when he separated from his wife and left Paris in 1936. According to Bannier, their marriage was not happy: 'She had no character. She was soft, without backbone, without willpower' (Wadhams, p. 42). In 1945, towards the end of the war, when Orwell was working as a war correspondent in Paris, he took tins of canned meat to Bannier on behalf of his Aunt Nellie Limouzin (Wadhams, 42). 12. Alok Rai, Orwell and the Politics of Despair: A Critical Study of the Writings of George Orwell (1988), p. 53. 13. For a full discussion of this problem, see my 'George Orwell: Dates and Origins', The Library, VI, 13 (1991), 137-9. 14. From Orwell's later correspondence with Plowman, 22 September 1929 (CEJL, i.37), and 1 November 1930 (CEJL, i.50-1), it looks as if the article sent from Paris was a longer version of 'The Spike', which Plowman asked Orwell to shorten. 15. Rees records that after being picked up, he reappeared the next day, 'very crestfallen. He had duly got drunk and been taken to a police station. But once there he had received a fatherly talk, spent the night in a cell and been let out the next morning with a cup of tea and some good advice', p. 144. Compare Ch. IX of Keep the Aspidistra Flying. 16. For a detailed analysis of how these and later figures for earnings are calculated, and also the possibility that Orwell was paid 200 francs for another article just before starting as a dishwasher (1.19-20), see my 'George Orwell: Balancing the Books', The Library, VI, 16 (1994), 77-100. In a BBC Third Programme broadcast in 1960, Brenda Salkeld recorded that Orwell, 'summing up his life at twenty-eight - finan­ cially' (i.e. in 1931), said he had earned £100 from writing; £200 from teaching and tutoring; £20 from dishwashing; £20 from other jobs; and £2000 in the Indian Police (printed in Orwell Remembered, p. 68). Notes 151 These figures depend on two peoples' memories and cannot be re­ lied upon, despite their sources. Orwell certainly earned more than £2000 in the Police and it is difficult to see where he earned £200 from teaching and tutoring before he had even started at The Hawthorns. In 1937-38, piano lessons in the provinces from a quali­ fied teacher might be had at Is. 6d. per half-hour lesson, or, for even less, at lOs. 6d. a term. (At 1994 prices £200 was roughly equivalent to something like £8000; Is. 6d. to £3.00.) 17. See letter to Leonard Moore, 26 April 1932, CEJL, i.101-2, and Crick, p. 621 n. 44. The usual commission taken by a literary agent from an author is 10 per cent; Moore seems to have taken 12i per cent, except for the first advance for Animal Farm from which 10 per cent was deducted. 18. In 1929, Sleeveless Errand by Norah C. James was seized at the insti­ gation of Sir William Joynson-Hicks of the Home Office.
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