Emails from Orwell
"Orwell Daily is a lovely use of Substack, finding the best pieces from his archive and making them available online” - Helen Lewis
Orwell Daily is the new way to read one of the world’s greatest writers. We dig out highlights and hidden gems from George Orwell's journalism, letters and diaries and deliver them to your inbox ‘on the day’ they were published.
Orwell Daily is a project from The Orwell Foundation, a registered charity, and comes with an official stamp of approval from the Orwell Estate. It’s free for all, but you can support our work by taking out a paid subscription on Substack, becoming a Friend of the Foundation or making a one-off donation.
i) Why Orwell’s journalism?
As well as being the author of two of the modern world’s most influential novels, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), George Orwell (1903-1950) was a prolific, entertaining and provocative journalist, essayist and critic.
As a working writer scrabbling to make a living from his typewriter, Orwell wrote about everything from saucy seaside postcards to the psychology of nationalism. These articles are also where you will find the origins of some of his most striking ideas, including the principles which would become ‘doublethink’.
Orwell’s journalism offers a remarkable insight into a writer’s mind at work and a fascinating snapshot of life, politics and literary culture in Britain in the 1940s.
ii) How does it work?
We send out one or two extracts a week and we will always make it clear where you can find the original if you want to read further. Many of our pieces are taken from Orwell’s celebrated and notoriously wide-ranging ‘As I Please’ column, which he wrote for the left-wing magazine Tribune between 1943 and 1947.
Orwell wrote for a variety of magazines, not all of which were published daily. Sometimes, we might share pieces in the month or season in which they were published (e.g. ‘Autumn’ or ‘September’).
iii) It’s free?
Yes! However, if you are enjoying the emails, please consider taking out a paid subscription: your support makes projects like this possible.
Orwell Daily is just one of the ways in which The Orwell Foundation keeps Orwell’s legacy alive: we also award the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting, run an innovative school outreach programme and maintain a wide range of online resources - as well as hosting a busy public events programme.
To find out more about supporting our work as a Friend or Patron - or make an individual one-off donation - visit our website, where you can also find out about other ways to get involved, from attending our events to volunteering.
iv) Finally, a word about the text
We hope Orwell Daily will inspire you to find out more about Orwell’s journalism and essays and even get your hands on your own copies of the texts we’re serialising.
In all our serials, the text is taken from The Complete Works of George Orwell, edited by the late Peter Davison. Orwell Daily is a homage to Peter’s authoritative edition.
Orwell’s diaries can also be found in George Orwell: Diaries, also edited by Davison.
Illustration courtesy of André Carrilho
