Friday 20 May 2011

Orwell's long shadow

A neighbour of mine was helping out at The Orwell Prize awards evening in London on Tuesday this week (17 May 2011). Here's an author who was not featured in the LIFE gallery a month or so ago: George Orwell (Eric Blair) at work on an unspecified typewriter. He's reported to have owned a Remington Portable...any ideas?

His work lives on through The Prize, and in his still-popular political novels, for example The Road to Wigan Pier. His books were certainly part of my political education. Although he died in 1950, you can subscribe to his 70 year-old blog (which he wrote longhand) of world events during WW2. And as you do, take note of how his reporting resonates to this day.

He's buried just upstream in All Saint's churchyard in the village of Sutton Courtenay.

© Unknown. Possibly The Manchester Guardian

4 comments:

  1. Sure looks like a Rem to me. In fact it looks just like the early '30s Portable I have on my shelf.

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  2. Cheers, I think you are right. I was too lazy to get mine out of the loft to see what it looks like from the back. Sort of imagined the type basket would look more concave when raised - but the baseboard and lack of sticky-uppy return lever ruled out the nearest popular contemporary (in the UK, at least) which was the Imperial Good Companion.

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  3. Just stumbled upon your blog through "Writing Ball." You have an awesome collection and your posts are interesting. I like. Will follow.

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