Evelyn Waugh – Decline and Fall – First Edition – SIGNED

A first edition, first printing of ‘Decline and Fall’ by Evelyn Waugh published by Chapman and Hall in 1928. A very good copy with sunning to the spine with some light wear and a little chipping to the spine tips, a little spotting to the contents and crease to page 81. SIGNED by Evelyn Waugh in his elaborate hand without dedication. beneath Waugh’s signature is the inscription ‘Stolen from John Betjeman’ in Betjeman’s own hand. In the supplied dust wrapper which is near fine (or better) with a little wear to the spine tips and corners. The titles are strong. A very nice example of the Author-designed dust wrapper.

On the relationship between Waugh and Betjeman (taken from p. 73 of A. N. Wilson’s ‘Betjeman’):

“Waugh, three years older than Betjeman, had been introduced to him at Biddesden by Diana Guinness. he moved in the sam circles of Bowra, Irish country houses, and upper-class bohemia. By the time Betjeman came down from Oxford, Waugh had published his remarkable life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and made a notable hit with his hilarious first novel, Decline and Fall. The relationship between the two men was edgy, perhaps best summarised by Waugh himself in a letter to Betjeman’s wife on 7 January 1950 – ‘my love to John. Though he doesn’t love me as I love him'”. From Eade, ‘Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited’: The two reviewed each other’s works, and corresponded on literature and religion. Though they clashed on religious issues, their aesthetics were similar, both abhorring modern architecture and town planning, and admiring Gothic Revival decoration and furniture.

A superb association and more so given the fact this is Waugh’s first novel. In a custom-made clamshell box

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