Scoop
Waugh, Evelyn. Scoop. First American Edition, Second Printing. 1938. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in very good minus condition—jacket shows a few minor tears and a trace of fraying. Dust jacket illustration by Harry Beckoff.
An early printing of this novel is a rare and welcome find: only the first few print runs had the really great Beckoff dust jacket illustration. In this fast-paced novel, Waugh manages to satirize the powerful media barons of Fleet Street, feckless English society, and even his own friends (Lady Diana Cooper was the prototype for the book’s Mrs. Stitch). A case of mistaken identity causes the protagonist to be sent to Africa to cover a civil war, and in spite of his constant bumbling, he actually gets the scoop. Praised for its subtlety of language and light touch, it is in its own way as memorable as Waugh’s more serious novel, Brideshead Revisited.
“News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read.”
--Evelyn Waugh