224
ORWELL’S FIRST NOVEL IN SCARCE DUST JACKET
224
●
ORWELL, GEORGE.
Burmese Days.
Tall 8vo, orange cloth lettered in black,
covers bright; dust jacket, mild browning to spine panel, small chips at fold corners, some
chipping at edges with 1” vertical tear at bottom left of spine panel, small chip at head of
spine panel with partial loss to first letter in title; top margin corner of a few pages lightly
creased, contents clean.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934
[3,000/4,000]
FIRST EDITION OF ORWELL
’
S FIRST NOVEL
seldom seen in dust jacket. Published a year
before the edition issued in London. According to Alan C. Smith, the NY edition was 2000
copies: “Orwell’s first novel had a chequered publishing history. Some of the fictional names
and incidents were uncomfortably close to fact, and several English publishers fought shy of the
book, in spite of the success of ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ (1933). Some textual
changes were made, and the book was first published by Harpers ... after the English publica-
tion of his second novel (“A Clergyman’s Daughter” in 1935), Orwell consented to further
textual changes, and the book was eventually published by Gollancz in an edition of 2500
copies.” Only three copies of this edition are listed in published auction records for the last 35
years.
225
●
ORWELL, GEORGE.
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
8vo, green cloth stamped in red,
cocked, spine and board extremities age-toned; top edges stained red; green dust jacket,
scattered rubbing, few short closed tears, few tiny chips, unclipped; internally clean.
FIRST
ENGLISH EDITION
. Connolly, The Modern Movement 99.
London: Secker & Warburg, (1949)
[800/1,200]
226
●
ORWELL, GEORGE.
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
8vo, grey cloth stamped in red
and black,
1
/
4
inch fray at spine tip; dust jacket printed in red, spine panel slightly darkened,
1
1
/
4
inch tear on upper front panel, few other short clean tears, corners clipped, one irregu-
larly.
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
.
New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1949)
[400/600]
