Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. Perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote fiction, literary criticism and poetry. He is best known for the dystopian novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (published in 1949) and the satirical novella 'Animal Farm' (1945)—they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author.