WAUGH EVELYN: (1903-1966) English Writer & Novelist. Autograph Manuscript unsigned (although signed in the third person to a separate note at the foot), one page, folio, n.p. (Taunton, Somerset), n.d. (1963). The manuscript is a review of the book Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing by Ruari McLean beginning 'Mr. McLean's book on Victorian book design is addressed austerely and exclusively to the collector. There are no biographical anecdotes, few individual judgements' and continuing, in part, 'Collectors will receive it with mixed emotions….In the last 30 years they have watched prices rise from shillings to guineas. The good collector is not gratified by the enhanced value of his possessions; he wishes to complete his collection and, hitherto, the ornamental books of the nineteenth century have been some of the few objects of beauty within the means of the poor. We do not want a craze to start…..But the dominant emotion is one of gratitude to the author for his valuable, indeed absolutely necessary, labours on our behalf in cataloguing the treasures still to be sought….We may regret that he is less than precise in explaining the process which produce what are inadequately known as the papier mache bindings. We may point to the quality of his own colour plates as glaring examples of the regression from the standards of a hundred years ago. But all these are the quibbles of envy. Mr. McLean has produced the book we needed in an admirable form. Most men of my age grew up believing that the art of printing was rediscovered by William Morris at the end of the XIX century and the art of lettering a decade later by Edward Johnston. Then with almost guilty pleasure we found for ourselves some of the gems of mid-Victorian book design….The weight of these splendid volumes predispose them to destruction. Loose in covers is the booksellers common note….Only a few had sewn linen guards. Awful destruction took place during the 'salvage drive' of the last war. Almost too late a committee devoted itself to rescuing doomed volumes for sale. These formed the nucleus of many of the private collections today. Mr. McLean's highly competent compilation will set us, as they say, 'targets'. It comes not so much to strengthen our approval of our own judgement as to spur us to hunt wider for those lovely Kings while they are still procurable.' Waugh has added a note in bold red ink at the foot, 'Proof please to E. Waugh, Combe Florey House, Taunton'. VG

Waugh's review was written for publication in the Sunday TelegraphRuari McLean (1917-2006) British Typographic Designer. His Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing was published in 1963 with a second edition in 1972 and was followed by Victorian Bookbindings in Cloth and Leather (1973).