Subtitled "A Fairy Story," though by no means intended for children, Animal Farm was completed in 1944. But with Stalin's Russia "our gallant wartime ally," there was strong opposition to publishing George Orwell's Trotskyist fable of revolution betrayed. The book was turned down by T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber, and by Victor Gollancz. Dial Press in New York sent Orwell one of the great rejection letters of all time, stating that it was "impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A." The only introduction written by the author published in his lifetime was for an edition in Ukrainian, produced by an exile group. Nonetheless, 50 years ago the book managed to hit stalls Stateside under the imprint of Harcourt Brace. "It would be nice to have it illustrated," wrote Orwell to his agent in 1946. "I dare say some time I'll run across some young artist whose style would be suitable." He never did. Now, to mark the half-century since its American appearance, Harcourt has issued a pictorial edition of this modern classic, with the metamorphosis of pig to man and man to pig graphically captured by Ralph Steadman, best known as the accomplice to the author of Generation of Swine. The old farm is under new management these days, but the lapse of 50 years has done nothing to dilute Orwell's observation: "If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

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