The First edition

By Daniel J. Leab:

There are conflicting interpretations as to why the year 1984 was chosen by Orwell. There are those such as the writer Julian Symons (on the basis of conversations with his friend Orwell) who maintain that the title reflects “the fact that the book was finished in 1948, the last numerals being reversed”. More recently, there have been arguments, most notably from Peter Davison (and based on his archival research) which show that in the draft manuscript (see 29e) the year in question was 1980 and then it was 1982, and it became 1984 “only because the writing dragged on”.

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