[Picture: George Orwell] George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) who was an English writer and journalist well-noted as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture. George Orwell is one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century, and most famous for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general (Nineteen Eighty-Four), and Stalinism in particular (Animal Farm), which he wrote and published towards the end of his life.