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Draft One of Contributions to Wikipedia Article on Animal Farm
Bold are my own new additions.

Italics represent writing that already existed on the page.

Genre (or Style):

'George Orwell's Animal Farm'' is an example of a political satire that was intended to have a "wider application," according to Orwell himself, in terms of its relevance. In terms of style, the work shares many similarities with some of Orwell's other work, most notably 1984, as both have been considered works of Swiftian Satire. Furthermore, these two prominent works seem to suggest Orwell's bleak view of the future for humanity; he seems to stress the potential/current threat of dystopias similar to those in Animal Farm and 1984. In these kinds of works, Orwell distinctly references the disarray and traumatic conditions of Europe following the Second World War. In discussing Orwell's style and writing philosophy as a whole, he was very concerned with the pursuit of truth in writing. Orwell was committed to speaking/writing in a way that was straightforward, given the way that he felt words were commonly used in politics to deceive and confuse. For this reason, he is careful, in Animal Farm, to make sure that the narrator speaks in an unbiased and uncomplicated fashion. The difference is seen in the way that the animals speak and interact, as the generally moral animals seem to speak their minds clearly, while the wicked animals on the farm, such as Napoleon, twist language in such a way that it means their own insidious desires. This style is born directly of Orwell's close proximation to the issues facing Europe at the time and his determination to comment critically on Stalin's Soviet Russia. '''

Background (Draw pieces from existing sections and potentially add new information):

Origin

''George Orwell wrote the manuscript in 1943 and 1944 after his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, which he described in Homage to Catalonia (1938). In the preface of a 1947 Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, he explained how escaping the communist purges in Spain taught him "how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries". This motivated Orwell to expose and strongly condemn what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals.Homage at Catalonia sold poorly; after seeing Arthur Koestler's best-selling Darkness at Noon about the same war, Orwell decided that fiction was the best way to describe totalitarianism.''

''Immediately prior to writing the book, Orwell had quit the BBC. He was also upset about a booklet for propagandists the Ministry of Information had put out. The booklet included instructions on how to quell ideological fears of the Soviet Union, such as directions to claim that the Red Terror was a figment of Nazi imagination.''

In the preface, Orwell described the source of the idea of setting the book on a farm:"...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat."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; one had initially accepted the work but declined it after consulting the Ministry of Information. Eventually, Secker and Warburg published the first edition in 1945.''

''During the Second World War, it became clear to Orwell that anti-Soviet literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch—including his regular publisher 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 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... was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs". 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." 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."''

Reception

....'Furthermore, Animal Farm'' has also faced a notable amount of challenges in academic settings around the US. The following are examples of this controversy that has existed around Orwell's work:'''


 * Superintendent in Bay County, Florida bans Animal Farm at the middle school and high school levels in 1987. 
 * The Board quickly reinstated the book, however, after receiving complains of the ban as "unconstitutional." 
 * A censorship survey conducted in DeKalb County, Georgia regarding the years 1979-1982, revealed that many had attempted to limit school access to Animal Farm due to its "political theories." 
 * John Birch Society in Wisconsin challenged the reading of Animal Farm in 1965 because of its reference to masses revolting. 
 * New York State English Council's Committee on Defense Against Censorship found that in 1968 Animal Farm had been widely deemed a "problem book."

Animal Farm has also faced similar forms of resistance in other countries. The ALA page also mentions the way that the book was prevented from being featured at the International Book Fair in Moscow, Russia in 1977 and banned from school in the United Arab Emirates for references to practices or actions that defy Arab or Islamic beliefs. 'In the same manner, Animal Farm'' has also faced relatively recent issues in China. In 2018, the government made the decision to censor all online posts about or referring to Animal Farm.'''

Final Draft of Contributions to Wikipedia Article on Animal Farm
Bold are my own new additions.

Italics represent writing that already existed on the page.

Genre (or Style):

'George Orwell's Animal Farm'' is an example of a political satire that was intended to have a "wider application," according to Orwell himself, in terms of its relevance. Stylistically, the work shares many similarities with some of Orwell's other works, most notably 1984, as both have been considered works of Swiftian Satire. Furthermore, these two prominent works seem to suggest Orwell's bleak view of the future for humanity; he seems to stress the potential/current threat of dystopias similar to those in Animal Farm and 1984. In these kinds of works, Orwell distinctly references the disarray and traumatic conditions of Europe following the Second World War. Orwell's style and writing philosophy as a whole was very concerned with the pursuit of truth in writing. Orwell was committed to communicating in a way that was straightforward, given the way that he felt words were commonly used in politics to deceive and confuse. For this reason, he is careful, in Animal Farm, to make sure the narrator speaks in an unbiased and uncomplicated fashion. The difference is seen in the way that the animals speak and interact, as the generally moral animals seem to speak their minds clearly, while the wicked animals on the farm, such as Napoleon, twist language in such a way that it meets their own insidious desires. This style reflects Orwell's close proximation to the issues facing Europe at the time and his determination to comment critically on Stalin's Soviet Russia. ''' Change "Composition and publication" to "Publication" alone. Move "Origin" subsection of current "Composition and publication" section to a new "Background Section that I will be making.

Publication
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; one had initially accepted the work but declined it after consulting the Ministry of Information. Eventually, Secker and Warburg published the first edition in 1945.''

''During the Second World War, it became clear to Orwell that anti-Soviet literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch—including his regular publisher 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 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... was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs". 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." 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—although the civil servant who it is assumed gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy. Writing to 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. Orwell was suspicious of Smollett/Smolka, and he would be one of the names Orwell included in his list of Crypto-Communists and Fellow-Travellers sent to the Information Research Department in 1949. The publisher wrote to Orwell, saying: 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 heroic Red Army, which had played a major part in defeating Adolf Hitler. A Russian translation was printed in the paper Posev, and in giving permission for 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.''

''In October 1945, Orwell wrote to Frederic Warburg expressing interest in pursuing the possibility that the political 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, but 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.''

Preface

Orwell originally wrote a preface complaining about British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally:"The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary.... Things are kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervenes but because of a general tacit agreement that 'it wouldn't do' to mention that particular fact."Although the first edition allowed space for the preface, it was not included, and as of June 2009 most editions of the book have not included it.[ citation needed]

''Secker and Warburg published the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945 without an introduction. However, the publisher had provided space for a preface in the author's proof composited from the manuscript. For reasons unknown, no preface was supplied, and the page numbers had to be renumbered at the last minute.''

''In 1972, Ian Angus found the original typescript titled "The Freedom of the Press", and Bernard Crick published it, together with his own introduction, in The Times Literary Supplement on 15 September 1972 as "How the essay came to be written". Orwell's essay criticised British self-censorship by the press, specifically the suppression of unflattering descriptions of Stalin and the Soviet government. The same essay also appeared in the Italian 1976 edition of Animal Farm with another introduction by Crick, claiming to be the first edition with the preface. Other publishers were still declining to publish it.[ clarification needed]''

Background
Origin

George Orwell wrote the manuscript in 1943 and 1944 after his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, which he described in Homage to Catalonia (1938). In the preface of a 1947 Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, he explained how escaping the communist purges in Spain taught him "how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries". This motivated Orwell to expose and strongly condemn what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals. Homage at Catalonia sold poorly; after seeing Arthur Koestler's best-selling Darkness at Noon about the same war, Orwell decided that fiction was the best way to describe totalitarianism.

Immediately prior to writing the book, Orwell had quit the BBC. He was also upset about a booklet for propagandists the Ministry of Information had put out. The booklet included instructions on how to quell ideological fears of the Soviet Union, such as directions to claim that the Red Terror was a figment of Nazi imagination.

In the preface, Orwell described the source of the idea of setting the book on a farm: ...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

Reception

....'Furthermore, Animal Farm'' has also faced an array of challenges in school settings around the US. The following are examples of this controversy that has existed around Orwell's work (introduce source)(order sources chronologically):'''


 * John Birch Society in Wisconsin challenged the reading of Animal Farm in 1965 because of its reference to masses revolting. 
 * New York State English Council's Committee on Defense Against Censorship found that in 1968 Animal Farm had been widely deemed a "problem book."
 * A censorship survey conducted in DeKalb County, Georgia regarding the years 1979-1982, revealed that many schools had attempted to limit access to Animal Farm due to its "political theories." 
 * Superintendent in Bay County, Florida bans Animal Farm at the middle school and high school levels in 1987. 
 * The Board quickly brought back the book, however, after receiving complains of the ban as "unconstitutional." 
 * Animal Farm was removed from a school district's curriculum in 2017 in Stonington, Connecticut.

Animal Farm has also faced similar forms of resistance in other countries. The ALA also mentions the way that the book was prevented from being featured at the International Book Fair in Moscow, Russia, in 1977 and banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates for references to practices or actions that defy Arab or Islamic beliefs, such as pigs or alcohol.  'In the same manner, Animal Farm'' has also faced relatively recent issues in China. In 2018, the government made the decision to censor all online posts about or referring to Animal Farm.'''

Minor Edits to the Article

 * Rephrase "Peter Edgerly Firchow and Peter Davison consider that the Battle of the Windmill represents World War II, especially the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Moscow."
 * Add citation or Needs Citation tab to "The pigs' rise to pre-eminence mirrors the rise of a Stalinist bureaucracy in the USSR, just as Napoleon's emergence as the farm's sole leader reflects Stalin's emergence."
 * Add Citation Needed tag to "Animal Farm has been adapted to film twice. Both differ from the novel and have been accused of taking significant liberties, including sanitising some aspects."
 * Add Citation Needed tag to "A loyal, kind, dedicated, extremely strong, hard-working, and respectable cart-horse, although quite naive and gullible. Boxer does a large share of the physical labour on the farm. He is shown to hold the belief that 'Napoleon is always right.'"
 * Rephrase for improper wording: "She, like Benjamin, is one of the few animals on the farm who aren't pigs but can read."
 * Rephrase awkward sentence: "Offspring of Jessie and Bluebell, they were taken away at birth by Napoleon and reared by him to be his security force."
 * Add Needs Citation tag to "The Raven, 'Mr. Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker.'"
 * Shift comma for proper grammar: "...their slogan to 'four legs good, two legs better', which they dutifully do."
 * Add citation or Citation Needed tag to "In the preface of a 1947 Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, he explained how escaping the communist purges in Spain taught him 'how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries.'"
 * Also move the quotation mark outside the period at the end of the sentence.
 * Add commas around Darkness at Noon in the following sentence: "...after seeing Arthur Koestler's best-selling Darkness at Noon about the same war..."
 * Rearrange this sentence for readability: "Four publishers refused; one had initially accepted the work but declined it after consulting the Ministry of Information."
 * Change "which" to "that" in the following sentence: "...clear to Orwell that anti-Soviet literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch...."

Bibliography of Sources for Editing Animal Farm Article
Admin. “Banned & Challenged Classics.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues, 26 Sept. 2019, www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics.

Animal farm (2002). In Shute S. (Ed.),. Ann Arbor, United States Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2137893954?accountid=11091

BERNARD CRICK, & BERNARD CRICK IS PROFESSOR OF POLITICS AT BIRKBECK COLLEGE (LONDON UNIVERSITY), AUTHOR OF GEORGE ORWELL: A LIFE (PENGUIN) AND EDITOR OF THE FORTHCOMING CLARENDON PRESS CRITICAL EDITION OF,NINETEEN EIGHTY. (1983,). The real message of '1984': ORWELL'S CLASSIC RE-ASSESSED. Financial Times (London, England) Retrieved from https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/1139870DADC7F880

ClickView/VEA (Producer), &. (2014). Animal farm. [Video/DVD] Films Media Group. Retrieved from https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103525&xtid=129225

Dwan, D. (2012). Orwell's paradox: Equality in animal farm. Elh, 79(3), 655-683. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1039081141?accountid=11091

Oppenheim, M. (2018). China bans george orwell's animal farm and letter 'N' from online posts as censors bolster xi jinping's plan to keep power. London, United Kingdom London, London: Independent Digital News & Media. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2055087191?accountid=11091

Orwell, G. (2002, Politics and the english language. Literary Cavalcade, 54, 20-26. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/210475382?accountid=11091

Rosario, Mario. “GEORGE ORWELL: DYSTOPIAN NOVEL -1984 – ANIMAL FARM.” Spazio Personale Di Mario Aperto a Tutti 24 Ore Su, 21 June 2012, rosariomariocapalbo.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/george-orwell-dystopian-novel-1984-animal-farm/.

T. S. eliot rejected orwell's animal farm; unearthed letters critical of iconic book. (2009,). Calgary Herald Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/243855754?accountid=11091