This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/24/2025
[CAGNEY, James (1899-1986), his copy]. ORWELL, George (pseudonym of BLAIR, Eric Arthur, 1903-1950). Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, [1946]. Small 8vo. 118, [2, blank] pp. Publisher's full green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, publisher's unclipped (no price) dust jacket (cloth rubbed, bumped, endleaves a bit toned; jacket worn, chipped, soiled, torn). A good copy in a fair jacket. EARLY AMERICAN EDITION, JAMES CAGNEY'S COPY WITH HIS BOOKPLATE ON THE FP. (light soiling to bookplate). Cagney had a tenuous link to Orwell, via the filmmaker, Louis de Rochemont (1899-1978). Rochemont and his brother had produced the popular “March of Time" newsreels, and later produced other films, including the British animated version of Animal Farm (1954), in which he was heavily involved in the artistic direction (legend has it that he was the “front" for the CIA in the making of that anti-Soviet film). Years before his involvement in Animal Farm, Rochemont produced the spy thriller, 13 Rue Madeleine (1947, directed by Henry Hathaway), with Cagney as the leading role of Bob Sharkey, the heroic spy who sacrifices his life in order to protect the plans to the secret D-Day invasion (as an aside, J. Edgar Hoover himself had a brief cameo in this film). From the collection of magician and actor Harry Anderson.