They Were Still Dancing – First US Edition – First Issue – Inscribed By Evelyn Waugh

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1931. First American edition, first printing. Octavo. Publisher’s mustard-yellow cloth, lettered in brown to spine with publisher’s device to upper board, in the scarce original Art Deco dust jacket printed in blue and brown.

A highly desirable inscribed presentation copy of one of the great rarities of Waugh’s bibliography, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “For dear Lon with warmest love from Evelyn”.

Published in the same year in Britain as Remote People, this American issue appeared under Waugh’s preferred title, taken from the opening words of the book itself. The work chronicles Waugh’s travels through East Africa and Abyssinia, undertaken principally to witness the coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie. It remains among the sharpest and most stylish examples of interwar travel writing, combining anthropological observation, satire, colonial reportage and Waugh’s unmistakable prose style.

The Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith issue is now regarded as one of the genuinely elusive Waugh first editions. Following a dispute with the publishers over financial arrangements, Waugh severed relations with Cape & Smith before the American publication programme had properly stabilised. The sheets were subsequently taken over by Farrar & Rinehart for the better-known 1932 issue, leaving only a very small surviving number of the 1931 imprint in circulation. Bibliographical research has suggested that fewer than 150 copies of this first issue may survive, with substantially fewer retaining the original dust jacket. The striking jacket design, with its geometric typography and modernist layout, is among the most visually arresting of Waugh’s early American publications and survives here in presentable condition despite expected wear.

No individual named “Lon” has been identified among Waugh’s documented circle at this period; the name may represent a private nickname or an otherwise unrecorded acquaintance. Given Waugh’s well-documented disagreement with the publisher, it is bibliographically notable that he nevertheless presented and warmly inscribed a copy to a close acquaintance.

Spine slightly dust-marked and rubbed; a very good indeed, tight and clean copy in a good only dustwrapper which is nicked, chipped and rubbed with some loss at the spine.

Presentation copies of this title are seldom encountered on the market and this is an unusual association copy of a legendary Waugh rarity.

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