Editing Animal Farm (section)

===Publishing===
Orwell initially encountered difficulty getting the manuscript published, largely due to fears that the book might upset the alliance between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Four publishers refused to publish ''Animal Farm'', yet one had initially accepted the work but declined it after consulting the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]].{{sfn|Freedom of the Press}}{{efn|[[#GOIT|Orwell 1976 p. 25 ''La libertà di stampa'']]}} Eventually, [[Secker and Warburg]] published the first edition in 1945.

During [[World War II]], it became clear to Orwell that anti-Soviet literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch – including his regular publisher [[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]]. He also submitted the manuscript to [[Faber and Faber]], where the poet [[T. S. Eliot]] (who was a director of the firm) rejected it; Eliot wrote back to Orwell praising the book's "good writing" and "fundamental integrity", but declared that they would only accept it for publication if they had some sympathy for the viewpoint "which I take to be generally [[Deformed workers' state|Trotskyite]]". Eliot said he found the view "not convincing", and contended that the pigs were made out to be the best to run the farm; he posited that someone might argue "what was needed&nbsp;... was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs".{{sfn|Eliot|1969}} Orwell let [[André Deutsch]], who was working for Nicholson & Watson in 1944, read the typescript, and Deutsch was convinced that Nicholson & Watson would want to publish it; however, they did not, and "lectured Orwell on what they perceived to be errors in ''Animal Farm''".{{sfn|Orwell |2013|p= 231}} In his ''London Letter'' on 17 April 1944 for ''[[Partisan Review]]'', Orwell wrote that it was "now next door to impossible to get anything overtly anti-Russian printed. Anti-Russian books do appear, but mostly from Catholic publishing firms and always from a religious or frankly reactionary angle".

The publisher [[Jonathan Cape]], who had initially accepted ''Animal Farm'', subsequently rejected the book after an official at the British Ministry of Information warned him off{{sfn|Whitewashing of Stalin |2008}} – although the civil servant who it is assumed gave the order was later found to be a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] spy.{{sfn|Taylor|2003|p=337}} Writing to [[Leonard Moore (literary agent)|Leonard Moore]], a partner in the literary agency of Christy & Moore, publisher Jonathan Cape explained that the decision had been taken on the advice of a senior official in the Ministry of Information. Such flagrant anti-Soviet bias was unacceptable, and the choice of pigs as the dominant class was thought to be especially offensive. It may reasonably be assumed that the "important official" was a man named [[Peter Smollett]], who was later unmasked as a Soviet agent.{{sfn| Leab  |2007 |p= 3}} Orwell was suspicious of Smollett/Smolka, and he would be one of the names Orwell [[Orwell's list|included in his list]] of Crypto-Communists and Fellow-Travellers sent to the [[Information Research Department]] in 1949. The publisher wrote to Orwell, saying:{{sfn|Whitewashing of Stalin |2008}}
{{blockquote |
If the fable were addressed generally to dictators and dictatorships at large then publication would be all right, but the fable does follow, as I see now, so completely the progress of the Russian Soviets and their two dictators [Lenin and Stalin], that it can apply only to Russia, to the exclusion of the other dictatorships.

Another thing: it would be less offensive if the predominant caste in the fable were not pigs. I think the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offence to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.
}}

[[Frederic Warburg]] also faced pressures against publication, even from people in his own office and from his wife Pamela, who felt that it was not the moment for ingratitude towards Stalin and the [[Red Army]],{{sfn|Fyvel|1982 |p=139}} which had [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|played a major part]] in defeating [[Adolf Hitler]]. A Russian translation was printed in the paper ''Posev'', and in permitting a Russian translation of ''Animal Farm'', Orwell refused in advance all royalties. A translation in Ukrainian, which was produced in Germany, was confiscated in large part by the American wartime authorities and handed over to the Soviet repatriation commission.{{efn|[[Struve, Gleb]]. ''Telling the Russians'', written for the Russian journal ''New Russian Wind'', reprinted in Remembering Orwell |pp=260–61}}

In October 1945, Orwell wrote to Frederic Warburg expressing interest in pursuing the possibility that the political cartoonist [[David Low (cartoonist)|David Low]] might illustrate ''Animal Farm''. Low had written a letter saying that he had had "a good time with ''Animal Farm'' – an excellent bit of satire – it would illustrate perfectly". Nothing came of this, and a trial issue produced by Secker & Warburg in 1956 illustrated by John Driver was abandoned. The [[Folio Society]] published an edition in 1984 illustrated by [[Quentin Blake]] and an edition illustrated by the cartoonist [[Ralph Steadman]] was published by Secker & Warburg in 1995 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first edition of ''Animal Farm''.{{sfn|Orwell|2001|p= 123 }}{{sfn|Orwell|2015|pp= 313–14}}