08 February 2019 - British Council Apologizes to George Orwell for Rejecting Food Essay
George Orwell: British Council apologises for rejecting food essay
Alison Flood (The Guardian, 07/02/2019)
More than 70 years after the event, the British Council has apologised to George Orwell for commissioning and then rejecting an essay about British food.
The author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm was, the body has revealed, commissioned to write British Cookery in 1946, as part of the organisation’s efforts to promote British culture overseas. But a discovery in the British Council’s archives has revealed that after commissioning the essay, it declined to publish it, telling Orwell that it was problematic to write about food in a time of strict rationing.
“I am so sorry such a seemingly stupid situation has arisen with your manuscript,” runs the letter, raising “doubts on such a treatment of the painful subject of Food in these times”. The publications department representative tells Orwell he has written “a good essay … apart from one or two minor criticisms, I think it is excellent,” but that “it would be unfortunate and unwise to publish it for the continental reader”.
George Orwell Gets an Apology for a Rejection Letter (but Not for His Marmalade Recipe)
Anna Schaverien (The New York Times, 07/02/2019)
Rejection is a rite of passage that every writer, even some of the greatest — like George Orwell — has experienced.
Ernest Hemingway was told his writing was “tedious and offensive” by one publisher. Another rebuffed Herman Melville’s masterpiece, “Moby Dick,” questioning, “Does it have to be a whale?”
A 73-year-old rebuff of Orwell, the author of “1984” and “Animal Farm,” recently came to light, and he received a belated apology for it on Thursday.
George Orwell gets food essay apology from British Council after 70 years
(BBC News, 07/02/2019)
It seems even the best of writers get rejected - but not all of them can expect an apology 70 years later.
The British Council has apologised to George Orwell after rejecting an essay of his seven decades ago.
The author of 1984 and Animal Farm wrote the piece, entitled British Cookery, in 1946.
British Council apologises 70 years after rejecting George Orwell essay on food
Tim Wyatt (The Independent, 07/02/2019)
An essay on the UK's cooking by George Orwell was rejected more than 70 years ago by the British Council.
The cultural institute wrote a letter of apology to the world-renowned writer of 1984 and Animal Farm after it discovered in the archives its rejection letter of his treatise on traditional British food.
Despite commissioning the author in 1946 to defend British cuisine as part of its efforts to promote home cooking overseas, the Council changed its mind and returned the essay unpublished.