Home 5 News 5 Soaring sales of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ attributed to Trump advisor’s comment

Soaring sales of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ attributed to Trump advisor’s comment

by | Jan 30, 2017 | News

George Orwell’s dystopian work 1984, which was first published in 1949, has topped the bestseller list in the USA following the controversy caused by Donald Trump’s advisor Kellyanne Conway, when she used a term that could have come straight from the pages of the novel.

Sales of the book rose sharply after the term ‘alternative facts’ was used by Conway during an interview with NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ Addressing inaccurate statements about the number of attendees at Trumps’ presidential inauguration ceremony, she said: “You are saying it is a falsehood, and they are giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”

Journalists were quick to pounce on Conway’s use of the expression, criticising it as being ‘Orwellian’ in nature. In his classic novel, Orwell describes how the totalitarian regime of ‘Airstrip One,’ formerly Great Britain, has invented the concept of ‘Newspeak,’ a language promoted by its propaganda department the Ministry of Truth that limits free thought to control its citizens.

The highlighting of Conway’s use of the term and its Orwellian connotations led to 1984 quickly selling out on Amazon in the USA and rising to the top of the site’s bestseller list. Signet Classics publishing, owner of the intellectual property rights of the novel in the US, said that it has reprinted 75,000 copies of the novel, far more than a usual reprint run for the book.

Recent News

08Jul
Boualem Sansal’s Sentence Causes Global Protest

Boualem Sansal’s Sentence Causes Global Protest

The International Publishers Association (IPA) has called the continuing detention of the Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal’s an “afront to freedom of expression”. This week a court in Algeria upheld Sansal’s five-year prison sentence.  The author was charged in March under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws and convicted of “undermining national unity”. Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s […]

07Jul
New Era for Intellectual Property in UAE Academia

New Era for Intellectual Property in UAE Academia

Building on its growing international presence in intellectual property protection while reinforcing the UAE’s standing as a regional and international hub in this field, the Emirates Reprographic Rights Management Association (ERRA) has announced the signing of the country’s first-ever blanket reprographic rights licensing agreement with Heriot-Watt University Dubai. This pioneering step sets a new benchmark […]

03Jul
A New Identity Marks a Global Vision

A New Identity Marks a Global Vision

In a testament to its long-standing commitment to culture and knowledge, e& continues its partnership with the International Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature. First launched in 2009 by the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY) under the name “Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature,” the prize was born from the vision of Sheikha […]

Related Posts

New Era for Intellectual Property in UAE Academia

New Era for Intellectual Property in UAE Academia

Building on its growing international presence in intellectual property protection while reinforcing the UAE’s standing as a regional and international hub in this field, the Emirates Reprographic Rights Management Association (ERRA) has announced the signing of the...

A New Identity Marks a Global Vision

A New Identity Marks a Global Vision

In a testament to its long-standing commitment to culture and knowledge, e& continues its partnership with the International Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature. First launched in 2009 by the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY) under the name “Etisalat...

Cassell places its bet on Alcaraz

Cassell places its bet on Alcaraz

As the world’s elite tennis players gather in Wimbledon for this year’s championships, Cassell – part of the Hachette group – has announced the acquisition of Being Carlos Alcaraz by tennis journalist Mark Hodgkinson. Garbiñe Muguruza, a former women’s singles world...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this