Born on June 25, 1903, Eric Arthur Blair worked a number of odd jobs in his career - from a stint as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Police to a high school teacher, a bookstore clerk, a propagandist for the BBC during World War II, a literary editor and a war correspondent. Of course, we know him best for his work as an author when he donned the pen name George Orwell and gave us such iconic literary works’ as Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Animal Farm.

Clearly dedicated to his craft, Orwell willingly got himself arrested for being "drunk and incapable"  while investigating poverty for his memoir, in order to get a taste of prison and get closer to small-time criminals. Talk about method writing!