On this day in 1945, George Orwell's (Eric Blair's) Animal Farm was published. The book was delayed by the WWII paper shortage and very nearly a casualty of the war itself, either at the hands of German bombs or British politics. Near the end of June, one of the 100 daily flying or "doodle bug" bombs directed at London destroyed Orwell's flat; he dug his battered manuscript out of the rubble and, apologizing for its "blitzed" condition, sent it to T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber for consideration. Eliot's rejection letter was similar to those received earlier: though the satire reached Swiftian proportions, the anti-Russian theme was not "the right point of view from which to criticise the political situation at the present time ... FULL STORY »
