Editing Keep the Aspidistra Flying (section)

==Background==

Orwell wrote the book in 1934 and 1935 while he was living at various locations near [[Hampstead]] in London, and drew on his experiences in these and the preceding few years. At the beginning of 1928 he lived in lodgings in [[Portobello Road]] from where he started his tramping expeditions, sleeping rough and roaming the poorer parts of London.<ref>Pitter, Ruth (3 January 1956). ''BBC Overseas Service broadcast''.</ref> At this time he wrote a fragment of a play in which the protagonist Stone needs money for a life-saving operation for his child. Stone would prefer to prostitute his wife rather than prostitute his artistic integrity by writing advertising copy.<ref>Orwell Archive quoted in Bernard Crick '' Orwell: A Life'' Secker & Warburg 1980</ref>

Orwell's early writings appeared in ''[[Adelphi (magazine)|The Adelphi]]'', a [[left-wing politics|left-wing]] literary journal edited by Sir [[Sir Richard Rees, 2nd Baronet|Richard Rees]], a wealthy and idealistic [[baronet]] who made Orwell one of his [[protégé]]s.<ref>Rees, Richard (1961). ''George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory''. Secker & Warburg. </ref> The character of Ravelston, the wealthy publisher in ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'', has a lot in common with Rees. Ravelston is acutely self-conscious about his upper-class status and defensive about his [[unearned income]]. Comstock speculates that Ravelston receives nearly two thousand pounds a year after tax — a very comfortable sum in those days — and Rees, in a volume of autobiography published in 1963, wrote: "I have never had the spending of much less than [[Pound sterling|£]]1,000 a year of unearned income, and sometimes considerably more. ... Before [[the Second World War|the war]], this was wealth, especially for an unmarried man. Many of my socialist and intellectual friends were paupers compared to me ..."<ref>{{cite book |last=Rees |first=Richard |author-link=Sir Richard Rees, 2nd Baronet |date=1963 |title=A Theory of My Time. An Essay in Didactic Reminiscence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=geYNAAAAIAAJ&q=%C2%A31%2C000 |location=London |publisher=Secker & Warburg |page=64 |access-date=12 April 2015}}</ref> In quoting this, Orwell's biographer [[Michael Shelden]] comments that "One of these 'paupers' — at least in 1935 — was Orwell, who was lucky if he made £200 that year. ... He appreciated Rees's editorial support at the ''Adelphi'' and sincerely enjoyed having him as a friend, but he could not have avoided feeling some degree of resentment toward a man who had no real job but who enjoyed an income four or five times greater than his."<ref>{{cite book |last=Shelden |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Shelden |date=1991 |title=Orwell: The Authorized Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDkzAAAAMAAJ&q=paupers |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |page=204 |isbn=978-0060167097 |access-date=12 April 2015}}</ref>

In 1932 Orwell took a job as a teacher in a small school in West London. From there he visited [[Burnham Beeches]] and other places in the countryside. There are allusions to Burnham Beeches and walks in the country in Orwell's correspondence with Brenda Salkeld and Eleanor Jacques at this time.<ref>Jacques, Eleanor (1968). Correspondence in ''Collected Essays Journalism and Letters'', Secker & Warburg.</ref>

In October 1934, after Orwell had spent nine months at his parents' home in [[Southwold]], his aunt Nellie Limouzin found him a job as a part-time assistant at Booklovers' Corner, a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead run by Francis and Myfanwy Westrope. The Westropes, who were friends of Nellie in the [[Esperanto]] movement, had an easygoing outlook and provided Orwell with comfortable accommodation at Warwick Mansions, [[Pond Street, Hampstead|Pond Street]]. He was [[job sharing]] with [[Jon Kimche]], who also lived with the Westropes. Orwell worked at the shop in the afternoons, having the mornings free to write and the evenings to socialise.<ref>Rayner Heppenstall, "Four Absentees", in Audrey Coppard and Bernard Crick, eds, ''Orwell Remembered'', 1984
</ref> He was at Booklovers' Corner for fifteen months. In his essay "[[Bookshop Memories]]", published in November 1936, he recalled aspects of his time at the bookshop, and in ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'' "he described it, or revenged himself upon it, with acerbity and wit and spleen".<ref>Stansky and Abrahams. ''Orwell: The Transformation'', p. 73.</ref> 

In their study of Orwell the writers [[Peter Stansky|Stansky]] and Abrahams remark upon the improvement on the "stumbling attempts at female portraiture in his first two novels: the stereotyped Elizabeth Lackersteen in ''Burmese Days'' and the hapless Dorothy in ''A Clergyman's Daughter''," and contend that, in contrast, "Rosemary is a credible female portrait". Through his work in the bookshop Orwell was in a position to become acquainted with women, "first as a clerk, then as a friend", and found that, "if circumstances were favourable, he might eventually embark upon a 'relationship' ... This, for Orwell the author and Blair the man, was the chief reward of working at Booklovers' Corner."<ref>Stansky and Abrahams, p. 75.</ref> In particular, Orwell met Sally Jerome,<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/31/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries "Sally Jerome".] ''[[The Guardian]]''. Retrieved 12 April 2015.</ref> who was then working for an advertising agency (like Rosemary in ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying''), and Kay Ekevall, who ran a small typing and secretarial service that worked for the ''Adelphi''.<ref>Stansky & Abrahams. ''Orwell: The Transformation'', pp. 76, 94.</ref>

By the end of February 1935 Orwell had moved into a flat in [[Parliament Hill, London|Parliament Hill]]; his landlady, Rosalind Obermeyer, was studying at the [[University of London]]. It was through a joint party with his landlady that Orwell met his future wife, [[Eileen O'Shaughnessy]]. In August Orwell moved into a flat in [[Kentish Town]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/george-orwell/ | title=George Orwell &#124; Novelist &#124; Blue Plaques}}</ref> which he shared with [[Michael Sayers]] and [[Rayner Heppenstall]]. Over this period he was working on ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'', and had two novels, ''[[Burmese Days]]'' and ''[[A Clergyman's Daughter]]'', published. At the beginning of 1936 Orwell was dealing with pre-publication issues for ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'' while he was touring the North of England collecting material for ''[[The Road to Wigan Pier]]''. The novel was published by [[Victor Gollancz Ltd]] on 20 April 1936.