you don't get to know anyone in his outfit in the militia, in barcelona, particularly well. you learn a few of their names and sometimes he recites them like an honor roll but you don't get to the inside of their being. >> but, the soldier he meets, and feels a comrade ship with the firsthand shake. >> with the italian militiaman in barcelona and that is a beautiful moment at the beginning and at the end of the poem, that concludes that essay, looking back, on the spanish war. and that -- but he also says, i didn't want to meet him again, because if i did, it would ruin my first impression, which is that this is sort of the flower of the european working class. and that i think is the way his mind always goes away from the individual, and toward the social type. toward the political and social significance of digging coal underground. >> to preserve his own distance, you see, and at one point he replies to someone who asks him, if he'd like to come to dinner and meet steven spender, and... and he says, no. because i think i may want to write about him and i find it much hard

then he was in spain, and he was in barcelona at a time when the communist party did briefly take over and there was police terror, and third, he noticed all the truth about spain had been written out of the record, and he wrote in looking back on the spanish war, he was afraid this was becoming a habit in europe, if the leaders did something that never happened, it never happened. >> guest: the father of your colleague, claude coeburn. >> host: yes, and quite a lot of other people fell for the line that the communist party was the best defender of the spanish public and it's only recently that the archives of franco's system had been opened and we do know what happened in those may days in barcelona, and what was happening was in every detail true. he refused the lie. indeed, the second point i want to make is his first real book is written in french. an american in paris. he spoke very good french. he spoke -- >> guest: it wasn't written in french. he wrote a couple of little essays for a small french publication, back when he was in paris. >> host:ncluding a long essay on colonialis

you don't get to know anyone in his outfit and talk militia in barcelona particularly well.ou learn a few of their names. sometimes he just recites the mcginn on a roll but you don't get to the inside of there being three >> host: but there's the part of the soldier he meets in a sort of feels with the first handshake. >> guest: the italian militiaman. if that is a beautiful moment and then at the end of the poem that concludes that essay looking that on the spanish war left and that also says i didn't want to meet him again because if i did it would ruin my first impression which is this is the sort of a flower of the european working class and that lady is the way his mind always goes away from the individual and toward the social type. towards the political and social significance of digging coal underground. >> host: the sort of thing to preserve his own distance. at one point he replies to someone who asks him if he would like to come to dinner and meet the famous poet of the period and he says no i think i may want to write about him and i find it much harder and i thi

he whereof back when he was in paris. >> including when he was in barcelona. >> that's right.en wrote the manuscript" down and out" which was rejected by t.s. elliot and some of the major. >> did it -- >> no, it was ejected. yeah, it was elliot. he was at faber. >> as did hardcore embrace. one of the best that is ever written. unfortunately, it's impossible to sell stories about animals in the united states. in the county of disney, they could make such a -- they really thought it was a story about the farm. >> then "animal farm" became a good cartoon film. they were wrong about that. just to get back to the experience of reading orwell. and the essays in this book, i didn't know about fascism or imperillism, i was looking for how the writer carried him in the world and how to transform experience into sentences. and how to do it in a way that didn't call more attention to the self than to the experience. they review so much about a character. there's something almost -- you feel you know him when you read his essays. you feel you know how he speaks. you can hear his voice. yo