A glimpse into the thoughts of George Orwell

Starting today, an entry from the diaries of George Orwell will be posted every day on the website of the Orwell Prize, the British award for political writing. (Bettmann/corbis)

It may be hard to imagine that any of George Orwell's writings would be unread 58 years after his death. Generations of readers have been gripped by such classics as "Down and Out in Paris and London," "Homage to Catalonia," "Animal Farm," and especially "1984." That chilling novel of psychological manipulation by a totalitarian regime even added a new adjective to the language: Orwellian.

However, most of even the most devoted aficionados haven't read Orwell's diaries. They were included 20 years ago in Peter Davison's 14-volume "Complete Works of George Orwell," but that book had a small printing and is now out of print. Starting today, Orwell's diary will be posted, one entry per day, on the website of the Orwell Prize, the British award for political writing. While there are earlier and later diaries, the plan is to take a segment that began 70 years ago today, Aug. 9, 1938, and continue through October 1942.

"Orwell is as pertinent to the world now as he ever was," said Jean Seaton, professor of media history at the University of Westminster and director of the Orwell Prize. "His incredibly distinctive writing and thinking about political matters, his extraordinary decency. The Internet allows the diaries to be more digestible for the average reader. You can find out what he was thinking on a certain date."

Founded in 1993 by Orwell's biographer, Sir Bernard Crick, the Orwell Prize (www.theorwellprize.co.uk) gives two annual awards for excellence in political writing, one for journalism and one for a book. The 2008 prizes went to columnist Johann Hari of the Independent newspaper, and Raja Shehadeh, for his book "Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape."

Born in 1903 and educated at elite schools, George Orwell (whose real name was Eric Blair) spent five years in Burma in the 1920s, which disillusioned him about the civilizing claims of the British Empire. His later explorations of working-class poverty made him a convinced socialist, but his experience as a Republican volunteer in the Spanish Civil War (where he was wounded in the throat) and his disgust with Stalin's 1939 pact with Hitler turned him against totalitarianism of any kind. During and after World War II, his political writings, fiction and nonfiction, famously confronted lying language, hypocrisies, and smugness of all kinds.

"When I took over the Orwell Prize," said Seaton, "I went to the archive and zoomed through the diaries, and just wept. They show Orwell practicing being a writer and an observer. You see in the diaries, he smells out orthodoxies and presses them until he and the reader are more critical."

They begin with tiny domestic notes on weather and nature, and later turn increasingly to the darkening world scene. On Aug. 22, 1938, he writes: "Warmish day, with showers. . . . After the rain enormous slugs crawling about, one measuring about 3" long." On June 8, 1940, deep into the war: "I have known since about 1931 ([Stephen] Spender says he has known since 1929) that the future must be catastrophic. I could not say exactly what wars and revolutions would happen, but they never surprised me when they came. Since 1934 I have known war between England and Germany was coming, and since 1936 I have known it with complete certainty."

Sometimes he comments with exasperation on what he sees as stupid blindness, yet abruptly looks at it another way. About American unhelpfulness while Britain is trying to negotiate Indian nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru's support against the Japanese, on May 18, 1942, he writes: "It is clear from what American papers one gets hold of that anti-British feeling is in full cry and that all the Isolationists, after a momentary retirement, have re-emerged with the same slogans as before. . . . What always horrifies me about American anti-British sentiment is its appalling ignorance. Ditto presumably with anti-American feeling in England."

Asked why anyone today should care about these writings or about Orwell himself, Seaton replied: "Because he is one of the few writers who brings comfort and understanding to everyone who lives in totalitarian societies, of which there are many around. He believes that writing and thinking are the front line against lies and injustice. He is an eloquent, original, uncontrollable writer on the side of justice. Since when is that not relevant?"

David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com.