Oak Knoll

First privately printed edition limited to 330, of which this is one of 275 numbered copies bound thus. Fine in fine slipcase.

"All that is known to have survived of the preliminary drafts of Nineteen Eighty-Four, that is, about 44% of the published text" (introduction). As a rule, George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950), discarded drafts. This set of parts of four drafts may have survived because the author did not live very long after completion of the work. The first three drafts consist of various typescript sheets; the bulk of the "manuscript" is the handwritten fourth draft. Mostly, sheets from different drafts do not overlap in content, so that the arrangement of all the facsimiles can roughly follow the order of the published text. Facsimile sheets are generally on the right, with typographic transcriptions of both the text and Orwell's revisions on the facing left pages. A few typescript originals needed no transcription. Notes at the bottom of each transcript page refer to corresponding passages in each of three published editions, provide clarifications and identify watermarks where present. The drafts show how Orwell made stylistic improvements and rewrote and rearranged passages. There are three brief episodes and a character not in the published text, along with other interesting differences. For ex., "1984" seems at first to have been "1980"! The pagination on the first draft text of Goldstein's book suggests that Orwell originally considered having this important passage appear earlier in the book, or worked on it early as a text of great importance to him.