The present text derives from the edition published in 1980 by Macmillan of Canada, a division of Gage Publishing Limited of Toronto, Canada. Spelling and German phrases have been left in their original form. Minor changes have been effected to correct typographical and/or spelling errors. The American edition was published in 1980 by St. Martin’s Press of New York. Penguin Books published an English edition in paperback format in 1981. New Press, which had become part of Stoddard Publishing, issued an inexpensive small format paperback in 1983.
MacLennan’s biographer, Elspeth Cameron, has noted that he observed that “Critics will call the book ‘Orwellian,’ but I don’t think it owes anything to Orwell, who died before the H-bomb.”