"Anybody who toils in the rewarding vineyard of Orwell studies will continually find, more to his pleasure than his discomfort, that John Rodden has been there before him, both tilling the soil and refreshing it." Christopher Hitchens, journalist, literary critic, and author of more than a dozen books, including Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Why Orwell Matters, and Letters to a Young Contrarian "A first-class addition to the growing literature on Orwell's literary significance. Rodden brilliantly demonstrates how Orwell influenced such disparate writers as Irving Howe, John Wain, Kingsley Martin, and Norman Podhoretz. His chapters on Howe and Wain alone are by themselves a major contribution to our understanding of the significance of these two important writers. The book is also an excellent overview of the intellectual currents in the Anglo-American literary world during the last half century. Both the specialist in Orwell studies and the educated general reader will find new insights into the impact that Orwell's writings have had." John Rossi, Professor of History, La Salle University