Dennis Glover is the author of The Last Man in Europe, a fictionalized account of George Orwell's life as he wrote 1984.From the transcript of Glover's interview with NPR's Scott Simon:
SIMON: And that "Last Man In Europe" - that was a working title Orwell had, wasn't it?--Marshal Zeringue
GLOVER: Yes, it was the original title of the novel, which he changed at the last minute, I think, at the prodding of his publisher Fred Warburg who thought that "1984" would - was a bit more commercially appropriate. And he's probably right because it gave the book a great renaissance in the actual year 1984.
SIMON: Yeah. And was it also because he was writing in the late '40s? Was it as simple as he wanted to reverse it?
GLOVER: Well, there is a thought that he did it because he simply reversed the four and the eight. I think it's a bit different. If you look at the manuscript and the early typescripts of the novel, what you'll find is it begins April 4, 1980. And then you can see Orwell takes his pen and strikes it over at some later stage and writes '82. And then he strikes it over again and writes '84. I think he was - it took him so long to write the book. He was trying to keep 40 years between the writing of it and the story.
SIMON: By the time we meet Orwell, he is sick and despondent, even though he's become so successful with "Animal Farm."
GLOVER: That's...[read on]