Searchlight Books
Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. Country: U.K. Date: 1941- .
The Lion and the Unicorn:Socialism and the English Genius by George Orwell
Secker & Warburg, 1941 (Searchlight Books)
Hardback with dustjacket. 127 pages.
The Lion and the Unicorn is an essay on the social and political structure of England during World War II. In it Orwell argues that, in order to defeat the Axis powers, England needs socialist reform designed to meet the needs of the people. The first section of this essay has often been republished on its own under the title of "England Your England".
SEARCHLIGHT BOOKS (SECKER & WARBURG)
Series Note: This series was co-edited by by George Orwell and T. [Tosco] R. Fyvel.
The publishers, Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd., announced the new series in February 1941. The format would be essays of 128 pages which would be "popular but serious". They promised that this series would "serve as an arsenal for the manufacture of mental and spiritual weapons needed for the crusade against Nazism.
The series would (the publishers promised):
criticize and kill what is rotten in Western civilization and supply constructive ideas for the difficult time ahead of us. The series ... will stress Britain's international and imperial responsibilities and the aim of a planned Britain at the head of a greater but freer British Commonwealth and linked with the United States of America as a framework of world order. The books will be written in simple language without the rubber-stamp political jargon of the past. They will seek to appeal to the new generation which is fighting this war whether on the battlefields or in the factories and to all those who can recognize the spirit of the new world prospects which are opening before us.
Volumes were issued as hardbacks with dustjackets. The front panel of each volume featured an illustration of a searchlight designed by Zec and printed in a teal colour.
Unfortunately, of the seventeen volumes originally projected to be published, only a limited number actually appeared, due to German bombing of the publisher's office and the destruction of the printer's paper stock.
Publication Number/Title/Author/Date
No. 1
The Lion and the Unicorn:Socialism and the English Genius
George Orwell
1941.
No. 2
Offensive Against Germany
Sebastian Haffner
1941.
No. 3
The Lesson of London
Ritchie Calder
1941.
No. 4
The English at War
Cassandra [pseudonym] - with five drawings by Zec
1941
No. 5
The End of the "Old School Tie"
T. C. Worsley - with foreword by George Orwell
1941
No. 10
Struggle for the Spanish Soul
Arturo Barea
1941
No. 11
The Case for African Freedom
Joyce Cary - with foreword by George Orwell
1941
No. 15
The Moral Blitz
Bernard Causton
1941
No. 16
Beyond the "Isms"
Olaf Stapledon
1942
No. 18
Life and the Poet
Stephen Spender
1942
Publication number not identified
Dover Front
Reginald Foster
1941
No publication number found. Front panel of dustjacket reads "A Searchlight Reporter Book".
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Author: David Paul Wagner
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