A letter from Evelyn Waugh to a Mr Some on the stationery of the Grand Hotel in Oslo is to be sold by Forum Auctions later this month. The letter would have been written in August 1947 while Waugh was on a visit to the Scandinavian capitals researching articles commissioned by the Daily Telegraph.
In the undated letter, Waugh thanks Some for the gift of a five-volume collection of the works of the artist Edvard Munch. Waugh mentions Munch briefly in the first of the DT articles as one of the two recently deceased masters of art in Norway who have prospered “under generous patronage of the state … painting acres of wall” (“The Scandinavian Capitals,” EAR, p. 340). The other partner in this “new generation” of artists was the sculptor Gustav Vigeland whose work Waugh found much more interesting and devoted several lines to in a subsequent article. He had dinner with Mr Some but does not otherwise identify him in the letter. In his Diaries and in a letter to his wife, Waugh mentions having dinner at least once with his publisher, but it is not clear that this would have been Some since Waugh stayed four nights in Oslo.
