The Road to Wigan Pier

First edition. 8vo. Pp. xxiv, 264. Orange limp linen wraps, titled in black to spine and front. The Left Book Club issue, bearing the legend "Not For Sale to the Public" to front cover, sold at 2s. 6d. With thirty-two b/w photographic plates. Plus, a fourteen-page publisher's introduction in which Victor Gollancz repudiates some of Orwell's claims [omitted from the subsequent casebound trade issue]. 1/44,150 copies printed.

Left Book Club Membership and Travel Book Club leaflets laid in. Spine slightly askew with tips a tad worn, textblock edges toned, else Fine. Although not an uncommon book, decent copies like the present are hard to come by, as they were avidly read by the membership.

Commissioned by Gollancz in January 1936 to report on working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Northern England, for which he received a £500 advance, the assignment helped crystallize Orwell's feelings about Socialism "which alone in his opinion could conserve human values from the ravages of industrialism, [yet] had so little appeal". It was issued to Left Book Club members as the March 1937 choice, despite the publisher's misgivings about Orwell's conclusions, necessitating the insertion of a preface against the author's wishes. "Victor could not bear to reject it, even though his suggestion that the 'repugnant' second half should be omitted from the Club edition was turned down," according to Orwell biographer Bernard Crick.

[Fenwick A5a]