Letters showing Orwell's battles with his publisher are saved for the nation

George Orwell's correspondence, contracts and reader reports relating to his earliest novels are among historic papers that have been saved for the nation following an outcry over their initial dispersal.

- Dalya Alberge

University College London said it had acquired the archive of the Nineteen Eighty-Four author's publisher as "a valuable piece of Britain's cultural heritage". About 160 items, dating from 1934 to 1937, will be added to the Orwell archive at UCL Special Collections, the world's most comprehensive holdings of research material on the author.

The papers offer extraordinary insights into one of the most influential British writers of the 20th century. They relate to four published works – A Clergyman's Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Road to Wigan Pier and the essay Inside the Whale – and include his observations on the politics of 1930s Europe.

The collection had belonged to Victor Gollancz, who founded his celebrated publishing house in 1927. The company was acquired by the Orion Publishing Group, which became part of Hachette, owned by the French multinational Lagardère, whose decision to sell the archive because its warehouse was closing was condemned last year as an act of cultural vandalism.