Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist essayist journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose social criticism opposition to totalitarianism and support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary criticism poetry fiction and polemical journalism. He is known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-fiction works including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England and Homage to Catalonia (1938) an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) are as critically respected as his essays on politics literature language and culture.