BROCKWAY, Fenner. WORKERS' FRONT. London: Secker and Warburg., 1938.

Price: US$612.02 + shipping

Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by the author along with 12 other members of the Independent Labour Party. Publisher's original red cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, without dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and tight. The contents with a little toning are otherwise in excellent order and clean throughout. Signed by the author in black ink to the front endpaper, along with James Maxton, Frederick William Jowett, Percy Williams, Sam Leckie, John McGovern, John Aplin, Kate Spurrell (signs twice), John McNair (signs twice), Tom Reed, Campbell Stephen, James Carmichael and M. Winifred Evans. Here, Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), the prominent socialist politician and anti-war activist, presents his stinging critique of a lacklustre and rudderless contemporary Labour Party, arguing for greater bravery of vision and a programme for more fundamental societal change, as well as asserting the need for a united, international labour movement, strong enough to defeat both capitalism and the growing menace of fascism. Brockway was chairman, then general secretary, of the Independent Labour Party between 1933-1939, and the work also reflects the party's broad agenda following its disaffiliation from the Labour Party in 1932 - i.e. to articulate a socialism distinct from both the watered-down pragmatism of Labour and the Stalinism of the Communist Party. Although ultimately faced with dwindling support, it contained many notable members, including George Orwell and Sylvia Pankhurst. Indeed, John McNair, who has signed the present copy, had, along with John McGovern, travelled to Spain in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, running the ILP's political office, and making arrangements for the arrival of British volunteers to fight with the POUM, including Orwell himself, as the latter relates in Homage to Catalonia. Amongst the others to have signed the present volume is James Maxton, the ILP leader and one of the key figures of the Red Clydeside era, as well as numerous other leading figures in the party, several of whom are likewise linked to Scottish socialism. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom

ORWELL, George.. Homage to Catalonia.. , 1938.

Price: US$69577.47 + shipping

Description: London: Secker and Warburg, 1938. 8vo., original cloth with supplied dust wrapper; pp. [vi], 313, [i]; boards of book somewhat soiled and rubbed with a light scrape along spine, some nicks to cloth at extremities of spine, wrapper with some loss and wear with front flap detatched, otherwise a very good copy. First edition signed by Orwell in full on the front free endpaper (for his friend and correspondent E. G[eorge]. Barber) and rare thus. Laid-in is a letter from Barber's daughter, explaining that her father was a member of The Left Book Club and expressing her regret that Orwell's side of their correspondence was assumed to be lost, probably during a house move, although one letter is known to have survived and is included in the Collected Letters. Sold by Judy Barber to Edinburgh dealer,William Lytle, thence by private collector to Peter Grogan, bookseller. [Together with]: "Almanaque de la Revolucià n Española 1937" - an illustrated wall-calendar, presumed published by The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Spanish: Partido Obrero de Unificacià n Marxista - P.O.U.M.), with stirring illustrations and bellicose notes for each month. This copy was sent by Orwell to Barber from Barcelona in January 1937 (the exact date of the postmark is illegible and the page for January is absent) and has Barber's address in Woolwich in Orwell's hand on the backing paper. It also has Orwell's additional note "IMPRENTA / IMPRIMÉ" - Orwell always counted the pennies - and a further intriguing note in pencil, possibly in Orwell's hand, possibly Barber's or possibly that of a sympathetic postal worker. This marking is upside-down and somewhat stylised to disguise the message: "VIVA EL POUM". From the dustwrapper blurb: "In December 1936, Orwell enlisted in the P.O.U.M. militia and fought on the Aragon front till April, first in a Spanish company, then with the I.L.P. contingent. On leave in Barcelona during the May fighting, he gives an eye-witness account of what really happened. Then he went back to the front, was wounded, declared medically unfit, and returning through Barcelona to England narrowly escaped arrest as a counter-revolutionary!".

Seller: Henry Sotheran Ltd, London, United Kingdom