GOD AND THE ATOM

First edition, first printing. Inscribed presentation copy, from Evelyn Waugh to John Betjeman. Publisher's original yellow cloth with red titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm with some bumping at the spine tips and board edges. The cloth, with a few minor dust marks and a touch of toning to the spine. The contents, with a small Blackwell's, Oxford book label to the lower edge of the front pastedown, are otherwise clean throughout and without previous owners' marks. Complete with the rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that is toned to the spine and panel edges. Not price-clipped (7s 6d net to the lower front flap).

Inscribed by Evelyn Waugh in black ink on the front endpaper "For John / This is the most comforting / book I know and there is no / Popery in it to upset / you / so please read it / Evelyn / Christmas 1947". A remarkable association copy, bringing together Evelyn Waugh and John Betjeman, two of the most distinctive literary voices of their generation. Ronald Knox was one of the leading English Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century. In 'God and the Atom' he reflects on the moral and spiritual implications of the atomic age following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Evelyn Waugh admired Knox deeply. Knox had instructed Waugh in the Catholic faith before Waugh's reception into the Church in 1930, Waugh remained one of Knox's staunchest admirers and, after Knox's death, one of his literary executors. John Betjeman was an Anglican rather than a Roman Catholic, he had a lifelong fascination with Christian belief, liturgy, church architecture, and religious culture. Betjeman and Waugh had maintained a friendship since the 1930s despite their differing religious allegiances. Waugh could be cutting with acquaintances, but with close friends he often mixed affection with mockery. Waugh's inscription neatly captures that relationship in its playful and affectionate acknowledgement of Betjeman's Anglicanism, whilst conveying a genuine wish that his friend should engage with a book he regarded as deeply important. By Christmas 1947 Britain was still living through post-war austerity, the memory of the war was fresh, and the atomic bomb had introduced a new anxiety about humanity's future. Although 'God and the Atom' begins with the terrifying implications of nuclear weapons, Knox's argument is ultimately one of Christian hope: technological change does not alter God's providence or the moral order. Waugh evidently found genuine consolation in that message.