author
Arthur Waugh
1866–1943
A sharp-eyed man of letters who helped shape the literary world from inside the publishing trade, he is remembered both for his own criticism and for the remarkable writing family he raised.
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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. He studied at Sherborne School and New College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. Early in his career he wrote literary biographies, including studies of Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, and he also contributed criticism and essays to newspapers and magazines.
Much of his working life was tied to the publishing house Chapman & Hall, where he rose to a senior leadership role. Alongside that work, he became a well-known literary commentator, writing for major periodicals and building a reputation as a thoughtful, traditional-minded critic.
He is also often noted as the father of novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh, which places him at the center of a striking literary family. His own memoir, One Man's Road, offers a picture of the book world he lived in, and his career reflects the close link between publishing, reviewing, and public literary culture in late Victorian and early twentieth-century Britain.