1: Introduction
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Win’s enthusiasm for Waugh was at odds with her political views (New Democratic Party, about as left as Canadian parties get) and with her non-existent religious views, not to speak of her enthusiasm for Picasso. Perhaps it was a shared style of wit that led her to him. But like Waugh, she was a natural host, and friends lucky enough to sit at her table will remember her for that. NEWS Evelyn Waugh Conference Loyola-Notre Dame Library in Baltimore will host an Evelyn Waugh Conference on 12 and 13 March 2012. Events will include a series of papers on Waugh’s 1949 lecture tour of the USA, his relationship with American writers Thomas Merton and J. F. Powers, adaptation of his novels Brideshead Revisited and The Loved One in films, and his commitment to Catholicism. Alexander Waugh will also deliver a lecture, and the Evelyn Waugh Society will try to hold a meeting. The library is mounting an exhibit of artifacts, documents, letters, and photographs from Waugh’s 1948 and 1949 trips to the USA. The exhibit is on display from 27 February through 7 April 2012. Eight More Penguins The last eight titles in Penguin’s new edition of the works of Evelyn Waugh were published on 1 December 2011. The titles are The Loved One, Helena, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, The Life of the Right Reverend Ronald Knox, A Tourist in Africa, Tactical Exercise and Other Late Stories, A Little Learning, and Sword of Honour. Sixteen other titles were published earlier in the year. Review of the New Penguins In “When the going got tough” in the Spectator for 16 July 2011, Paul Johnson reviewed the new Penguin edition of eight of Evelyn Waugh’s early works. Correspondence with Olivia Plunket Greene Evelyn Waugh was attracted to Olivia Plunket Greene in the 1920s, as described in A Little Learning. She died on 11 November 1958. The next day, 12 November, her mother Gwen wrote to Waugh, and her letter is now in the British Library. Gwen wrote that she had saved all of Waugh's letters to Olivia. She was hospitalized a few weeks after Olivia's death and died in 1959. Harman Grisewood wanted to write a biography of Gwen, and he wrote to her grandson, Alexander Plunket Greene. According to a letter written by Alexander on 21 June 1983, his father Richard Plunket Greene (a friend of Waugh’s) cleaned up after the deaths of Olivia and Gwen and got rid of everything to do with the family. Alexander told Grisewood that none of Gwen's correspondence survived, and that is probably also true of Olivia's, although Alexander did not comment directly. Presumably Waugh’s letters to Olivia are lost. Richard died in 1978 and Alexander in 1990. Alexander's letter is in the Harman Grisewood Papers, Part II, Georgetown University Library's Special Collections, along with several by Olivia and Gwen. Hat Sale Leicester Galleries recently sold a painting attributed to Bruno Hat, Still Life with Pears (1929), for £18,750. Hat was supposed to be a German artist, but the exhibition was a hoax. Evelyn Waugh wrote the introduction to the catalogue, “Approach to Hat.” The text appears on the web site of the .