Helena.

WAUGH, Evelyn.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 2807

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.

First American edition of what the author always described as his best work. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author to friend, fellow Catholic and novelist J.F. Powers on the front free endpaper, “For Jim Powers with warm regards from Evelyn Waugh.” Jim Powers was a novelist and short-story writer who often drew his inspiration from developments in the Catholic Church, and was known for his studies of Catholic priests in the Midwest. Writing about Powers’s first collection of stories, “Prince of Darkness,” Evelyn Waugh said that he “is almost unique in his country as a lay writer who is at ease in the Church; whose whole art, moreover, is everywhere infused and directed by his Faith.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing and wear. A nice association linking these two fine novelists.

Based on the life of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and finder of the true cross, this spiritual adventure brings to life the political intrigues of ancient Rome and the early years of Christianity. Waugh considered "Helena" his finest novel. "[Helena] may be read on two levels of appreciation: As bright entertainment, or as deceptively profound commentary. On both levels it’s a superlatively well done book" (Chicago Tribune).