Witnessing two kinds of executions in Burma ("A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant") and firing salvos at British colonialism ("How a Nation is Exploited"), being down and out in Paris ("A Day in the Life of a Tramp") and bookselling in Hampstead ("Bookshop Memories"), Orwell's breadth of experience, compassion, and political insight make his early essays among his best. It was also during this period that Orwell wrote and published Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier (originally published for the Left Book Club), and the memoir of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia. This first volume of the Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters, spanning two decade of nonfiction writing and letters, contains some of the most remarkable writing of Orwell's entire career.