George Orwell Timeline

On the 21st of January, 1950, English author George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair) passed away. Best known among modern readers as the novelist who enriched the dystopian fiction genre through works such as Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), Mr. Orwell distinguished himself as an active essayist, journalist and literary critic in his times. Marked by a strong awareness of social injustice, his lucid prose continues to influence today’s political and popular culture, having introduced reference neologisms such as “Big Brother”, “Thought Police” and “unperson” into the English language.

To pay tribute to one of the 50 greatest British writers of the last century, we have created the George Orwell Timeline, which pinpoints some of his most significant life events and published works.

Long before the allegorical novella Animal Farm and dystopian novel 1984 saw the light of day, Mr. Orwell had steadily built his writing career through non-fiction pieces documenting aspects such as the Spanish Civil War, class division and the living conditions of the poor. To record his experiences of the low life described in Down and Out in Paris and London (1936), he dressed like a tramp and went on expeditions, tours and immersions in the poorer parts of these two cities. It was with the publication of this memoir that he adopted his now famous pseudonym, all his previous articles and short essays being signed with his real name.

The George Orwell chronology was built with the lightweight PowerPoint extension called Office Timeline, which enables the fast creation of stylish timelines and other similar visuals. You can copy the image for free, and can further edit and update it using the Plus Version of the tool.

Download the George Orwell Timeline for PowerPoint here.