By what name was the author Eric Blair better known?

The story behind the answer

Eric Arthur Blair wrote under the pen name George Orwell. He adopted the pseudonym in the 1930s, partly to separate his political journalism from his private life and to avoid embarrassing his family; “George” suggested solid Englishness, and “Orwell” was taken from the River Orwell in Suffolk. As Orwell, he authored Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, landmark critiques of totalitarianism, propaganda, and surveillance that gave us terms like “Orwellian” and “Big Brother.”

Memory tip: Think “E→O” (Eric to Orwell), or picture the River Orwell flowing into the bleak world of 1984.