- First-impression copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are bound in green cloth and are found in either a red or a green dust jacket.
Publisher · founded 1935 · London
Secker & Warburg
Secker & Warburg was a London publisher formed in 1935, the house that issued Orwell's Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, merged into Harvill Secker in 2005.
- Editions tracked
- 259
- First editions
- 87
- Books
- 258
- Years
- 1915 to 2005
Secker & Warburg is a publisher based in London, founded in 1935. We track 259 editions it published between 1915 and 2005, 87 of them first editions across 258 books. How Secker & Warburg marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Secker & Warburg
Secker & Warburg was a London publisher formed in 1935 when Fredric Warburg and Roger Senhouse took over the failing firm of Martin Secker; it is best remembered as George Orwell's publisher and became part of Harvill Secker in 2005.
Warburg and Senhouse acquired Martin Secker's business out of receivership. The new firm published Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (1938) and, after the book had been rejected elsewhere for some eighteen months, Animal Farm (1945), followed by his later books including Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). From 1941 Orwell and T. R. Fyvel edited its Searchlight Books series, which stopped after ten of a planned seventeen titles. Other authors on the list included Simone de Beauvoir, Colette, Alberto Moravia, Günter Grass, Angus Wilson, J. M. Coetzee, Lewis Mumford and C. L. R. James (The Black Jacobins).
Secker & Warburg joined the Heinemann group in 1951 and so passed to Octopus in 1985, Reed International in 1987 and, with Reed's adult trade division, to Random House in February 1997. In 2005 it was merged with the Harvill Press, founded in 1946, to create Harvill Secker, now an imprint of Vintage within Penguin Random House.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Secker & Warburg's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Secker & Warburg first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Secker & Warburg
Spot the first: Imprint: Dated May 1945, three months before actual publication (first impression)
- 1st Secker & Warburg1945 Hardback Sold £7,000 · Sep 2026 I own Animal Farm, Secker & Warburg 1945 Log in to want this
Worth£405 to £4,000
Spot the first: Jacket: Red or green background; both were issued with the first impression (first issue jacket)
- 1st Secker & Warburg1949 Hardback £405 to £4,000Sold £650 · Sep 2026 I own Nineteen Eighty-Four, Secker & Warburg 1949 Log in to want this
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Secker & Warburg first edition?
- First-impression copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are bound in green cloth and are found in either a red or a green dust jacket.
How many Secker & Warburg books does MyVolumes track?
We track 259 editions published by Secker & Warburg, 87 of them first editions, across 258 books.
Where these facts come from
- Harvill Secker (Secker & Warburg), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Secker & Warburg (Q2263748), Wikidata (wikidata.org)
- Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, first edition, lot 75, Bonhams, 2024 (bonhams.com)
- Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, UK first edition in original red dust jacket, First and Fine (firstandfine.com)
- Boutell's First Editions of To-Day, Ash Rare Books, 2019 (ashrarebooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.