Writer George Orwell (1903–1950) was born Eric Arthur Blair on this day in Motihari, India, and educated at England's Eton College.

“The quickest way to end a war,” he once said, “is to lose it.”

His most famous novel, 1984, was published in 1949. The unforgettable satire of a world ruled by Big Brother—all-powerful and forever watching. Protagonist Winston Smith, named after Orwell's hero Winston Churchill, tries to escape by falling in love with Julia... But, of course, nobody can really escape.

Orwell wrote 1984 on the island of Jura off the Scottish coast while suffering from tuberculosis. He admitted the book would not have been so gloomy had he not been so ill. Still, his focus on totalitarianism, love, and cruelty was a windowpane to his view of the world.

Decades ahead of its time, Orwell's writing gave birth to cultural concepts like Newspeak and Doublethink—warnings for generations about the dangers of unchecked power.

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle,” he warned, “like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

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