Down and Out in Paris and London

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Very Good+. 1950 (c.1933). "New Edition". Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [a good sound copy with very light wear at the extremities, gilt lettering on spine dulled but still readable]. The first American printing of the "New Edition" (reset) of Orwell's first full-length book, called a "novel" on the title page, but generally regarded as an autobiographical work based on his experience living in (and observing) poverty in the titular cities during the late 1920s. Originally published in 1933, the book was reissued in its new edition by Secker & Warburg in England in 1949, no doubt in an attempt to capitalize on the success of "Nineteen Eighty-Four"; the American edition was issued in January 1950, along with two other earlier works by Orwell, "Burmese Days" and "Coming Up for Air," just two days before the author's death. This printing is unaccountably scarce. . (Inventory #: 29026)