![WAUGH, Arthur Evelyn St John (1903-1966). Series of nineteen unpublished autograph letters signed and three autograph postcards signed ('Evelyn Waugh' and 'Evelyn') to Mrs Percy Waugh (5), Zarita Mattay (13), Julian Mattay, Eric Waugh and two other correspondents, Piers Court and Combe Florey, 24 January 1948 - 7 January 1964 (12 n.y.), approximately 28 pages, 8vo, and 6½ pages, 4to (some annotated in pencil by the recipient), autograph envelopes; [together with] letters by Laura Waugh (1), their children (4), Arthur Waugh (3) and others (5); and 4 black and white photographs of Evelyn Waugh with his family (sizes 140 x 190 mm - 265 x 190mm, one with autograph greeting on verso and one inscribed and signed ('Evelyn', on cover sheet of mount), and 9 other items.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/CSK/2002_CSK_09489_0030_000(053010).jpg?w=1)
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WAUGH, Arthur Evelyn St John (1903-1966). Series of nineteen unpublished autograph letters signed and three autograph postcards signed ('Evelyn Waugh' and 'Evelyn') to Mrs Percy Waugh (5), Zarita Mattay (13), Julian Mattay, Eric Waugh and two other correspondents, Piers Court and Combe Florey, 24 January 1948 - 7 January 1964 (12 n.y.), approximately 28 pages, 8vo, and 6½ pages, 4to (some annotated in pencil by the recipient), autograph envelopes; [together with] letters by Laura Waugh (1), their children (4), Arthur Waugh (3) and others (5); and 4 black and white photographs of Evelyn Waugh with his family (sizes 140 x 190 mm - 265 x 190mm, one with autograph greeting on verso and one inscribed and signed ('Evelyn', on cover sheet of mount), and 9 other items.
Letters mostly to a distant Catholic cousin (Alruna Waugh), and her daughter Zarita, married to a Hungarian, whom Waugh assisted after World War II when she and her family applied to leave European transit camps for Tasmania. He took up their case energetically with the military authorities and arranged for Lord Pakenham to intervene with the Australian High Commissioner (''I believe he will be able to extricate you all eventually'). Alruna, whom he undertook to support, came first to England to stay at a convent as his 'guest', before he was able to arrange her passage to Australia. He and Zarita never met, but their friendly correspondence continued to within two years of his death.
'I am sure that Australia will be [a] land of hope & fulfilment for the Mattays. All they ask is to work & make a home. I have seen something of the life of 'Displaced Persons' in Europe. It is a deadly existence & most become demoralised. Since they have stood it for two years & kept their initiative I think we can assume that they are a good type for settlers' (24 January 1948)
'A most charming present has just arrived from you -- our great-grandfather's mourning ring. It was very generous of you to part with an object of such beauty and association. I am delighted to possess it -- a further bond between us ... Europe is crumbling before one's eyes ... I think it quite conceivable that in ten years time I shall find myself a displaced person also. Perhaps by then you will have a roof to offer me & my family temporary shelter until I find work on the roads' (15 July [1949])
'I would greatly prefer my children to grow up ignorant [rather] than agnostic ... Of course there is no guarantee that sending children to monks & nuns makes them faithful or virtuous ... All a parent can do is to offer the best. The child may reject it. But there is a deep reproach if they grow up without the Faith if one has not done all one can for them. I daresay the non-Catholic Australians are much more agreeable than the Catholics. One finds that in many places outside Europe. It is one of the small sacrifices one has to accept' (3 December [1949])
Other subjects include his children's activities, his tastes in children's literature, Alec Waugh's 'imprudent engagement', the death of Ronald Knox, his travels including 'an idle luxurious spring in Paris', his move to Combe Florey where '[We] will live in camp like conditions during the Christmas holidays, eight of us not counting servants with two lavatories, two baths and no heating', and, repeatedly, his pessimism about postwar Britain. Two of the photographs are from the well known series taken by Mark Gerson in 1959 (his visit is described in Martin Stannard's Evelyn Waugh, II, 1993).
Arthur Waugh (father of Evelyn and Alec) writes to Sir Telford Waugh (a cousin) in 1936 that his sons 'have developed a curiosity about heraldry and our own coat of arms'.
The letters to Zarita Mattay and her mother, while not lacking characteristically pithy comments, illustrate the kinder and often unrecorded side of Evelyn Waugh's character. In the postwar years he belied his acerbic reputation by performing 'countless acts of quiet compassion' (Stannard, II, page 222, n.145). (17)
Letters mostly to a distant Catholic cousin (Alruna Waugh), and her daughter Zarita, married to a Hungarian, whom Waugh assisted after World War II when she and her family applied to leave European transit camps for Tasmania. He took up their case energetically with the military authorities and arranged for Lord Pakenham to intervene with the Australian High Commissioner (''I believe he will be able to extricate you all eventually'). Alruna, whom he undertook to support, came first to England to stay at a convent as his 'guest', before he was able to arrange her passage to Australia. He and Zarita never met, but their friendly correspondence continued to within two years of his death.
'I am sure that Australia will be [a] land of hope & fulfilment for the Mattays. All they ask is to work & make a home. I have seen something of the life of 'Displaced Persons' in Europe. It is a deadly existence & most become demoralised. Since they have stood it for two years & kept their initiative I think we can assume that they are a good type for settlers' (24 January 1948)
'A most charming present has just arrived from you -- our great-grandfather's mourning ring. It was very generous of you to part with an object of such beauty and association. I am delighted to possess it -- a further bond between us ... Europe is crumbling before one's eyes ... I think it quite conceivable that in ten years time I shall find myself a displaced person also. Perhaps by then you will have a roof to offer me & my family temporary shelter until I find work on the roads' (15 July [1949])
'I would greatly prefer my children to grow up ignorant [rather] than agnostic ... Of course there is no guarantee that sending children to monks & nuns makes them faithful or virtuous ... All a parent can do is to offer the best. The child may reject it. But there is a deep reproach if they grow up without the Faith if one has not done all one can for them. I daresay the non-Catholic Australians are much more agreeable than the Catholics. One finds that in many places outside Europe. It is one of the small sacrifices one has to accept' (3 December [1949])
Other subjects include his children's activities, his tastes in children's literature, Alec Waugh's 'imprudent engagement', the death of Ronald Knox, his travels including 'an idle luxurious spring in Paris', his move to Combe Florey where '[We] will live in camp like conditions during the Christmas holidays, eight of us not counting servants with two lavatories, two baths and no heating', and, repeatedly, his pessimism about postwar Britain. Two of the photographs are from the well known series taken by Mark Gerson in 1959 (his visit is described in Martin Stannard's Evelyn Waugh, II, 1993).
Arthur Waugh (father of Evelyn and Alec) writes to Sir Telford Waugh (a cousin) in 1936 that his sons 'have developed a curiosity about heraldry and our own coat of arms'.
The letters to Zarita Mattay and her mother, while not lacking characteristically pithy comments, illustrate the kinder and often unrecorded side of Evelyn Waugh's character. In the postwar years he belied his acerbic reputation by performing 'countless acts of quiet compassion' (Stannard, II, page 222, n.145). (17)