INSCRIBED FOR ANTHONY POWELL
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Gollancz, 1936.
First edition. Publisher's blue cloth with dark blue lettering. Signed by the author for fellow novelist Anthony Powell, "Geo. Orwell" on the front end paper, with Powell's bookplate to the front pastedown. A very good copy, light soiling with a little wear to the spine ends and rear joint and the faint remains of a Boots label to the front cover.
The book which "would eventually produce one of his [Orwell's] most substantial adult friendships" (Taylor - Orwell The Life). Powell recalls buying this book and the friendship with Orwell which followed in the first volume of his autobiography, Infants of the Spring (1976).
"When Down and Out in Paris and London appeared in 1933, someone recommended it... I read the book, and was impressed by its savagery and gloom. At the same time, I cannot claim to have immediately marked down Orwell as a writer of whom one would obviously hear more. However, a year or two later, when I saw a copy of Keep the Aspidistra Flying in a secondhand bookshop, I bought it. Again, I liked the novel for its violent feelings and presentation of a young man at the end of his tether, rather than for its form or style, which seemed strangely old fashioned in treatment... I spoke of the book dining with Cyril Connolly. Connolly then told me Orwell was one of his oldest friends... He urged me to write a fan letter. This I did, thereby making my first Orwell contact, in 1936"
Powell included a copy of his recently self published Caledonia, and received a friendly, if hesitant, reply from Orwell. It was not until some five years later that they met in person, whereafter they would meet and correspond regularly for the remainder of Orwell's life.
An exceptional association copy. George Orwell presentation copies are uncommon, without compare amongst major twentieth century writers.
PROVENANCE: From the library of Anthony Powell, bookplate on pastedown.
Stock ID: 34096
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