Beschreibung:

Typed letter signed ("Geo. Orwell"), to Richard Usborne of The Strand Magazine, furnishing him with a three-page autobiography in response to his enquiry ("...I am a widower with a son aged a little over 3..."), covering: his birth (1903), scholarship to Eton, his parents' background, his five years in the Burma Imperial Police ("...the job was totally unsuited to me and I resigned when I came home on leave in 1927..."), his time in Paris ("...I wanted to be a writer, and I lived most of the next two years in Paris, on my savings, writing novels which no one would publish and which I subsequently destroyed. When I had no more money I worked for a while as a dishwasher..."), his writing Down and Out in Paris and London ("...Nearly all the incidents described in 'Down and Out' actually happened, but at different times, and I wove them together so as to make a continuous story..."), his writing Keep the Aspidistra Flying ("...I did work in a bookshop for about a year in 1934-5, but I only put that into 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' to make a background. The book is not, I think, autobiographical, and I have never worked in an advertising office... Incidentally 'Keep the A.F.' is one of several books which I don't care about and have suppressed..."), and of The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia ("...In general my books have been less autobiographical than people have assumed. There are bits of truthful autobiography in 'Wigan Pier,' and, of course, 'Homage to Catalonia,' which is straightforward reporting..."); and, after providing an apologia for his political beliefs (see below), regretting that he cannot write anything for The Strand ("...as I have said, I am trying not to get involved in outside work..."), 3 pages, minor pin-stains, small 4to, Barnhill, Isle of Jura, 26 August 1947