IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0103 ORWELL (L)
Held at: University College London
Title: Orwell Papers: family papers
Date(s): 1875-1968
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 1 box
Name of creator(s): Blair | family
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The novelist and journalist George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India, 25 June 1903; educated at Eton, 1917-1921; served in Burma in the Indian Imperial Police, 1922-1928; lived for several years in poverty, as a dish-washer in Paris, France, and as a tramp in England, 1928-1931; school teacher at the Hawthorns, Middlesex, 1932-1933; part-time assistant in a Hampstead bookshop, London, 1934-1935; wrote books and novels, 1933-1949; married Eileen Maud O'Shaughnessy (died 1945), 1936; reviewer of novels for the New English Weekly, until 1940; visited areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire, 1936; wounded in Spain fighting for the Republicans, 1937; member of the Home Guard during World War Two; worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation Eastern Service, 1940-1943; Literary Editor of Tribune, 1943-1945; war correspondent for the Observer, 1945; regular contributor to the Manchester Evening News, 1943-1946; suffered from tuberculosis, often in hospital, 1947-1950; married Sonia Mary Brownell, 1949; died, 21 January 1950. Publications: various novels, essays, and journalism.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Family papers of George Orwell, 1875-1968, comprising a certified copy of his parents' marriage certificate (1897), 1918; certified copies of certificates, 1965-1968, of the birth of Orwell's father Richard Walmesley Blair (1857) and his death (1939), and the birth of his mother Ida Mabel Blair (1875) and her death (1943); copies of the wills Orwell's father made in 1930 and his mother made in 1939; certified copy of certificate, 1967, of the birth of Orwell's sister Avril (1908); certified copy of marriage certificate, 1967, of Orwell's sister Marjorie to Humphrey Dakin (1920); certified copy of death certificate, 1965, of Orwell's sister Marjorie (1946); manuscript diary of Ida Blair, 1905; manuscript poem by Avril, undated; notes and news cutting for the obituary of Captain Horatio Blair, 1875; news cutting and letter for the obituary of Captain Robert C Blair [1911]; news cutting for the obituary of Frank Limouzin, 1915; copies of correspondence between the Blair and Buddicom families, 1918-1920; copy of Prosper Buddicom's schoolboy diary for 1920; letters from Orwell to his mother Ida [1911]-1938; letter from Orwell to his father Richard, 1938; letters from Orwell to Marjorie and Humphrey Dakin, 1946-1948; letters to Orwell from Nellie Adams (née Limouzin), 1933, and Avril Dunn, 1933; copy correspondence of the Dakin family, 1938-1948 and undated.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged in sections as indicated in Scope and content, but letters from Orwell are stored with Orwell Papers: letters from Orwell (Ref: G), and letters to Orwell are stored with Orwell Papers: letters to Orwell (Ref: H).
Conditions governing access:
Open.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Normal copyright restrictions apply.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Draft handlist.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Many of the family papers of George Orwell were presented in 1960 on permanent loan by his widow on behalf of the George Orwell Archive Trust. Some of the correspondence and papers were presented or purchased at a later date.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Copies of letters to and from Orwell are kept in separate binders.
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: British Library on-line public access catalogue 1997; Who's Who 1897-1996 (A & C Black, 1996); Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1996); George Orwell, a life by Bernard Crick (Secker & Warburg, London, 1980). Compiled by Annabel Dodds as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Date(s) of descriptions: Aug 2000