LIMITED FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WAUGH'S THE HOLY PLACES, WITH WOOD ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS BY REYNOLDS STONE, IN ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

WAUGH, Evelyn. The Holy Places. London and New York: Queen Anne and The British Book Centre, 1953. Slim octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. $300.

Limited first American edition, number 185 of 950 copies (out of a total edition of 1000 copies), of this combination travel narrative/historical essay on the degradation of ancient holy sites, with four burgundy-toned wood engravings by Reynolds Stone, in original dust jacket.

Based on an article Waugh wrote for Life magazine, entitled “The Plight of the Holy Places” (December 24, 1951), The Holy Places is a history-minded report on Waugh's pilgrimage to the Holy Land. "Visiting Israel with Christopher Sykes to research The Holy Places, Waugh has no pride in England as he had in 1935. Everything is monotonous. Tourism and politics have laid waste everywhere. And so he turns back, his eyes goggled on the past. Where as a young man he sought remote people, now he seeks remote epochs; Italy at the time of Augustus Hare; Jerusalem at the time of Helena; anywhere, in fact, before the advent of the wireless, 'the canvasses of Mr Francis Bacon', and interior decorators" (Nicholas Shakespeare). The illustrations, by Reynolds Stone, earned critical accolades for their beauty. The limited first edition (950 copies) was published in London in 1952; this is the limited first American edition. This edition comprises 1000 copies, of which 950 copies are numbered (as here) and the remaining 50 signed and in deluxe binding.

Book fine, price-clipped dust jacket near-fine with slightest rubbing to corners and a bit of toning. A handsome copy.