WAUGH, Evelyn. Officers and Gentlemen. A Novel. London: Chapman & Hall, 1955.
WAUGH, Evelyn. Officers and Gentlemen. A Novel. London: Chapman & Hall, 1955.

Details
WAUGH, Evelyn. Officers and Gentlemen. A Novel. London: Chapman & Hall, 1955.

8o. Original blue cloth, gilt-lettered on spine; pictorial dust jacket (1-inch tear at joint on front panel, head of spine lightly creased). Provenance: GRAHAM GREENE (presentation inscription; estate bookplate).

FIRST EDITION. A VERY FINE LITERARY ASSOCIATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY WAUGH TO GRAHAM GREENE on the front free endpaper: "Graham with love from Evelyn."

In 1952, Waugh began searching for an ex-junior officer who had spent time in a German military prison during the War to interview for his next novel, Officers and Gentlemen. J.L. Naimaster, a key source for much of the technical military information in the novel, forwarded a name whom he felt met the specifications. Waugh initially called the novel Happy Warriors, and thought it "short and funny," but Cyril Connolly, his friend, wrote a review displaying his disappointment in Waugh's "mellowing rather than increasing in bitterness." It is the second in the Sword of Honour trilogy. Davis et al, XXX.

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