Alexander Waugh Explained

Alexander Waugh
Birth Name:Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh
Birth Date:30 December 1963
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:Milverton, Somerset, England
Occupation:Writer
Children:3
Alma Mater:University of Manchester

Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (30 December 1963 – 22 July 2024) was an English writer, critic, and journalist. Among other books, he wrote Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family (2004), about five generations of his own family, and The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War (2008) about the Wittgenstein family. He was an advocate of the Oxfordian theory, which holds that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was the real author of the works of William Shakespeare.

Early life

Born in Belgravia, London on 30 December 1963, Alexander was the eldest son of Auberon and Lady Teresa Waugh, and the brother of Daisy Waugh and the grandson of Evelyn Waugh.[1] He was educated at Taunton School and the University of Manchester.

Career

Waugh was the opera critic of The Mail on Sunday and then the Evening Standard in the 1990s.[2] His books on music include Classical Music: A New Way of Listening (1995)[3] and Opera: A New Way of Listening (1996).[4]

Waugh's biography Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family (2004),[5] written at the suggestion of Sir Vidia Naipaul after his father died, is a portrait of the male relations across five generations in his own family.[6] [7] Described as "breezily irreverent" by John Banville in The New York Review of Books,[8] it formed the basis of a BBC Four television documentary, presented by the author, which was broadcast in 2006.[9] He was the general editor of The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh (43 volumes planned), a project which began in 2009 with the first four volumes appearing in 2017 published by the Oxford University Press.[10]

Waugh's biography of the Wittgenstein family (The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War[11]) was published in 2008. Terry Eagleton in a review for The Guardian found it an "eminently readable, meticulously researched account of the Wittgenstein madhouse". Although he thought Waugh wrote less about Ludwig Wittgenstein than he would desire, he "certainly casts some light" on the philosopher's "extraordinary contradictions."[12] Philosopher Ray Monk in his review for Standpoint magazine commented that Waugh, in his account of a substantial portion of the Wittgenstein family fortune ending up with the Nazis, uses "much hitherto unknown documentation" and "Waugh's version is more authoritative and fuller than previous accounts" and he wrote that concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein holds the largest share of the text and much of the book is written from his viewpoint.[13]

His other books include Time: From Microseconds to Millennia; A Search for the Right Time (1999)[14] and God (2002).[15] [16] [17] In Evelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family, Michael G. Brennan described Time as being "one of the most intriguing books produced by" any of his later family. "Ranging through religious, classical and renaissance scholarship, it blends past beliefs and theories, often in gently subversive ways, with more recent scientific thought."[18]

Oxfordian theory and Shakespeare

Waugh was an advocate of the Oxfordian theory, which contends that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the works of William Shakespeare. He discovered what he claimed to be surreptitious allusions embedded in 16th- and 17th-century works revealing that the name William Shakespeare was a pseudonym used by Oxford to write the Shakespeare oeuvre.[19] [20] Of one example which gained coverage in October 2013, Shakespearean scholar Professor Stanley Wells told The Sunday Times: "I'm mystified that an intelligent person like Alexander Waugh can see any significance in this kind of juggling with letters."[21]

Waugh's book, Shakespeare in Court (2014) takes the form of a fictional trial which draws the conclusion that Shakespeare was a front for others but, on this occasion, does not propose another candidate.[22]

He was elected chairman of the De Vere Society in spring 2016 for a three-year term.[23]

In late October 2017, The Guardian reported that Waugh believed the title and dedication of the William Aspley edition of Shakespeare's sonnets of 1609 hold encrypted evidence of the final resting place of the author: de Vere's grave in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.[24]

Personal life

Waugh met his wife, Eliza Chancellor, while they were both students at Manchester University.[25] Eliza is the daughter of the journalist Alexander Chancellor.[26] The couple married in 1990 and had three children.[1]

Waugh was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023. He died at his home in Milverton, Somerset, on 22 July 2024, at the age of 60.[27] [28] [1]

Bibliography

Books

Critical studies and reviews of Waugh's work

Fathers and sons

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Alexander Waugh, Literary Scion of a Literary Dynasty, Dies at 60. Risen. Clay. 3 August 2024. 3 August 2024. limited. The New York Times.
  2. Web site: Lebrecht . Norman . Opera critic dies, 60 . slippedisc.com . 27 July 2024 . 24 July 2023. he was opera critic of the Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard in the 1990s....
  3. Book: Waugh . Alexander . Classical Music: A New Way of Listening . 1995 . Macmillan . 978-0-02-860446-6 . en. 781239M.
  4. Book: Waugh . Alexander . Opera: A New Way of Listening . 1996 . De Agostini Editions . 978-1-899883-71-4 . 43495840M . en.
  5. Book: Waugh . Alexander . Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family . 13 May 2008 . National Geographic Books . 9780755312542 . 7993076M. en.
  6. News: Leith. Sam. Sam Leith. Fathers, sons, feuds and myths. -The Daily Telegraph. 1 September 2004. 17 September 2019.
  7. News: Kakutani. Michiko. A Literary Dynasty, Warts and All. The New York Times. 19 June 2007. 17 September 2019.
  8. News: Banville. John. John Banville. The Family Pinfold. The New York Review of Books. 54. 11. 28 June 2007. 18 September 2019. 20–21.
  9. News: Chancellor. Alexander. Alexander Chancellor. Love and Waughs. The Guardian. 20 May 2006. 17 September 2019.
  10. News: Sexton. David. The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh Vol 30: Personal Writings 1903–1921: Precocious Waughs by Alexander Waugh and Alan Bell – review. London Evening Standard. 14 September 2017. 17 September 2019.
  11. Book: Waugh . Alexander . The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War . 20 April 2010 . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group . 978-0-307-27872-2 . 24088914M . en.
  12. News: Eagleton. Terry. Terry Eagleton. Palace of pain .... The Guardian. 8 November 2008. 18 September 2019.
  13. News: Monk. Ray. Ray Monk. The Wealth of the Wittgensteins. Standpoint. 21 August 2008. 18 September 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190806164759/https://standpointmag.co.uk/issues/september-2008/the-house-of-wittgenstein-september/ . 6 August 2019 . . dead.
  14. Book: Waugh . Alexander . Time: From Micro-seconds to Millennia – a Search for the Right Time . 1999 . Headline . 978-0-7472-2178-4 . 6807783M . en.
  15. Book: Waugh . Alexander . God . 3 June 2014 . Macmillan . 978-1-4668-7251-6 . 37409388M . en.
  16. News: Elkins. Susan. God: the biography, by Alexander Waugh. The Independent. 11 April 2002. 18 September 2019.
  17. News: Armstrong. Karen. Karen Armstrong. God is terrible with names. The Daily Telegraph. 1 April 2002. 18 September 2019.
  18. Book: Brennan, Michael G.. Evelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family. London. Bloomsbury. 2013. 147. 9781441194176.
  19. News: Waugh. Alexander. Shakespeare was a nom de plume—get over it. The Spectator. 2 November 2013. 17 September 2019.
  20. Web site: Waugh. Alexander. John Weever – Another Anti-Stratfordian. De Vere Society Newsletter. 21. 2. May 2014. 12–15. 15 May 2015. 8 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160108195558/http://www.deveresociety.co.uk/articles/AW-2014May-Weever.pdf. dead.
  21. News: Alberge. Dalya. Zounds! He's cracked the de Vere code. The Sunday Times. 13 October 2013. 17 September 2019.
  22. News: Gore-Langton. Robert. The Campaign to Prove Shakespeare Didn't Exist. Newsweek. 29 December 2014. 17 September 2019.
  23. Web site: DVS welcomes new Chairman: Alexander Waugh. De Vere Society. 1 May 2016. 17 September 2019.
  24. News: Alberge. Dalya. I can prove that 'William Shakespeare' is buried in Westminster Abbey – scholar. The Guardian. 28 October 2017. 17 September 2019.
  25. News: Rustin. Susanna. All family life is tragic. The Guardian. 13 September 2008. 17 September 2019.
  26. News: Mount. Harry. Harry Mount. Alexander Chancellor, a raffish editor more interested in cocktail parties than political ones. The Daily Telegraph. 29 January 2017. 17 September 2019.
  27. News: Alexander Waugh obituary: mischievous grandson of Evelyn Waugh . The Times. 27 July 2024 . en. subscription.
  28. Web site: Alexander Waugh, author of an acclaimed study, Fathers and Sons, and Shakespeare sceptic – obituary . en-GB . 0307-1235 . The Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group Limited . 23 July 2024 . 23 July 2024. An entertaining debater, with a hatred of pomposity, he proved a doughty opponent of Stratfordian scholars and led the De Vere Society..

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