100 Best Authors

Time magazine, one of America's most respected periodicals, has retracted a claim that British novelist Evelyn Waugh was among the 100 best read female authors.

The online version of the piece about "100 Most-Read Female Writers in College Classes" to tell readers the author of Brideshead Revisited was "a man" and should not, therefore, have been listed at 97 for his novels.

A man (above) and the correction (below)

Evelyn Waugh trended on Twitter - presumably the first time a British novelist who has been dead for 50 years managed this.

Someone else pointed one of Waugh's reviewers made the same mistake in his lifetime.

Oops! @TIME : original version of this story (about women writers) included Evelyn Waugh...
First rev of Decline & Fall made same mistake

— Paul Magrath (@Maggotlaw)

It was also noted that Waugh was married to a woman called Evelyn, his first wife, Evelyn Gardner.

Fun fact: For a year, Evelyn Waugh was married to a woman also named Evelyn.

— Stu (@pomodrunkard)

One Tweeter unearthed an even bigger mistake. They noted that, not only had Waugh been included by mistake, but they had included "some bloke called George Eliot".

Not only have Time listed Evelyn Waugh as one of the most-read women in U.S. colleges, they've also included some bloke called George Eliot.