George Orwell’s seminal work, Animal Farm, which has become a cornerstone of political literature, faced significant challenges before its publication. It was turned down by five of the big publishing houses. They considered it an unpatriotic attack against a key allied partner in the war, Soviet Russia. Through all this hardship, Orwell’s goal of criticizing totalitarianism finally triumphed with the publication of that masterpiece on August 17th, 1945.
As Orwell once explained, this was because he believed that only a truly democratic socialism could long survive in the West. He believed it was important to break the “myth” of Russia as a socialist state. His experiences through the rise of Stalin’s regime had left him profoundly disenchanted. In light of the famines, gulags, and purges in Soviet Russia, these terrors convinced him that to the contrary, Soviet Russia really was the opposite of socialism. Orwell’s parents had firsthand knowledge of these horrors. They lived through the oppressive atmosphere characterized by Stalin’s dictatorship, which greatly influenced Orwell’s perspective.
In the winter of 1943-44, one of the coldest winters of the century, Orwell’s parents were living in the countryside. She and Quine had lived in a badly heated basement flat in Kilburn, north-west London. It was in this period that Orwell’s mother made a significant difference to his writing endeavour. She had been typing and copy-editing her husband’s works for several years, returning them with extensive and persnickety corrections and revisions. Orwell’s collaborative spirit came through in his writing. He kept his scientific peers, including fellow modernist Lettice Cooper, informed with letters detailing the animals’ adventures.
The unwillingness to publish Animal Farm came out of a deep institutional fear of offending Soviet Russia. This reluctance increased all the more as Russia was, at the time, an ally in the struggle against Nazi Germany. Faber’s then director, TS Eliot, advised against publication, claiming that this work would never “see the light of day.” He stated that Orwell must possess “the right point of view from which to critique the political situation at the present time.”
Peter Smollett, the chief of Soviet relations at the Ministry of Information, emphasized the government’s desire to tread carefully. He highlighted their unwillingness to speak negatively about our allies. This political atmosphere shut down opinions that even attempted to criticize the larger narratives being pushed about communism and socialism.
Fredric Warburg of Secker & Warburg had quite a few challenges. Warburg himself was on shaky ground, but he took the gamble on Orwell’s manuscript in July 1944. Warburg understood how urgently relevant Orwell’s message was and was most impressed by his ability to convey such an urgent message so creatively through allegory. The eventual publication of Animal Farm represented an important victory for Orwell personally, but for political literature and discourse.
Once published, Animal Farm found a soaring audience almost immediately. It has sold more than 11 million copies and has been in continuous print now for 80 years. His novel has been an important and enduring reminder against the dangers of totalitarianism that are starkly relevant in today’s political discourse.
Like many of his contemporaries, Orwell was deeply disturbed by the political situation in which he found himself. He proclaimed bravely, “I’m sick and tired of all [this] Russian crap.” His emotions expressed a deepening exasperation with Western authorities. They were doing so to ally with totalitarian regimes, even as they postured against fascism.
Orwell’s son would later describe Animal Farm as a “beast fable.” This characterization plays up the book’s allegorical quality and its knack for weaving intricate political concepts into a simple narrative. Through this method, audiences were able to experience heavy topics in a still fun and compelling narrative.