author
Arthur Waugh
1866–1943
A thoughtful man of letters, he moved easily between writing, criticism, and publishing in late Victorian and early 20th-century Britain. Best known today as the father of Alec and Evelyn Waugh, he also built a substantial career of his own in the literary world.
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About the author
Arthur Waugh was an English author, literary critic, poet, and publisher, born in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, in 1866 and educated at Sherborne School and New College, Oxford. At Oxford he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1888, an early sign of the literary life he would go on to lead.
He wrote biography and criticism, including an early life of Alfred Tennyson, and contributed to literary journalism for many years. He was also closely tied to the publishing trade, serving in senior roles at Chapman and Hall and becoming well known in London literary circles.
Readers often meet him through the Waugh family story: he was the father of novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. But he was more than a literary footnote—he was a steady, influential presence in British publishing and criticism whose career linked the worlds of books, newspapers, and authorship.