The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. by WAUGH, Evelyn - 1957: A Conversation Piece.

London: Chapman & Hall,, 1957. Inscribed to Christopher Sykes First edition, large paper issue. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his friend and biographer Christopher Sykes, "Christopher with love. Look out. It might be you next. Evelyn" on the front free endpaper. Sykes first met Waugh in 1929 shortly after the collapse of Waugh's first marriage, and the pair became good friends. According to Waugh's son Auberon, he was chosen to be the author's official biographer "because he was the only one of Waugh's obituarists who caught something of the gaiety as well as the recklessness of the man" (ODNB), though his book, published in 1975, was inhibited by a respect for Waugh's widow "a decline in energy" (idem), and perhaps a delayed feeling of resentment at his friend's success. Octavo. Original red cloth titled in gilt to the spine, bottom and fore edges uncut. A touch of fading to the spine. A near fine copy.