Rejected Helena

The world of small publishing houses, known in English as private press , has always attracted lovers of beautiful books. One of them was Evelyn Waugh, one of the most outstanding British writers of the 20th century, the author of the novel Brideshead Revisited , also known in Poland.

Waugh was keenly interested in the world of private press and planned to publish one of his novels in this format. It was Helena , which was published in Poland by Znak in a translation by Wacław Niepokólczycki in 1960. Ultimately, these plans failed, but his interest did not fade completely.

The war took him away from the world of beautiful books for a while, but while writing Helena he remained in touch with one of the most famous British private presses – Golden Cockerel Press. In a letter to Christopher Sandford, owner of the publishing house from 1933 to 1959 and one of the founders of the Folio Society, he wrote:

"I have in mind a small folio with three illustrations and a decorated title page, and also decorated initials in the text, published in an edition of not more than a thousand copies, at four or five guineas each [about £200 today]. The profit itself is of secondary importance, my main object being to see the book beautifully produced..."

However, Sandford declined the offer. In the Cockalorum catalogue , documenting the publications of the Golden Cockerel Press, he noted that he had rejected both Waugh and Sir Robert Sitwell because he did not consider them good enough authors for his publishing house.

The story of this failed project shows how much importance Evelyn Waugh attached to the aesthetics of the book. Although his private press dream did not come to fruition, his interest in beautiful editions of literature remained an important element of his work and life.