Helena.

First Edition Large Paper copy. With the author’s signed presentation inscription “For Desmond [MacCarthy] / with utmost regards from / Evelyn.” One of about 50 copies printed on hand-made paper and specially bound for the author. Desmond MacCarthy had been one of the Apostles at Cambridge before the Great War and became after it one of those peculiarly British things, A Man Of Letters. He wrote a number of books of criticism, edited several literary periodicals and functioned in the engine room of 20th-century English literature. He and Waugh were friends for 35 years.

8vo, pp. 265. Original white cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the unprinted glassine dustjacket. Bookplate of the noted collector Frederick Adams to front pastedown. The glassine is shattered (as invariably) but the white buckram is absolutely pristine. A beautiful copy and most unusual thus.