A rare three-page handwritten letter by George Orwell is being offered for sale in Stonehouse, giving a detailed insight into the writer’s thoughts about politics, children’s literature and the influence of popular reading on young people.
The letter was written in May 1940 to fellow author Geoffrey Trease, who was one of Britain’s best-known writers of historical fiction for children. It is being offered by Quire Auctions as part of a sale scheduled to finish on 16 September.
In the correspondence, Orwell discusses the importance of producing “intelligent fiction for kids” and considers the possibility of creating a politically left-leaning weekly publication for young readers. He also refers to the published response by writer Frank Richards to Orwell’s essay Boys’ Weeklies.
Orwell’s plans for children’s reading
The letter is significant because it shows Orwell considering a literary project aimed specifically at children, rather than focusing only on the adult political writing for which he later became famous. The correspondence suggests he was exploring whether young readers could be offered stories that were entertaining while also presenting a more socially and politically conscious view of the world.
Orwell’s interest in children’s reading had developed alongside his examination of the popular boys’ adventure papers of the period. His essay Boys’ Weeklies appeared in Horizon in March 1940, only months before the letter was written, and was later included in his collection Inside the Whale.
The essay examined the values and attitudes promoted by boys’ adventure publications. The reference in the letter to Frank Richards’ published response appears to have been important to Orwell as he considered whether there was an opportunity to create an alternative weekly for children.
Quire Auctions director Mark Skipper said the letter was unusual because most surviving Orwell correspondence is held by institutions rather than appearing for public sale.
“Orwell letters are seldom seen at market, with the majority held institutionally in museums and archives, so to see a letter of this length and so politically engaged is remarkable,”
Mr Skipper said the reference to Richards may have supplied additional motivation for Orwell to develop the idea of a politically left-leaning publication for children.
“Orwell even references the published response of Frank Richards to his article ‘Boys Weeklies’, the inclusion of which suggests further incentive for Orwell to create a left-leaning weekly for children in response.”
Part of Geoffrey Trease’s literary estate
The Orwell letter is being sold alongside part of the literary estate of Geoffrey Trease. Trease’s own response to Orwell’s letter is now held in the George Orwell Archives at University College London, giving the surviving correspondence an additional connection between the two writers.
Trease was born in 1909 and died in 1998. He published around 113 works, predominantly for children and young adults, over a career that ran from the 1930s through to the 1990s. His best-known novel, Cue for Treason, was published in 1940, the same year Orwell wrote to him.
His historical novels were known for their attention to accuracy, while his earlier work was marked by a strong left-wing influence. The material being offered includes original manuscripts and numerous books signed by Trease for members of his family.
Much of the collection comes from the family archive of Jocelyn Everett, formerly Jocelyn Trease, the daughter of Geoffrey Trease and Marian Trease, formerly Marian Boyer. Quire Auctions says the sale represents the first time an archive of this kind has come to market.
The majority of Trease’s own archive is held by Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle upon Tyne. That archive includes copies, manuscripts and notes, while the material in the Stonehouse sale provides an opportunity to see items retained by Trease’s family.
A letter from a pivotal period in Orwell’s career
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, who was born in India in 1903 and died in London in 1950, aged 46. He is best known for the novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, but his career also included journalism, essays and books shaped by his experiences of poverty, social inequality and imperialism.
Before becoming a writer, Orwell worked as a policeman in Burma. He later deliberately experienced life among people living in poverty, including periods living rough and working low-paid jobs in Paris and London. Those experiences informed Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.
His political outlook was also shaped by the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 he fought on the Republican side, was shot in the throat and witnessed the suppression of political factions within the Republican movement. The experience strengthened his opposition to totalitarianism and helped form the political convictions that influenced much of his later writing.
The Orwell Foundation says that, from 1936 onwards, Orwell regarded his serious writing as being written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and in favour of democratic socialism as he understood it. His belief that language could expose or disguise truth became a recurring feature of his political work.
That outlook later informed Animal Farm, published in 1945, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949. The latter introduced concepts including Big Brother, Newspeak, doublethink, the Thought Police and Room 101 into popular culture.
The letter offered in Stonehouse captures a different side of that political and literary interest: Orwell thinking about how fiction could influence children and whether young readers could be given stories with a more socially aware perspective.
Sale estimate and next steps
The Orwell letter and the wider Geoffrey Trease archive have a combined estimate of between £5,000 and £8,000. They are due to be offered as part of Quire Auctions’ September sale, which the supplied auction information says finishes on 16 September.
The sale listing does not establish the eventual result, and the current status of the auction has not been independently verified.
