London Letters

Time line

On 3 January 1941 Orwell sent the first of his fifteen "London Letters" which were to appear in PR over the next five and a half years. It was included in the March–April 1941 issue.

A controversy

The September–October 1942 issue of PR carried Orwell's reply to letters sent in by D. S. Savage, George Woodcock and Alex Comfort in response to his "London Letter" of the March–April issue, in which he had criticised "left-wing defeatism" and "turn-the-other-cheek" pacifists, stating that they were "objectively pro-Fascist". In his article he had mentioned several people by name, including Comfort, and referred to the review Now, of which Woodcock was editor, as an example of "the overlap between Fascism and pacifism" for publishing contributions by authors who defended these tendencies. In his reply, Orwell reiterated that "Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist"; defended his work for the BBC's Indian broadcasts and refuted Comfort's accusation that he was "intellectual-hunting again".

References

References

1. [[Orwell, Sonia]] and [[Ian Angus (librarian). Angus, Ian]] (eds.)''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 2: My Country Right or Left'', 16 (London, Penguin)
2. Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian (eds.) ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 2: My Country Right or Left'', pp. 211–212 (London, Penguin)