George Orwell "Animal Farm" Slipcased Signed Limited Artist Edition of 1,000 [Sealed]

George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.

Personally signed by Omar Rayyan

SIGNED LIMITED ARTIST EDITION OF 1,000

Suntup Editions 2022.  George Orwell "Animal Farm" Signed Limited Artist Edition. The Artist edition is limited to 1000 copies, and is the only edition to feature a wraparound dust jacket illustrated by Omar Rayyan. It is a smyth sewn, quarter cloth binding with Zanders Elephant Hide paper sides and hot foil stamping on the cover and spine. Endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra, and the edition is printed letterpress on premium Mohawk Via Vellum paper. It is housed in an embossed wood grain paper covered slipcase and is signed by the artist.

Introduction by Richard Blair
Illustrated by Omar Rayyan

Custom bookmark with all orders.

SIGNED ARTIST EDITION

• 6” x 9” trim size.
• 176 Pages.
• Limited to 1000 copies.
• Quarter cloth smyth-sewn binding, with Zanders Elephant Hide paper sides.
• Hot foil stamping on cover and spine.
• New exclusive introduction by Richard Blair, adopted son of George Orwell.
• Six full color oil painting illustrations by Omar Rayyan.
• Dust jacket featuring wraparound artwork by Omar Rayyan (the only edition featuring the dust jacket).
• Signed by Omar Rayyan.
• Over 50 pages of bonus content including Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm, Orwell's preface to the Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm and a photograph of Orwell feeding his pet goat Muriel.
• Endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra.
• Printed letterpress on premium Mohawk Via Vellum.
• Housed in an embossed wood grain paper covered slipcase.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

ABOUT THE EDITIONS

The signed limited edition of Animal Farm by George Orwell is presented in three states: Artist, Numbered and Lettered. The editions measure 6” x 9” and feature six full color oil painting illustrations by Omar Rayyan as well as a new exclusive introduction by Richard Blair, adopted son of George Orwell. The Numbered and Lettered editions are signed by Richard Blair and Omar Rayyan, and the Artist edition is signed by Omar Rayyan. All three editions are printed letterpress on a Heidelberg Cylinder Press by Norman Clayton of Classic Letterpress in Ojai, California.

This listing is for the Signed Artist Edition

A NOTE ON THE TYPOGRAPHY

What makes Animal Farm so brilliant is that it is a highly political story dressed up as a quaint fairy tale. The illustrations in our edition, too, are beautiful-but-deceptively-wicked. To keep up the facade, we’ve set the text in Austin. Designed by Paul Barnes for British style magazine Harper’s & Queen between 2007 and 2014, the face is a loose revival of the late-18th century typefaces of Richard Austin. Their sharp edges and sweet curves are a study in contrasts and can’t help but make a reader feel safe even when they’re reading about conniving anthropomorphized farm animals.

Our display face is Will Carter’s Klang. Although calligraphic in nature, it was not drawn or written, but cut into card stock, giving it a thick and chunky look. It is perhaps the sort of letter that a pig might write—if that pig could hold a pen and was a celebrated printer, typographer, calligrapher, and carver of wood and slate like Carter was. Designed in 1955—ten years after the publication of Animal Farm—like the Austin types used for the text, Klang is quintessentially British and a fun (and dark) compliment to Orwell’s tragically timeless tale.

About the book

One of Time magazine’s 100 best English-language novels and the most famous of all twentieth-century political allegories, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story by George Orwell is a wise, compassionate and illuminating fable that remains the ultimate satire on the dark side of modern history.

The animals at Manor Farm have had enough of Farmer Jones. He’s drunk, reckless and cares little for their welfare. When the boar, Old Major, shares his revolutionary plans, the animals are convinced they can thrive on their own once the despot Jones is overthrown. The barnyard animals revolt against their vicious human master only to submit to a tyranny created by their own kind. For as the pigs vie for power, they begin to bear an uncanny resemblance to the tyrants they have overthrown.

A seminal anti-totalitarianism satire once considered so controversial it was rejected by several publishers, Animal Farm became an instant success upon its first publication in 1945, following the Second World War. The novel has continued to captivate readers of all ages, and has secured Orwell’s position as one of the greatest writers of all-time.

Orwell’s original title for his novel was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, and it was first published as such by Secker and Warburg in London, England on August 17, 1945. U.S. publishers subsequently dropped Orwell’s subtitle when publishing the novel in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell’s lifetime kept it.

In a 1946 letter from George Orwell to Dwight Macdonald, the author discusses his intent in writing Animal Farm. Orwell writes, “What I was trying to say was: You can’t have a revolution unless you make it for yourself; there is no such thing as benevolent dictatorship.”

A timeless, affecting story of revolutions, idealism, power and corruption, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story is Orwell’s most renowned work.

The signed limited edition of Animal Farm by George Orwell is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist editions.

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell produced literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Blair was born in India, and raised and educated in England. After school he became an Imperial policeman in Burma, before returning to Suffolk, England, where he began his writing career as George Orwell—a name inspired by a favourite location, the River Orwell. He lived from occasional pieces of journalism, and also worked as a teacher or bookseller whilst living in London. From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, his success as a writer grew and his first books were published. He was wounded fighting in the Spanish Civil War, leading to his first period of ill health on return to England. During the Second World War he worked as a journalist and for the BBC. The publication of Animal Farm led to fame during his life-time. During the final years of his life he worked on Nineteen Eighty-Four, and moved between Jura in Scotland and London. It was published in June 1949, less than a year before his death.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times ranked George Orwell second among "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

About the artist

Upon graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design many years ago, Omar Rayyan settled on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The bucolic surroundings compliment and help inspire his "old world" aesthetic toward painting. He enjoys looking to the past for inspiration and guidance from the great oil painters of the Northern Renaissance and the Romantic and Symbolist painters of the 19th century.

In the past, he created illustrations for many publishers, including Simon & Schuster, Random House and Hyperion/Disney. His market was mainly geared towards children's and young adult's magazines and books, doing cover and interior illustrations. He also illustrated several children's picture books.

In 2016, Omar published an illustrated book, “Goblin Market”. It was the culmination of many years of work, a personal project based on the narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. A successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign helped the project come to fruition, and the result was a beautiful hardcover book packed with over 100 full-color watercolor paintings.

Nowadays, Omar is concentrating more on doing personal works and commissions for collectors. Paintings of whim and fantasy made to indulge his own personal tastes and humors and to hopefully entertain and please the viewing public.

Reference: https://www.studiorayyan.com/about