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Maggs Bros. Ltd. Rare Books and Manuscripts, London WC1 |
Now here is a piece of lovely arcana, which may provide a
source of solace in these parlous times. The 7/28 NB page of the TLS makes note
of the fact that Evelyn Waugh designed the jackets of his own books, amongst them, Vile Bodies (1930) and Love Amongst the Ruins (l953). The
column goes on to make note of an exhibit of Waugh’s art at Maggs Bros. Ltd. Rare Books and Manuscripts, London
WCI (a Dickensian sounding name in itself). Imagine an antique gallery, catering to book cover art of the last century. One wonders if they have some
Cruikshank specimens stored in their cellar. The piece goes on to deal with the
catalogue essay by one Mark Everett where the genesis of the cover of Decline and Fall is discussed and in which
the novel’s protagonist Paul Pennyweather is depicted in his “Bright Young
Person” persona. The TLS goes on to
discuss the essay and how Everett describes Waugh and his pals pulling off “a
classic Bright Young People jape.” Apparently these "bright young men" made up a
fictional German artist named Bruno Hat and exhibited his paintings. “The
paintings, one of which is on display at
Maggs, are thought to have been by John Banting, a minor Vorticist,” the TLS continues. This last is what is so
wonderful since in its mixture of high minded dismissiveness (“minor Vorticist”) and erudition, it holds dear the promise of civilization itself, a precious
and vanishing commodity amidst the tsunami of reactionary populism, Brexits, hurricanes and
threats of thermonuclear annihilation by the North Korean regime.
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