Edmund Campion; Jesuit and Martyr
New York: Image Books, 1956. Original paper wrappers (7 inches tall). Very slight wear to corners and spine ends. A nearly-fine copy with an uncreased spine. Item #1793
"THE HUNTED, TRAPPED, MURDERED PRIEST IS AMONGST US AGAIN"
First Image Books edition of Edmund Campion: Jesuit and Martyr. This edition, from Doubleday's Image Books imprint, features a cover by Anna Marie Jauss and typography by Edward Gorey, with reviewer comments from Commonweal and Harold Gardiner, S.J. at America Magazine. Laid-in is a separate Review Copy card announcing a publication date of February 13, 1956. A bright, fresh copy with an uncreased spine.
Printed with Waugh's new preface from the 1946 first American edition, commending the value of Richard Simpson's Victorian biography of Campion and closes with a chilling comparison of Campion's martyrdom with the totalitarian persecution of the Church in the twentieth century: "We have seen the Church driven underground in one country after another. The hunted, trapped, murdered priest is amongst us again, and the voice of Campion comes to us across the centuries as though he were walking at our side." Dedicated by Waugh "To Martin D'Arcy, S.J. Some-time Master of Campion Hall, Oxford." It was Father D'Arcy who had received Waugh into the Church in 1930 and Waugh retained the dedication for the new edition, changing "Master of Campion Hall" to "Some-time Master of Campion Hall."
The book is divided into four sections: I. The Scholar, II. The Priest, III. The Hero, IV. The Martyr. The text concludes: "Mells — Belton — Newton Ferrers / October 1934-May 1935." Appendix I prints "Campion's Brag," addressed to "The Lords of Her Majestie's Privy Council." The fugitive priest's apologia and declaration of purpose is thought to be the earliest defense of the faith to appear in English during the Counter-Reformation: "The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: so it must be restored." Executed at the gallows at Tyburn on December 1, 1581, Edmund Campion was canonized by Pope Paul VI in October 1970 and named one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Robert M. Davis. A Bibliography of Evelyn Waugh; Ahearn 012d.
Price: $75.00