George Orwell

George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, who was born this day, June 25^th, in 1903.  Many of his “1984” futurisms came late, but appear to have arrived in today’s society, with electronic tracking of individuals so readily available.  Orwell read Walter Scott, as this passage from Jeffrey Meyers review of Gordon Bowker’s “George Orwell” in Times Higher Education highlights:

‘Bowker could also have extracted more meaning from several passages. He misses Orwell's quotation of Sir Walter Scott's Marmion in "what tangled webs we weave" and an allusion to Maugham's story "The Hairless Mexican" in his unpublished story "The Hairless Ape". It is not "astonishing" that during his wife's mourning for her dead brother, Orwell lusted after Brenda Salkeld: when Eileen rejected him and withdrew into prolonged depression, he naturally sought the consolation of other women…’