George Orwell
‘Down and Out in Paris and London’

The first American edition

By Daniel J. Leab:

The author initially expressed concern that there might be material in the book which would be disdainful of Americans. But what there is, such as a contempt for the inability of Americans in Paris to “know” good food, seems not to have made a difference: for as Peter Stansky and William Abrahams, chroniclers of the author's early life indicate, at that time “criticism of this sort coming from an Englishman would only amuse Americans...” Harpers brought out an edition of 1,750 copies to generally good reviews (the novelist James T. Farrell judged the book “genuine, unexaggerated and intelligent”). Alas, only 1,100 copies had been sold before Harpers in February 1934, nine months after publication, remaindered the unsold 383 copies. Copyright is in the name of Eric Arthur Blair.