As promised, the second in our series of writers’ FBI files. This time the subject is George Orwell (Eric Blair).

Click here to download the PDF file [84 pages | 2.5 meg]

The FBI’s website notes:

The English political satirist was never investigated by the FBI; however, FBI records contain correspondence in 1949 between Orwell’s publisher and J. Edgar Hoover, as well as miscellaneous information regarding him and his published works.

Really, I should say that the FBI’s site did note that back when it contained Orwell’s file, but, like it’s done with more than 50 documents, the FBI has pulled the file off of its website with no notice or explanation. (You can still see it listed here, but it is no longer linked to the file itself.) Let’s stop to bask in the unbearable levels of irony and chutzpah here: The FBI has quietly deleted its online file on the man who wrote 1984.

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On a related note, the website for MI5 (basically, the British FBI) has information on its file on Orwell (though not the file itself), plus his passport photo:

Quirk Books has posted one of the 20 illustrations that will adorn its much-anticipated title, Pride and Pejudice and Zombies.