ORWELL (GEORGE) 1984. A Novel, PROOF COPY, Secker & Warburg, 1949ORWELL (GEORGE)1984. A Novel, PROOF COPY, light spotting (mostly to fore-edge of text block), publisher's plain blue wrappers, inked "1984" on spine, upper hinge weakened, preserved in modern blue morocco-backed solander box [cf. Fenwick A12a], 8vo, Secker & Warburg, 1949Rare proof copy. On the half-title "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is spelled out in letters whilst the present title-page expresses this in numerals ("1984"), unlike the published edition. Harcourt Brace's interest in the novel meant they were reluctant to wait for corrected proofs from Secker & Warburg; Orwell complained, "This will mean 2 sets of proofs to correct.... As there are a lot of neologisms there are bound to be many printers' errors of a stupid kind, & American compositors are very tiresome to deal with as they always think they know better than the author... It is most important that there shouldn't be any misprints in a book of this kind" (Fenwick, p.129).Provenance: Bonhams, 8 November 2005, lot 513.