Burmese Days: A Novel by George Orwell.

ORWELL, George.

$35,000.00

Item Number: 143599

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934.

First American edition, preceding the English edition by one year of Orwell’s first novel. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth. Signed by the author opposite the title page, “George Orwell.” In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box by the Harcourt Bindery. Rare and desirable signed.

Burmese Days was first published "further afield," in the United States, because of concerns that it might be potentially libelous; that the real provincial town of Katha had been described too realistically; and that some of its fictional characters were based too closely on identifiable people. After Orwell's agent approached several other publishers, it was released by Harper & Brothers in 1934 in an edition of 2,000 copies. An English edition, with altered names, appeared a year later. Nonetheless, Orwell's harsh portrayal of colonial society was felt by "some old Burma hands" to have "rather let the side down." In a letter from 1946, Orwell wrote, "I dare say it's unfair in some ways and inaccurate in some details, but much of it is simply reporting what I have seen." In 2013, the Burmese Ministry of Information named the new translation of Burmese Days the winner of the 2012 Burma National Literature Award's "informative literature" (translation) category. The National Literary Awards are the highest literary awards in Burma.