George Orwell Autograph Letter Signed.

ORWELL, George.

Item Number: 104068

Rare autograph letter signed and entirely in the hand of great English author George Orwell. One page, the letter reads, “Barnhill Isle of Jura Argyllshire Scotland 31.5.46 Dear Sir, I of recently received your letter dated the 22nd, as I was travelling for some days before coming here. I am afraid I cannot make any engagement to speak for you, as I intend to be at the above address until October and am not certain of my movements after that. Please forgive me. Yours truly, Geo. Orwell.” In fine condition. Double matted and framed with a portrait of Orwell. The entire piece measures 23 inches by 13.5 inches. Scarce and desirable, written only days after Orwell took up residence at Barnstable where he would compose his masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell first visited the Isle of Jura in September of 1945 following the death of his first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy, which he soon came to enjoy as a place to escape from the hassle of London literary life. His sister Marjorie died of kidney disease in May and shortly after, on May 22, 1946, Orwell set off to live on the Isle of Jura. He took up residence at Barnhill, an abandoned farmhouse with outbuildings near the northern end of the island. Conditions at the farmhouse were primitive but the natural history and the challenge of improving the place appealed to Orwell. He soon set to work on Nineteen Eighty-Four and would return to Jura several times to continue work on it, finally completing the manuscript in December of 1948, only days before setting of for the sanatorium in Craham, Gloucestershire where he sought treatment for a recent diagnosis of tuberculosis. In June of 1949, Nineteen Eighty-Four was published to immediate critical and popular acclaim. Orwell health continued to decline and early in the morning of January 21, 1949 he died at the age of 46.