Evelyn Waugh made
Time's list of the most-read female writers this week but that was before the magazine was forced to issue a correction after coming to the realization that the author in question is, in fact, a man.
The embarrassing mistake caused a flurry of attention on social media, and numerous news outlets posted stories pointing out why the author’s name was trending.
Waugh, whose works include “Brideshead Revisited,” “Decline and Fall,” and “A Handful of Dust,” was listed at No. 97 on Time’s 100 Most-Read Female Writers in College Classes. The list was based on 1.1 million college syllabi.
The Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri made light of the mistake, using titles of Waugh’s books to note the “decline and fall” of list-making standards and shrug that we’re all going to end up as a “handful of dust” in the end.
“Frankly, I think it’s more distressing that Kate Turabian, the author of a manual for formatting your thesis, is the most-read female author on campus, according to the list,” Petri wrote.
Slate pointed out that confusion over the author’s gender-bending name followed him throughout his life, so much so that he mentioned it in his autobiography, “A Little Learning”: “I was christened Arthur Evelyn St John: the first name after my father, the second from a whim of my mother’s. I have never liked the name. In America it is used only of girls and from time to time even in England it has caused confusion as to my sex.”
Born in London in 1903, Waugh spent time as an art student and schoolmaster before focusing on his career as a
satirical novelist, according to Biography.com. He died of heart failure in 1966.
Twitter users seemed amused by Time's error.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.