Sentence:  Its sting preserved to literature a fierce peculiar genius [Waugh] who, in the 40 years before his death last week at 62, achieved recognition as the grand old <WSD>mandarin</WSD> of modern British prose and as a satirist whose skill at sticking pens in people rates him a roomy cell in the murderers' row (Swift, Pope, Wilde, Shaw) of English letters. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles