George Orwell is a person.
Eric Arthur Blair ( 25 June 1903 -- 21 January 1950 ) , better known by his pen name George Orwell , was an English novelist , essayist , journalist , and critic . Orwell wrote literary criticism , poetry , fiction , and polemical journalism . He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm ( 1945 ) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four ( 1949 ) .