Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
First American edition, first printing of Orwell's landmark dystopian novel, issued five days after the London first, in the blue variant of the first-issue trade dust jacket. Orwell's final novel introduced Big Brother, the Thought Police, and doublethink into the cultural vocabulary and remains one of the defining works of twentieth-century political fiction.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949. Publisher's gray-brown cloth stamped in red and black; original blue dust jacket, with a rear-panel caricature of Orwell by George Holland; pp. [4], 314. A very good copy in an about very good, unclipped dust jacket. Binding remains tight, sturdy and square. Minimal wear to boards, rubbing to spine, small brown stain to top edge of text block. Internally clean and free of markings. Jacket remains bright and vivid, spine a touch toned. General wear present, with a small hole to the spine and scattered pinholes and losses to extremities and creases. Presents well in archival mylar.