RONALD KNOX

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Original blue cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, in dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and tight, the contents clean without inscriptions or stamps. Very light spotting to the textblock edges. Complete with the near fine dustwrapper, the red lettering on the spine substantially faded. The upper and lower edges are darkened and a little rubbed where the laminate has receded from the edges. Not price-clipped (30s net to the front flap).

Signed by the author in black ink to the title page. The priest, theologian and classicist Ronald Knox, friend to G. K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc, appointed Waugh as his literary executor. This biography, written with the approval of Knox (who died in 1957), was clearly a labour of love and joins the same author's study of Edmund Campion (another Catholic priest) as one of his rare excursions into biographical writing. 'His book is not only a scrupulous portrait. It is also a notable contribution to the history of English Catholicism [...]' (from John Raymond's 'Sunday Times' review).