Orwell knew many Esperantists but was often disparaging this artificial language and those who advocated for it. He certainly had a good opportunity to understand the politics behind the development of the language as he was influenced and supported by Nellie Limouzin, his aunt who lived in Paris with her partner, the writer and radical Esperantist, Eugène Adam.  Limouzin was an actress, literary scholar and had a reputation for writing amusing monologues which she performed at the Salle Erard and for suffragette groups. Nellie published in Esperanto using the pseudonym E.K.L. and Adam wrote under the assumed name of “Lanti” (which can be translated as “he who is against the system”). It is interesting to reflect on the development of Orwell’s Newspeak, with Esperanto in mind.

Eugène Adam in 1910 (Creative Commons)

Borsboom, E. (1976) Vivo de Lanti, Paris: SAT

Borsboom, E. (2017) Kie Miozotas Memor, Paris: SAT (32 famous Esperantists remembered)

Chapman, Bill, The Early History of Esperanto in the United Kingdom, Independently Published, 2019. 264pp.

Dazun, Edmond , Bannier, Lucien, Dictionnaire pratique d’esperanto: Francais-Esperanto – Esperanto-Francais, Paris: SAT Amikaro, 1974. second edition

Plena Vortaro de Esperanto (1930)

Lanti, Eugène, Leteroj de E. Lanti, kun antaŭparolo de G. Varingjen. Paris: Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, 1940. 272pp.

Lanti, Eugène, For la Neŭtralismon!, Paris: Eldona Fako Kooperativa, 2007 (1922)

Lanti, Eugène, The Workers’ Esperanto Movement, London: N.C.L.C Publishing Society, 1928. 29pp. (translated by H. Stay)

Lanti, Eugène, Vortoj, Leipzig: Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, 1931.

Montaigu, Georges, Eugène Lanti: Rencontre avec un citoyen du monde, Marseille: Éditions Thaddée, 2023. 313p. (gifted and kindly inscribed by the author)

Ogden, C. K., Hugon, P. D., & Lockhart, L. W., Basic English versus the Artificial Languages, Psyche Miniatures, General Series No. 78, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company Limited, 1935. 184pp.

Orwell, George, Mil naŭcent okdek kvar ĉe, Mondial, 2012, 288pp (Nineteen Eighty-Four translated into Esperanto by Donald Broadribb)

Orwell, George, La besto-farmo, Munkeno: Eldontrepreno Lanterno, 1970. 95pp (Animal Farm translated into Esperanto by G. Tucker)

Orwell, George, La besto-farmo, Munkeno: Eldontrepreno Lanterno, 1970. 108pp (Animal Farm translated into Esperanto by G. Tucker)

Sutton, Geoffrey H., Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto, Mondial, 2008

Eugène Adam/Lanti
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