The Never End : The Other Orwell, the Cold War, the CIA, MI6, and the Origin of Animal Farm

This book presents full history of the origin of Orwells Animal Farm, as well as a translation of the Russuian/Ukranian source work. Has George Orwell lost his saintly luster? In The Never End , rabble-rouser, dogged investigator, and consummate literary stylist John Reed collects two decades of subject-Orwell findings previously published in Pank , Guernica , Literary Hub , The Brooklyn Rail , The Rumpus , The New York Press , The Believer , Harpers Magazine and The Paris Review . Reeds treatment of Orwell is corrective and peerlessly contemporary; he views Orwell in a twenty-first century global context, considering Orwells collaboration with Cold War intelligence operationsUS and UKwith unfaltering objectivity. Its hard to imagine that Orwellin our own moment of global doublethinkwouldnt have wanted his devotion to contrariety applied to the literary legacy he left behind. The Never End is at once a hatchet job and a celebration. Animal Farm, based on a previously unknown Russian short story? Animal Farm , deployed by the CIA, MI6 and the Congress for Cultural Freedom? Orwell, turning over blacklists in a McCarthy-esque act of betrayal? The Cold War? Does it last forever? Russia, the Axis of Evil, and now China? But. Orwell. Course syllabi. Literary laurels. Snitch. Why do we keep coming back? For the wrong reasons? Or because we know Old Benjamin would want us to know the truth? Free the piggies! The New York Press Reed has captured the state of the farm today. The Fort Myers News-Press A dizzying feat of writing and scholarship. Lynne Tillman One plays this terrifying guessing game of animal a clef: which animal am I? Which animal is my neighbor? Jonathan Ames This book is the first and definitive reassessment of George Orwell, twenty-first century, written by an author at the nexus of Orwell's controversial literary, political and historical legacies. In The Never End, rabble-rouser, dogged investigator, and consummate literary stylist John Reed collects two decades of subject-Orwell findings published in Pank, Guernica, Literary Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, The New York Press, The Believer, Harpers Magazine and The Paris Review. Reeds treatment of Orwell is corrective and peerlessly contemporary; he views Orwell in a twenty-first century global context, considering Orwells collaboration with Cold War intelligence operationsUS and UKwith unfaltering objectivity. Its hard to imagine that Orwellin our own moment of global doublethinkwouldnt have wanted his devotion to contrariety applied to the literary legacy he left behind. Animal Farm, based on a previously unknown Russian short story? Animal Farm, deployed by the CIA, MI6 and the Congress for Cultural Freedom? Orwell, turning over blacklists in a McCarthy-esque act of betrayal? The Cold War? Does it last forever? Russia, the Axis of Evil, and now China? But. Orwell. Course syllabi. Literary laurels. Snitch. Why do we keep coming back? For the wrong reasons? Or because we know Old Benjamin would want us to know the truth? John Reed, associate professor and the current director of the MFA in Creative Writing at The New School University, is the author of numerous works, including Snowball's Chance, the unauthorized companion to Animal Farm. Hes contributed to, among other venues: Slate, The Paris Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, Vice, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Harpers Magazine. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Illustrations The Never End 2013: Animal Farm Timeline Timeline to This Timeline 1879/1880 1917 1934 1936? 1939 1941 1944 1945 1945 1945/1946 1946 1947–1960 1948 1949 1949 1950 1950 1951 1951 1954 1956 1965–1974 1996 2002 2007–? 2013: George Orwell’s “Freedom of the Press,” a Proposed Preface to Animal Farm, Expurgated and Footnoted (with a Bias) Notes 2015: Revisionist History: The Origin of Animal Farm (Was a Little-Known Story, “Animal Riot,” by Russian/Ukrainian Scholar Nikolai Kostomarov) 2003: Saint George and the Damn Truth 2003: The Anti-Matter of George Orwell 2003: A Modest Disposal: Jail All Living Artists. Elvis Stays Note 2011: The Politics of Narrative 2016: Pigs, Goats, Tea Parties, Walking Magnets and Scotch Central: John Reed with Bretty Rawson Note 2016: Life in Interesting Times/What Orwell Can (and Can’t) Teach Us: Jordan Rothacker in Conversation with John Reed on Fascism and the Neo-Liberal Oligarchy 1879, 1917, 2015: “Animal Riot: Letter from a Little Russian Landowner to His Friend in St. Petersburg” 2022: The War of Passive Aggression: Orwell’s (Yes, “Orwellian”) Forever Cold War, and Now China Index