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BOOKS AND LETTERS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ANTHONY POWELL
Lot 319

ORWELL (GEORGE)
Autograph letter signed ("George"), to the novelist Anthony Powell ("Dear Tony"), describing his ill-health and hopes for resuming his writing career, The Cotswold Sanatorium, Cranham, Gloucestershire, 2 February 1949; 'IT'S A UTOPIA IN THE FORM OF A NOVEL, & I THINK ITS TITLE WILL BE "1984"'

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

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ORWELL (GEORGE)

Autograph letter signed ("George"), to the novelist Anthony Powell ("Dear Tony"), describing his ill-health and hopes for resuming his writing career: "I had to refuse the books the T.L.S. recently offered me. I am trying to do no work whatever for at least another month or two. My new book is supposed to come out in May or June, which doubtless means July. It's a Utopia written in the form of a novel, & I think the title will be '1984', though we haven't fixed that with complete firmness. Malcolm told me he too had finished a novel. How about you? It's a god-awful job getting back to writing books again after years of time-wasting, but I feel now I've broken the spell & could go on writing if I were well again"; and giving details of his health and of his Cotswold sanatorium ("...This part of England, which I don't know, is supposed to be a beauty spot. The weather has been quite incredible, more like April than January. I live in a 'chalet,' which isn't quite as grim as it sounds..."), 2 pages, in fine, fresh condition, 4to, The Cotswold Sanatorium, Cranham, Gloucestershire, 2 February 1949

Footnotes

'IT'S A UTOPIA IN THE FORM OF A NOVEL, & I THINK ITS TITLE WILL BE "1984"' – ORWELL TO POWELL, ON THE IMMINENT PUBLICATION OF NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR.

The book had been with his publishers, Secker & Warburg, since December (see the previous lot). Its long-mooted alternative title was The Last Man in Europe. Powell, after whose novels Orwell enquires in our letter, had had in fact embarked upon A Question of Upbringing, first volume of his masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time.

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