1937 The Road to Wigan Pier

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

The first edition of this sociological study from George Orwell.

The Left Book Club edition, 'not for sale to the public', published prior to the Gollancz first trade edition.

'The Road to Wigan Pier' documents Orwell's sociological investigations into working class living conditions in Lancashire and Yorkshire before World War II. It also contains a long essay on Orwell's own middle-class upbringing and the development of his political conscience, in which he questions British attitudes towards socialism.

Illustrated with thirty-two photographic plates. Collated, complete.

The Left Book Club was founded in 1936 and ran until 1948, pioneered by publisher Victor Gollancz, and issued anti-war and anti-fascist works during World War Two. Gollancz disapproved of the second half this work, disavowing the middle-class, but Orwell fought to have it included. Gollancz included his own introduction as a result.