How Animal Farm almost didn't get published

A classic today, it got off to a shaky start. "He rejected the book on the grounds that it seemed too 'Trotskyite.' He also told Orwell that his choice of pigs as rulers was an unfortunate one, and that readers might draw the conclusion that what was needed was 'more public-spirited pigs.' This was not perhaps as fatuous as the turn-down that Orwell received from the Dial Press in New York, which solemnly informed him that stories about animals found no market in the US. And this in the land of Disney . . ." More...