ONE OF 50 FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION, INSCRIBED FOR PENELOPE BETJEMAN
Edmund Campion
Longmans, 1935.
First edition, limited issue. Number 38 of 50 copies "for private distribution". Inscribed by Waugh for Penelope Betjeman on the front free endpaper, "Penelope with love from Evelyn". Publisher's red buckram with gilt titles to the spine. A very good copy, faded to spine.
An exceptional presentation copy.
Penelope Chetwode married Waugh's friend John Betjeman in 1933. Despite a decades long attempt to convert John from Anglicanism to Catholicism, Waugh never could convince him to, though Penelope did convert in 1948. It would appear that, despite her predilection to the faith, she did not acknowledge receipt of this presentation copy, as a rather irate Waugh wrote to her from the top of an Abyssinian mountain in November 1935:
"Darling Penelope ungrateful bitch I gave you a rare copy of my excellent book named E Campion and not one word of thanks do I get".
Stock ID: 42526
£4,500.00
