WAUGH, Evelyn.. Helena. A novel.. London: Chapman and Hall, 1950, 1950.

Price: US$5814.78 + shipping

Description: First edition, first impression, large paper issue, presentation copy, inscribed, "Dear Robert, You can't say this isn't a finer looking book than yours, Evelyn" on front free endpaper to the writer Robert Henriques (1905-67). Approximately 50 copies were specially bound and printed on handmade paper. Waugh considered this novel his greatest literary achievement: he told his biographer that "it's far the best book I have ever written or ever will write". Robert Henriques was with the Royal Artillery between 1926-33. A novel, No Arms, No Armour was published to much acclaim in 1939. He rejoined the Royal Artillery in 1939, moved to the Commandos and then to Combined Operations. After the war he became a farmer in the Cotswolds but continued to write and also helped run the early Cheltenham Literary Festivals. Selina Hastings notes in her biography of Waugh that "He was always on the look-out for potential converts, frequently displaying a missionary zeal that although undoubtedly inspired by Christian conviction was more suitable to a playground bully." and Henriques was identified by Waugh as a potential convert to Catholicism. As Hastings notes "Helena is a short novel, but the writing of it was spread over five years, from May 1945 to the spring of 1950. The third and fourth centuries AD, the early Christians, the Roman Empire under Constantine, were unfamiliar territory, and Evelyn was exceptionally anxious to do his subject justice. He turned to his friend and ex-Commando colleague, the Jewish writer Robert Henriques". Selina Hastings, Evelyn Waugh: a biography, London, 1994, pp. 507 and 538. Octavo. Original white cloth, lettering to spine in gilt. Remnants of glassine at rear. A remarkably bright copy despite some soiling to joints and spots of staining to rear cover, foxing to free endpapers, a very good copy.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom