EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER

Volume 15, Number 2 Autumn 1981 THE NATURE OF A TRIMMER By Thomas A. Gribble Alan Watkins, in The Observer, and Auberon Waugh, in Books and Book men, have written that the character of Trimmer in the Sword of Honour trilogy might have been suggested by Lord Lovat, Waugh's superior officer in the commandoes who forced his resignation from the brigade in the summer of 1943. Certainly there was no love lost between these fellow Catholics. Lord Lovat's autobiography, March Past, contains one of the most vituperative portraits of Waugh in print. Waugh's diaries and letters show that he was deeply offended and wounded by what he considered to be a plot on Lord Lovat's part to remove him from the commandoes, and it is not far~fetched to surmise that he was striking back for his wartime humiliation by caricaturing the Scots aristocrat as a bogus hero and a former ladies hairdresser. It is ironic that Major General Robert Laycock, the commanding officer for whom Waugh had the utmost respect and to whom Officers and Gentlemen is dedicated, was, according to his obituary in The Times, the true possessor of tonsorial skills. Trimmer, however, !ike a!! of Waugh's characters, does not depend upon any rea! person for his existence. Waugh's characters all have their place in the design of his novels and that alone justifies their existence. Trimmer's function is to suggest certain characteristics of the 'wasteland' figures who inhabit the modern world described in Waugh's novels, the "hollow men" who have no true sense of identity. One immediately concludes that Trimmer was so named because of his former profession as a hairdresser, but the word trimmer has another meaning which suggests Trimmer's nature. During the seventeenth century, a trimmer was a compromiser or someone who tried to straddle both sides of an issue, unable or unwilling to commit himself. The positive role of the compromiser was stressed by the seventeenth century politician George Savile, the Marquis of Halifax, in his pamphlet The Character of a Trimmer. In it he argued the benefits of pursuing a central line of policy between Whig and Tory extremes. A more jaundiced view of the nature of a trimmer was taken by Dryden. In his "Epilogue from the Duke of Guise", he wrote: We Trimmers are for holding all things even Yes- just like him that hung 'twixt Hell and Heaven. (11 33-34) and further on described trimmers as: Damn'd Neuters, in their middle way of steering, And neither Fish, nor Flesh, nor good Red-Herring: Not Whiggs, nor Tories they; nor this, nor that; Not Birds, nor Beasts; but just a kind of Bat: A Twilight Animal; true to neither Cause; With Tory Whigs, but Whiggish Teeth and Claws. (11 39-44) The negative connotation that Dryden gave to the word trimmer prevailed despite Savile's attempt to make it acceptable, and in the twentieth century it has been associated with the spiritual rather than the political condition. Philip R. Harding in his 1964 book on T. S. Eliot described the wasteland inhabitants of the unreal city of London as having: ... those attitudes of soul symbolized in Dante's Inferno ... by the trimmers- who 'lived without blame, and without praise' and who are admitted neither to heaven nor the depths of hell.' Mr. Harding was referring to the lines in ''The Wasteland" which read: A crowd flowed over London bridge, so many 1 had not thought death had undone so many. He pointed out that in the notes to "The Wasteland", Eliot attributes his lines to lines 55-57 of Canto Ill of the Inferno, the portion dealing with those souls who are at the vestibule of Hell. Ronald Bottrall, in his portion of a 1966 translation of the Inferno done for the BBC, also described those souls who refused to make a choice and were thus despised by Heaven and Hell as 'Trimmers"'. In his translation, they are: The saddened souls ... Who existed without blame and without praise. They are mixed up with that malignant strain -2-

Of angels who would not rebels be, Nor true to God, but for themselves remain. Heaven chased them out to keep its pristine beauty; And bottomless hell receives them not, For over them sinners could have some glory. (Canto Ill, 11 34-42) Dryden's, Eliot's, and Dante's trimmers all lack a stable and secure identity. They are neither one thing nor the other. In the twentieth century wasteland of Waugh and Eliot they are the living dead. They are not compromisers who refuse to make a choice between God and the devil or God and mammon because in an increasingly materialistic society that had at first turned away from God and has now gradually come to ignore Him, they are not aware that a choice need be made. How­ ever, like the compromisers, they lack the secure identity that comes from the knowledge that they are creations of God. Trimmer is, therefore, an apposite name for one of the characters in Waugh's wasteland. He is a character of multiple roles and identities - Gustave the hairdresser, Captain MacTavish - later promoting himself to major for a week in Glasgow, and finally he is officially named Trimmer. He became a hero after 'Operation Popgun,' but that is just another role because he had become the creation of the public relations man at HOO HQ, Ian Kilbannock. The story that Kilbannock gave to the press about the raid and Trimmer's heroism was a fabrication. Instead of behaving in an heroic manner, Trimmer was a coward who wanted tore-embark before his men returned and he was given credit for an initiative taken by his sergeant. He was a manufactured hero, used to meet the needs of General Whale who feared that unless he could make a stand against the enemy- and in his case the enemy were the British Service Chiefs -he would lose HOO. Trimmer's donning of the hero's mantle was also assured because his appearance fit the concept of the People's Hero that the pub- . licists were then trying to sell to the public. As lan tells Virginia Troy: 'With that accent, that smile and that lock of hair he was absolutely cut out to be a great national figure.' (OG 219) 3 With his multiple identities and an heroic image created by others, Trimmer is lacking in the single and secure identity that would make his life meaningful. Waugh suggests the lack of a secure identity among the trimmers of the wasteland by references to disguises and stage roles. This is first seen when Guy Crouch back joins the army because for him and for most of his comrades who are not professional soldiers- and for some who are -the uniform is a disguise, an actor's costume used to hide, in some cases deliberately, the real personality. Apthorpe looked like a soldier, but he was "gloriously over- Technicoloured like Bonny Prince Charles in the film" (MA 165). lan Kilbannock was "an arch-imposter in his Air Force dress" (MA 124). Guy grows a moustache and sports a monocle to embellish his crusader's costume, but when he failed to impress Virginia and Tommy Blackhouse: ... he reflected, his uniform was a drsguise, his whole new calling a masquerade. (MA 124) Even Evelyn Waugh, after he joined Lt. Col. Laycock's commando was a: ... novelist temporarily disguised as a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards ... • There are several references to suggest that the characters are taking part in a play. Job, the porter at Bellamy's, acted the part of a stage butler. I an Kilbannock emerged cautiously from a wash­ room "as in a stage farce" ((OG 14). Officers enter the hotel on Mugg "as in an old-fashioned, well constructed comedy" (OG 49). Sir Ralph Brompton "seemed a figure of obsolescent light comedy" (US 29). Ludovic on all fours was "a figure from antiquated farce" (US 114). lan Kilbannock "had momentarily seen himself as a figure of melodrama" (US 88). The conversation between Guy and Virginia during Christmas 1943, when she reversed the roles of their encounter on Valentine's Day 1940 by trying to seduce him, was "as light as the heaviest drawing-room comedy" (US 146). Of all the wasteland characters, lan Kilbannock fits most easily into his new role. He too is a character of multiple personalities - democratic for the American reporters and lordly for Air Marshall Beech, a left wing sympathizer who is upset when he can get no one to carry his bags on Mugg, an advocate of the People's Hero and a peer of the realm who is a prominent member of Bellamy's. Like Ludovic, he has a gift of tongues. What he is above all else, however, is an op­ portunist- a true trimmer. He uses the class war to his own advantage- for promotion and position after the war. As a public relations man he is one of the new gods of the modern world who can take a lump of clay and create a hero named Trimmer. But really he is an insubstantial figure whose life, as far as what really matters in Waugh's view, has no more meaning or significance than if he were a character in a stage play. When he is in France with Trimmer during 'Operation Popgun,' he -3- declaims two lines from Noel Coward's Private Lives, "'Very flat, Norfolk' " (OG 145} and "'Moon light can be cruelly deceptive'" (OG 146}, as if he were taking part in a play, an imitation of life rather than I ife itself. The danger that Kilbannock, the opportunist, the propagandist, the public relations man, the trimmer, can be is suggested by his histrionic words to Trimmer as they flee the coast of France: 'I'm coming. Be of good comfort, Master Trimmer, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.' (OG 149} These are Hugh Latimer's words to Bishop Ridley as the two sixteenth century Protestants were about to be burned at the stake, according to John Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Foxe has been called the "arch-fabricator of Protestant propaganda"'. and his praise of the Protestant martyrs in the face of Catholic cruelty is said to have kept England Protestant and shaped popular opinion about the Roman Catholics for at least a century. Kilbannock's use of Latimer's words is appropriate for several reasons. He and Trimmer will light a great light in England through I an's public relations efforts which will make Trimmer the People's Hero and create the HOO empire of General Whale. The use of the quotation deflates the idea of Trimmer as a hero by calling to mind the heroic martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer- there is no evidence that Foxe tampered with the evidence in their case - and making an implicit contrast to Trimmer's cowardice .. Finally, the words bring to mind Foxe's book itself and remind us that Kilbannock in his post-war occupation as a political journalist will be following in the footsteps of the earlier writer of propaganda and that this words may have as little resemblance to reality as did Foxe's distortions. As Foxe's work inflamed the divisions between Protestant and Catholic, so Kilbannock's work could inflame the divisions between the upper and lower classes and shape attitudes for generations to come. The difference between Foxe and Kilbannock is that the latter wrote not out of conviction but from opportunism. As with other wasteland characters he has no solidity, but in his position he has an infinite capacity for making mischief. By examining not only the nature of Trimmer but also of a trimmer it has been possible to gain a clearer understanding of Waugh's views of the ills of the modern world. Modern man's existence without an awareness of the supernatural is no more than a vacillating series of roles and identities which disguise his essential nature. His life has no more meaning or reality than a character in a stage play because he has forgotten or is unaware that he is a creation of God. The one major character who does have a single and secure identity, who is aware of the - spiritual significance of life, and who is never associated with roles or disguises is Guy's father. Mr. Crouch back knows who he is - a sinner awaiting judgement by his Creator. He is also the most serene character, the one completely lacking in vanity, and the one who is most able to accept the vicissitudes of his temporal condition. He is, in short, Waugh's anodyne to the wasteland disease. In Guy's quest to find his place in the modern world he at times takes on the appearance of a trimmer, and it is not until he comes to appreciate and understand his father's selfless example that his quest comes to an end and he can escape the role of a trimmer. Notes 'Philip R. Harding, T. S. Eliot, New York, p. 58. 'Ronald Bottrall and others, Dante's Inferno, London, 1966, p. 11. 3 Quotations from Waugh's novels are as follows: MA -Men at Arms, the 1964 Penguin edition. OG -Officers and Gentlemen, the 1964 Penguin edition. US -Unconditional Surrender, the 1964 Penguin edition. •Bernard Fergusson, The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations, London, 1961, p. 99. 'Tucker Brooke in A Literary History of England, ed. Albert C. Baugh, London, 1950, p. 374.

EVELYN WAUGH AND THE SWORD OF STALINGRAD By Robert Murray Davis Representationalist and traditional through Evelyn Waugh's views on painting were, he never explicitly supported theories of formal realism in fiction. Nevertheless, he liked to make details not only plausible but accurate when he could. In using the fact of the Sword of Stalingrad, the gift of the English people to their Russian allies, for Unconditional Surrender, 1 he obviously consulted documentary sources which may have been more important than his memory of the sword. In the novel, the sword is mentioned six times on or after the fictional time of October 29, 1943: it is described and part of the Times poem about it is quoted (pp. 17-18}; Lt. Padfield notes that "the escutcheon on the scabbard will be upside down when it is worn on a baldric" and is later rebuked -4-

after his departure by Jumbo Trotter, who says that "There was a letter about it in The Times weeks ago" (23); Major Ludovic visits it (35); he discusses it as the subject of this week's Time and Tide competition (38); its conception is linked to Trimmer's "commando dagger" (48, 55); and Ludovic's sonnet and part of the winning entry are given (61). Most of these references can be documented. Although Waugh writes that an octogenarian forged it and strongly implies that he is the sole maker-perhaps in order to indicate that even this piece of arts and crafts cannot be replaced-the sword was in fact designed by R. M. Y. Gleadowe, formerly Slade Professor of Art at Oxford, and made by seventeen craftsmen.' However, Waugh did list accurately the materials which decorated it: "silver, gold, rock-crystal and enamel" (18).3 Since Waugh was not certainly in London from October 29-31, when the sword was on display at West­ minster Abbey, the description of the scene may have been drawn from the Times: Times Unconditional Surrender Guarded by plainclothesmen and plainclothes The sword ... stood upright between two detectives, the Stalingrad sword is on view in candles, on a table counterfeiting an altar. the nave of Westminster Abbey. The altar and Policemen guarded it on either side. (17) the dark stone of the Abbey provide a perfect background for the brightly illuminated sword, which is mounted on an oak table between two lighted candles. 4 Waugh's language is as loaded against as the Times reporter's is for the spectacle, and in passages too long to quote Waugh emphasizes the atmosphere of the crowds as an "unseeing, inarticulate procession who were asserting their right to the fair share of everything which they believed the weapon symbolized" (35). Waugh drew directly on the Times for lines 5-12 and 17-20 of F. Willis Abbot's poem on the sword,' and Jumbo is accurate about the letter to the Times, though "months" would be more accurate than "weeks" to describe the gap between the Abbey showing and J. A. Collins' comment that "Slung from the belt or baldric of the knight the emblazonment would appear to be upside down."6 And the quotation of the second quatrain of the winning Time and Tide entry is accurate to the comma-' However, Waugh introduced at least one anomaly: the competition was not "this week's" but was set in the October 16 issue and resolved in that of November 6. Waugh probably knew that he was being inconsistent, since he took the trouble to quote the lines accurately, but he apparently wished to make Ludovic's visit, literally too late for getting ideas about his own sonnet, coincide with Guy Crouchback's fortieth birthday, one day after Waugh's own. In fact, Waugh seems to have invented the birthday for the occasion, since the first two volumes of the trilogy make no mention of it, even when Guy has been lying dormant during the period just before All Soul's Day, November 2, 1940, in Officers and Gentlemen. In a larger context, the Sword of Stalingrad, called a State Sword by Ludovic in a passage which gives the title to Book I of the novel, is used as a symbolic contrast with the "Sword of Honour," title of Book I of Men at Arms and allusion to the sword of Sir Roger of Waybroke, the Crusader manque to whom Guy prays at the beginning of his quest. This contrast further reinforces the theme of the . futility of Guy's crusade against "the Modern Age in arms" and his awakening from "a Holy Land of illusion in the old ambiguous world"' where Stalin can be made to seem a gallant and even chivalrous ally. It also helps to bring Ludovic from the nether world of Crete to the drab, everyday world of England, to give him plausible origins, and to relate him explicitly to Guy. The last is the most important, for Ludovic's growing obsession with his past, signalled by his visit to the Sword of Stalingrad, provides a contrast, which grows in importance as the novel develops, with Guy's emergence from chivalric illusion into moral reality. Notes 'Unconditional Surrender (London: Chapman and Hall, 1961). In America the book was titled The End of the Battle (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1961), but I use the English edition because Waugh had more direct control over it. Both publishers issued Sword of Honour, Waugh's re­ cension of the three volumes of the war trilogy into a single volume. 'Times, 6 October 1943, p. 6. 'See the Times, 25 June 1943, p. 12. 4 Times, 30 October 1943, p. 2. 5 Times, 11 October 1943, p. 6. 'Times, 29 June 1943, p. 2. See the photograph, 26 June, p. 8. 'Time and Tide, 24 (6 November 1943), 912. -5-

•officers and Gentlemen (London: Chapman and Hall, 1955), p. 322; also quoted in the Synopsis of Unconditional Surrender. PAPERBACK EDITIONS OF WAUGH PUBLISHED IN THE U. K. AS OF DECEMBER 1980 By Brian Wise The U. K. paperback editions of E. W.'s works have been published, with certain exceptions listed later, by Penguin Books Ltd. a company whose titles were first issued in July 1935 priced sixpence, the equivalent of 2'h pence today in the new currency. They were attractively designed, in dust wrappers and were remarkably good value. E. W. entered the Penguin scene in January 1937 with Decline & Fall; there were two reprints that year. Vile Bodies followed in April1938, these books being Nos. 75 and 136 respectively in the fiction list. In November 1938 Black Mischief was No. 179. Current prices are 95p., 95p., and £1.25 respectively. The 1939-1945 War saw two further titles: Put Out More Flags in October 1943 (No. 423) and Scoop in March 1944 (No. 445). Reprints of these were made in 1945 and 1948 respectively. In May 1951 Penguin published five new titles, together with new editions of the five already issued. There were: Brideshead Revisited (No. 821.), Handful of Dust (No. 822), The Loved One (No. 823) and, in one volume, Work Suspended, Scott King's Modern Europe, together with eight short stories. (No. 824). When The Going Was Good, although non-fiction, was listed as No. 825. These were priced one shilling and sixpence old currency and their covers bore a photo of E. W. by Yvonde and a potted biography. Edmund Campion came out in August 1953 (No. 955) and a reprint in 1957 saw the start of individual cover illustrations, which today are distinctive and have been the work, inter alia, of Quentin Blake, Derrick Harris and Peter Bentley. Nine years elapsed between Edmund Campion and The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold in 1962 (No. 1794.) Pin fold also included the short story Tactical Exercise, (first appearance in book form in The U. K.), together with Love Among The Ruins, (first appearance in paperback edn.). 1962 also saw a revised edition of Brideshead Revisited with E. W.'s preface. The War Trilogy was published on 28th. May 1964, Officers and Gentlemen (No. 2121.), Un­ conditional Surrender, (No. 2122.) and Men At Arms (No. 2123.)- in that order. There was a new edition of Black Mischief in 1965, with a preface by E. W. In 1967, Work Suspended, together with Scott King and the eight other stories, (No. 824.) also in­ cluded Basil Seal Rides Again. The eight short stories were: "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing." "Cruise," "Period Piece," "On Guard," "An Englishman's Home," "Excursion Into Reality," "Bella Fleace Gave A Party," and "Winner Takes All." Christopher Sykes' biography of E. W. was issued in Penguin in 1977, (No. 4276). E. W.'s Diaries, edited by Michael Davie, came out in Penguin in April 1979 (No. 4647.). Two further Penguin titles include E. W. items: The Penguin Book of Short Stories, edited by Christopher Dolley, (No. 2617.), includes "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing." This is still in print. Secondly - Yet More Comic & Curious Verse, selected by J. M. Cohen, (No. D 48 Penguin Poets Series) has, at page 333, a four line mock epitaph by E. W. on Lord Stanley of Alderley. This book is dated 1959 and E. W. mentions this jest in a letter to Ann Fleming dated 26th. May 1957. (Letters- not in Penguin - Dec .. 1980.) In concluding this Penguin survey it seems pertinent to record that the first title published, i.e. Decline and Fall, has been reprinted 28 times with two reprints in 1980. OTHER PAPERBACKS 1962. Collins/Fontana- Ronald Knox. Out of print 1971. 1974. Sidgwick & Jackson- A Little Learning. Out of print 1980. 1980. Duckworth - Labels. lntro. by Kingsley Amis. -Rossetti. lntro. by John Bryson. 1980. Oxford University Press- Edmund Campion. (This is the one title which does not appear in the current Penguin List.)

BOOK REVIEWS Robert Murray Davis, A Catalogue of The Evelyn Waugh Collection At the Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 1981. Whitston Publishing Company, P. 0. Box 958, Troy, N.Y. 12181, 375 p. $25.00. Reviewed by P. A. Doyle. As is certainly known to all Waughians, the Texas collection of materials relating to his life and work is by far the largest and most significant in the world. Even the contents of Waugh's own -6-

library are present, as Professor Davis points out, "everything from the walls in: granite bust of Waugh, paintings, bookcases, wastebasket, desk, chair, and so on." Since the collection is so vast and so important and since many scholars, readers, and enthusiasts will, for one reason or another, never have the opportunity of visiting Austin, this volume fulfills an indispensible function. Professor Davis describes the various manuscripts held at the university, and we learn many interesting details, e.g., Men at Arms was first intended to be called Honour. The same is true of the description of the various other materials: verse and plays, non-fiction, diaries, drawings and water colors, etc. The most fascinating part of the book is the synopsis of the contents of over 1400 letters (the bulk to A. D. Peters or members of his firm) written by Waugh. These are filled with various fascinat­ ing facts as well as simply workaday details. Among other data we observe Waugh's eagerness to serve in World War II, his seemingly constant financial insecurity, and the revelation that the Cardinal Archbishop of Utrecht refused the Dutch royalties from The Loved One because he felt the novel improper. There is also occasional humor, e.g., since the title Unconditional Surrender could not be used for the American edition Waugh suggests The End of the Battle or Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Seven Dwarfs. Another section of considerable appeal is the unit on "Marginalia." Here Waugh's jottings and marginal notes on various books are epitomized. Thus he took several poems in John Betjeman's Summoned by Bells and made revisions of lines that did not scan. He corrected grammar errors in Lord David Cecil's Walter Pater, and extensively underlined Ray Slocum's Embalming Treatments, a source, as Davis points out, for details in The Loved One. While some material in the collection had to be omitted from the catalogue because several volumes would be necessary to record everything, this present compiliation gives an exceedingly satisfactory listing and description of an incomparable hoard of gold ore. Professor Davis has performed a masterly feat in compiling, organizing, and annotating this volume. Every page evinces his total familiarity with, and mastery over, the material. The book's publisher is also to be commended. Not only is the binding of durable library quality, but the print size, and the general layout are superb. For anyone seriously interested in Waugh, this book reads like a novel. For any libraries or individuals seriously interested in twentieth century fiction and satire this book is just too important to live without.

Alain Blayac, Evelyn Waugh, romancier satirique, 1903-1942, Universitei Paul Valery, Montpellier, 1980. Reviewed by Yvon Tosser. Alain Blayac has recently completed his thesis for the French Doctoral d'Etat: Evelyn Waugh, romancier satirique, 1903-1942, Universite Paul Valery, Montpellier, 1980. This massive study (801 pages plus 132 pages of notes, index, bibliography) falls into three distinct parts. The introductory section offers both a biography of the author and a careful scrutiny of Waugh's early literary efforts. Blayac makes clever use of the diaries and the correspondence of Waugh; he also refers to the diary of his father and the letters of Alec. There emerges from these 120 pages a full-scale image of Waugh's background and apprenticeship. The second unit is devoted to an analysis of the six novels which make up Blayac's frame of reference (from Decline and Fall to Put Out More Flags). This is, to my mind, by far the most convincing section of the thesis. Blayac makes the most of his intimate knowledge of manuscripts and letters-those exchanged with the literary agent A. D. Peters, for instance. Vigilant attention is paid to the sources and genesis of each novel, and Blayac is at his very best when it comes to relating space and time schemes to thematic content and meaning. He provides illuminating analyses of "the search for a norm" in Decline and Fall, the attacks on political technocracy in Black Mischief, the creation of a modern myth in A Handful of Dust, and the theme of repentance in Put Out More Flags. In a third section, he studies the anti­ hero and the negative hero, the modes and methods of the satirical novel, the forms of comedy and satire, and humanism and satire (the last item dealing with the social, political and religious ideas). These 170 pages are eminently readable but they are not entirely original; and, in point of fact, they add comparatively little to previous studies of the satirical element, e.g., Dr. Carens's remarkable book. Blayac regards Waugh as a Catholic and Tory humanist, and defines him, in his conclusion, as both "a clown and a thinker," "a satirical novelist and a passionate militant." "One of the assets of Blayac's work is his enviable knowlege of the author's manuscripts, correspondence and diaries. This enables him to fill in the background to the six novels under scrutiny in a most fascinating manner; his awareness of the conflicting claims of the chronicler and the novelist, his insistence on the "passionate quest" of Waugh give his thesis an energy and elan of its own~ This is a serious, perceptive, thorough study of the satire in the early novels. However, one -7- cannot help feeling that Blayac has done himself a considerable disservice by restricting his central investigation to merely six novels. Do these six novels constitute, as he claims, "a homogeneous entity"? The desire to substantiate a thesis to that effect leads him to view the novelist's evolution from 1930 to 1942 as a self-contained segment. Accordingly he considers Decline and Fall as "a kind of introduction," Vile Bodies as "a first stage," and, expectantly, Put Out More Flags as "l'aboutissement veritable d'une aventure spirituelle". Inevitably too much weight is brought to bear on this last novel; is it quite true that "the dialectic between Basil and Ambrose is the most meaningful structure of the philosophy of Waugh as a writer"? Is it not somewhat im­ prudent to assert that Put Out More Flags "by at last bringing a positive and optimistic solution to the problems of life ... stresses the evolution of a man who, owing to circumstances commits hara-kiri as an artist in order to re-emerge as a warrior, an active defender of his fatherland"? The clean break made by Blayac is all the more artificial as Waugh, the satirist, returned ever and again to the same scenes and themes-vide Brideshead Revisited and the Trilogy-and kept up to the very end of his life the fruitful tensions out of which he created his masterpieces. Blayac performs a tour de force by spiriting away the rest of Waugh's literary production, but this deprives him of a reliable standard of measurement: surely position implies opposition. Further, he is too hard on Waugh when he writes that "his reader is at first struck by the limitations of his creative imagination," that "he never expressed his views about literature in a coherent manner," or when he suggests that "Paul, William and even Basil are too typified to have any possibility of ever becoming true characters." Blayac quotes Waugh's famous pronouncement about the uses of criticism and the laying bare of inner contradictions, but later on he seems to have lost sight of this dictum: how is it that "the reader of Put Out More Flags is not offered any choice; the opinions of the author are presented to him in a straightforward manner without any possibility of error" while "the novel is not free from ambiguities and the mixed sympathies of the author hardly contribute to endow it with an absolutely homogeneous meaning" (p. 622)? Is Waugh in­ terested in "the redemption of man" (p. 801) or does he merely concern himself, as is stated on page 766 with "the individual salvation of privileged people"? Such slips are nearly unavoidable in a lenqthv study, and they appear especially unfortunate when quoted out of context. Let me add at once that they do not detract from the value of this exciting and often provocative contribution to Waugh criticism. Given his terms of reference, Blayac has done a very good job, and the publication of his thesis should provide ample scope for debate and be a source of genuine critical delight.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: "I saw the reference in "Evelyn in Arthur Waugh's Diary !II" to Hugh Mackintosh's ballades. I have a book, Ballades and Other Verse, by H. S. Mackintosh (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1953) which may be the book referred to in your comment, but none of the ballades would appear to refer specifically to E. W. The only one which might be relevant is "Sallade of Social Success (to a novelist of fashion)," but I doubt if it would be the one referred to in the diary." Frank Hills (Can any one shed any light on the Mackintosh ballade of Evelyn? Ed.]

Howard Bolton sends a copy of a letter he mailed to Associated Book Publishers Ltd., 11, New Fetter Lane, London, EC4P 4EE, England: 11th April 1981. Dear Sir/Madam, I understand that your company now encompasses the publishing house of Eyre Methuen Ltd. who hold the hardback rights to the works of Evelyn Waugh. A study of the Waugh bibliography will show that for a number of the early novels originally published by Chapman and Hall, Evelyn Waugh designed both the dust-wrappers and in some cases highly decorative and innovative title-pages. You will appreciate that the first editions of the early novels published in the late nineteen­ twenties and early nineteen-thirties are now quite scarce in really good condition, and that those volumes with the original illustrated dust-wrappers still present are particularly scarce and are eagerly sought after, and are therefore very expensive. Has it occurred to you to issue a series of 'facsimile re-issues' of the early novels, re-producing the design of the original dust-wrappers and possibly title-pages? You will note that The Hogarth Press have had a similar idea with the new editions of works by Virginia Woolf and Henry Green, to name but two. I feel sure that such a series of re-issues would be warmly welcomed by Evelyn Waugh -8-

admirers the world over, particularly in view of the fact that Waugh's not inconsiderable talents as an artist have been unfairly over-shadowed by his supreme talent as a literary craftsman. As a collector of his first and limited editions, I should be very pleased to buy such re-issues as very attractive reading copies; I believe I speak for a considerable number of people in the English­ speaking world in this regard. I shall look forward to your informative reply at your convenience. Yours faithfully, Howard Bolton [We think this is an excellent suggestion, and we urge our readers to write to Associated Book Publishers supporting new editions of the early novels using the design of the original dust­ wrappers and title-pages. Ed.]

WAUGH SEMINAR AT MLA MEETING One of the seminars at the Modern Language Association meetings (New York City) in late December will be devoted to "New Approaches to the Study of Evelyn Waugh." Robert Murray Davis will be the discussion leader, and the panelists and their topics are: Tibbie E. Lynch (Texas A and M): "Forms and Functions of Black Humor in the Fiction of Evelyn Waugh." Jerome Meckier (University of Kentucky): "Vileness in Vile Bodies" Virgil Nemoianu: "Waugh and the Motley Society." Martin Stannard (University of Leicester): "Waugh's Aesthetic Predilictions." Those planning to attend the seminar should send a SSAE and a check for $3 to Robert Murray Davis, English Dept., University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73069, not before Sept. 1 or after November 15 for copies of papers.

GLOSSARY HELP, PLEASE! I am presently completing a glossary of Waugh's fiction. The following allusions require identification. Who was "Pussy Gresham"? Sc, p. 308 (all page references are to Little, Brown editions). Near the end of Scoop Uncle Theodore Boot wants to write newspaper stories for the Beast about "Willis's rooms ... Pussy Gresham ... Romano's." No more data is given. What is the source of the allusion to "Captain Morvin's Riding Academy"? BR, p. 166. Sebastian on the fox hunt looked so drab and shabby that it appeared he came from Captain Morvin's. Was "Hamilton-Grand" at Gibralter an actual English officer or is he a fictional creation? OG, p. 51. During the General Strike of 1926 reference is made to "Bill Meadows's show-Defence Corps." BR, pp. 205-6. The Defence Corps was real, but is Bill Meadows a real or a fictional creation? Help with these allusions would be gratefully appreciated (PAD).

BOOK SWAP Howard Bolton has a fine copy in the dust wrapper of the first English edition (trade) of The Ordeal of Gilbert Pin fold that he would like to swap for a fine copy of the first U.S. trade edition in dust-wrapper of the same title. All offers would be gratefully acknowledged. Write to Howard Bolton, . 33, Oak Hill Road, Mt. Waverley, Victoria, 3149, f.ustralia.

The Evelyn Waugh Newsletter, designed to stimulate research and continue interest in the life and writings of Evelyn Waugh, is published three times a year in April, September and December (Spring, Autumn, and Winter numbers). Subscription rate $3.00a year. Single copy $1.25. Checks or money orders should be made payable to the Evelyn Waugh Newsletter. Notes, brief essays, and news items about Waugh and his work may be submitted, but manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Address all correspondence to Dr. P. A. Doyle, English Dept., Nassau Community College, State University of New York, Garden City, N.Y. 11530. Copyright© P. A. Doyle. Editorial Board-Editor: P. A. Doyle; Associate Editors: Alfred W. Borrello (Kingsborough Com­ munity College); James F. Carens (Bucknell Univ.); Robert M. Davis (Univ. of Oklahoma); Heinz Kosok (Univ. of Wuppertal); Charles E. Linck, Jr. (East Texas State Univ.)