In 1936 the publisher Gollancz commissioned him to write a book on the economically depressed areas of northern England, which became The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). In the spring of that year Orwell was also asked to contribute something to New Writing, a new journal edited by John Lehmann. Orwell offered to write what he described as “a sketch... describing the shooting of an elephant,” but only if Lehmann was likely to publish something of the sort (“Shooting an Elephant,” p. 483). Lehmann replied that he would like to see it, and when he did, he liked what he saw. “His editorial acumen or ‘instinct’... had led him straight to a masterpiece” (Stansky and Abrahams, p. 147): one that was about not simply the shooting of an elephant, but the tragedy, violence, and farce of imperialism.
The British empire in Burma. In the nineteenth century, the British, anxious to secure control of cotton, teak, and other natural resources, and of inland trade routes to western China, came increasingly into conflict with the Burmese kings. The British saw Burma as simply an extension of India, which they already ruled.
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