TODAY’S LITERARY BIRTHDAY: Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) English novelist, biographer, and travel writer best known for Decline and Fall (1928) and Brideshead Revisited (1945), Evelyn Waugh remains one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century and the leading satirist of his age. Waugh’s early novels of the 1920s and 1930s—Vile Bodies, Black Mischief, A Handful of Dust, and Scoop—combine dazzling wit with biting social critique. Through conservative eyes, he observed the decay of traditional English society and expressed his disillusionment with savage humor and brilliant economy of language. As modernity advanced, his tone grew darker—his later works mourned the decline of the stable, class-bound England he once lampooned. Yet his style remained unmistakable: sharp, controlled, and beautifully cruel. Did You Know? • His first wife was also named Evelyn—they were known socially as ‘He-Evelyn’ and ‘She-Evelyn.’ • When his first novel was rejected, Waugh attempted to drown himse...