In my last Orwell post I discussed the US paperback editions of Nineteen Eighty-Four published by New American Library (NAL) from 1950 to current. The UK equivalent is Penguin. Oddly Penguin took five years to first publish the title - in 1954.
The publishing history for the NAL editions is relatively easy to sort out. Not so Penguin. From 1954 to 1989 Penguin published at least 60 mass market paperback printings. This publishing history is somewhat confusing but starting in 1989 the history is quite muddled when Penguin published a new edition with text from the Complete Works of George Orwell (Secker and Warburg, 1987) including an Introduction and Note on the Text. Since then Penguin has put out many variations of this combination.
Here is a random set of six versions of the 1989 edition, all UK editions. The first four are printings of the same setting of type so technically printings of one edition. The small sample below has at least 68 printings. The last two are printings of a different type setting and therefore a different edition.
1) trade paperback with Introduction and Note on Text. At least four printings, no date for printing. One of "Twentieth Century Classics".
2) mass market with no Introduction or Note on Text. At least 19 printings, no date.
3) mass market with Note on Text but no Introduction. At least 44 printings of a "2008 edition", no date.
4) trade paperback with no Introduction or Note on Text. First printing, no date. One of "Film Classics" free to buyers of The Times in 2009.
5) mass market with no Introduction or Note on Text. First printing of a "2013 edition". One of "Great Orwell" series.
6) trade paperback with a different Introduction and same Note on Text. Includes notes, further reading and three appendices. First printing of an annotated "2013 edition". One of "Modern Classics".
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