COMING UP FOR AIR (First edition - second impression - scarce in original publisher's binding)

A second impression of the first edition published in June. Only 3,000 copies of the book were printed by Gollancz, with 2,000 bound up in the first impression, with the final 1,000 bound up as the second impression. This was the final novel that Orwell wrote before the outbreak of war, and was the last to be published by Victor Gollancz, as "Animal Farm" and "1984" were published by Secker & Warburg. ***A good only copy in the publisher's blue cloth-covered boards with darker blue titles to the spine. There is the remains of a Boots Library sticker affixed to the front board which explains why the binding has become so worn. The book must have been avidly read in the late 1930s and during the Second World War - there is a 30 May 1940 date stamp on the inside of the back board, perhaps indicating when it was first bought by the library. The cloth covering the boards has become quite worn with age and handling, including creasing to the head and tail of the spine, and rubbing at the corner tips. The fragile thin cloth is also splitting along the edge of the back board and spine, but is still holding well. The binding has virtually no reading lean to the casing. There is some patchy fading mainly to the spine. The page block edges are a bit grubby, with some darkening to the top edge, and foxing to the fore-edge. There appears to be a remainder mark on the bottom edge of the page block. Internally the book is quite clean, with no serious creases or tears. No inscriptions or annotations. The paper stock has very little of the usual foxing - just some light foxing to the endpapers and first and last few pages. Without the extremely scarce dustwrapper. ***285 pages. 190mm x 135mm. ***'"Coming Up for Air" is the seventh book by English writer George Orwell, published in June 1939 by Victor Gollancz. It was written between 1938 and 1939 while Orwell spent time recuperating from illness in French Morocco, mainly in Marrakesh. He delivered the completed manuscript to Victor Gollancz upon his return to London in March 1939. The story follows George Bowling, a 45-year-old husband, father, and insurance salesman, who foresees World War II and attempts to recapture idyllic childhood innocence and escape his dreary life by returning to Lower Binfield, his birthplace. The novel is comical and pessimistic, with its views that (a) speculative builders, commercialism, and capitalism are killing the best of rural England, and (b) his country is facing the sinister appearance of new, external national threats. Orwell left the manuscript at his agent's office within a few hours of arriving back in England on March 30, 1939. It was submitted to Victor Gollancz, who had an option on Orwell's next three novels, in spite of the 'cold treatment which Orwell had been given when "Homage to Catalonia" was rejected.' In fact Orwell heard in April 1939 that Gollancz had reservations about the book, and was delaying a decision to accept it. The descriptions in the novel of a character who lectures at a meeting of Gollancz's Left Book Club, and of the meeting itself, were such that Gollancz 'could not have helped being offended by them.' Nevertheless, the publisher did bring out the novel without demanding major changes and it was published on June 12, 1939. It was the last Orwell novel to bear the Gollancz imprint. The novel sold three thousand copies, a thousand of which represented a second printing.' (Wiki) ***A second impression of the true first edition of this poignant novel by George Orwell, which is scarce now in any condition in either impression. Whilst the book is in fairly worn condition, it is in the original state with no pages damaged or missing - so could be suitable as a candidate for rebinding. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…