On this day: Animal Farm is published
On this day, 17 August, in 1945, with pro-Soviet sentiment rapidly fading in the UK, George Orwell's Animal Farm is finally published.
On August 17, 1945, George Orwell's dystopian novel, Animal Farm, made its debut. The book emerged during a time of rapidly diminishing pro-Soviet sentiment in the UK. The Second World War had just concluded; the Emperor of Japan acknowledged the war was not beneficial for Japan, two days prior to the signing of the elaborate Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.
Orwell, being 42 years old, had spent his life as a writer, having served in the Indian Imperial Police during the 1920s. He began writing Animal Farm in November 1943 and completed it by February 1944. The novel, a simple tale of rebellion and a quest for utopia, was initially turned down by several publishers due to wartime paper shortages and fear of Soviet backlash.
Eventually, Secker & Warburg accepted it, and it was published on this day, 17 August 1945. The book was received well, with The Guardian calling it a "delightfully humorous and caustic satire."
Written by urgent.news from City AM's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
