Homage to Catalonia
New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1952.
First American edition, first printing. Advance review copy with publisher's slip tipped to front free endpaper. xxiii, [1], 232 pp. Bound in publisher's yellow cloth stamped in olive green. Near Fine with light rubbing to extremities and faint foxing to cloth. In a Near Fine dust jacket with light toning, soiling, and shelf wear. Shallow clips to corners but price of $3.50 intact, date "Apr 21 1952" stamped on front flap; it would be superseded by the May 15th date on the review slip. A handsome review copy of Orwell's Spanish Civil War memoir, first published in his native Britain 14 years earlier to a deafening silence that, Orwell surmised, reflected an informal boycott due to its critique of Stalinist Communism. "Ten years ago it was almost impossible to get anything printed in favour of Communism; today it is almost impossible to get anything printed in favour of Anarchism or 'Trotskyism'," he wrote. It has become widely seen as one of the most important firsthand accounts of the Spanish Civil War and the lead-up to WWII.
Price: $3,500