Raymond Toole Stott - A Bibliography of the Works of W. Somerset Maugham (1973) - edited by Alexander Arsov (2015)

NB. The following bibliography, except as a tribute to Mr Stott’s magisterial research, is meant to serve as a quick, easy and reliable reference about Somerset Maugham’s voluminous oeuvre. Everything outside square brackets comes straight from Mr Stott, although I have skipped a lot and arranged the rest differently; the only other frivolity I have allowed myself are few minor changes in the formatting. Everything in square brackets is additional material derived from my own collection, from the inscrutable ways of the Web, or simply from other parts of this very book in case of missed/wrong cross-references. A modest attempt to bring Mr Stott’s text up to date and fix some of his errors/omissions has been made. I have not hesitated to include extensive excerpts from his fascinating notes, but neither have I spared him some harsh personal criticism when I think he deserves it. All endnotes, except otherwise noted, are mine. The major sources I have used to supplement Mr Stott are the following: Bassett (G251), Critical Heritage (F175), FMI, Moore, MMC, Rothschild (F186), Whitehead 1984 (B43), Whitehead 1987 (F176).

 

 

Raymond Toole Stott

 

A Bibliography of the Works of W. Somerset Maugham

 

London: Kaye & Ward, 1973.

 

First published by Nicholas Vane (Publishers) Ltd, 1956.

Revised and Extended edition published by Kaye & Ward, 1973.

Revised, abridged and expanded by Alexander Arsov, 2014–15.

 

Table of Contents:

 

A. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS BY W.S.M. [78 entries]

B. COLLECTED EDITIONS [39+13 new entries]

C. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS EDITED, OR WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY W.S.M. [63+18 new entries]

D. CONTRIBUTIONS BY W.S.M. TO PERIODICALS [186+31 new entries]

E. PLAYS NOVELISED OR BOOKS DRAMATISED BY OTHERS [11 entries]

F. CHECK–LIST OF WORKS CONCERNING W.S.M. [160+32 new entries]

G. CHECK–LIST OF PERIODICALS CONCERNING W.S.M. [174+122 new entries]

 

APPENDICES:

I. MANUSCRIPTS

II. MISCELLANEOUS MANUSCRIPTS

III. UNPUBLISHED PLAYS

IV. UNPUBLISHED PLAYS ADAPTED BY OTHERS

 

A.   BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

         A1.   Liza of Lambeth (1897) [1^st novel]

                          A1a.  First edition, T. Fisher Unwin, September 1897. “To / My Good Friend / Adney Payne”.

·     It has been stated that the first issue had the word ‘belly’ instead of ‘stomach’ in line 20 of page 124, but this was not printed in the first edition of the book – despite the claim of a correspondent to the March 1934 issue of The Book Collector’s Quarterly that he had seen a copy of the first edition containing the word. It was in the original manuscript, but was deleted at the publisher’s request in proof. Certainly, it was not present in the first edition. The original word, however, was reverted to when Heinemann took the book over and it appeared for the first time in the Collected Edition.

·     In the New York Public Library is a unique and fascinating folder containing part of the archives of T. Fisher Unwin, the first publisher of W. Somerset Maugham, and among these papers is the author’s description of the novel he submitted to Fisher Unwin called A Lambeth Idyll and the reports of three readers upon it.

·     The description what the novel is all about is in the author’s own hand and was attached to the manuscript: ‘This is the story of a nine days wonder in a Lambeth slum (he wrote). It shows that those queer folk the poor live and love and love and die in very much the same way as their neighbours of Brixton and Belgravia, and that hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness are not the peculiar attributes of the Glorious British Middle Class, and finally it shows that in this world nothing very much matters, and that in Vere Street, Lambeth, nothing matters at all.’

·     The manuscript was first sent by Fisher Unwin to Vaughan Nash, who was one of his regular readers, and his report is dated 14^th January 1897. He writes ‘The author shows considerable acquaintance with the speech and the customs of a certain class of the London poor and if he knew how to use his materials his work might possess certain value. But this study shows no trace of any such power. Its details, some of which are revolting and, I should suppose, unsuitable for publication, are strung together loosely and there is no touch of romance, no sense of character, and no atmosphere from first to last. The figures are introduced apparently in order to deliver themselves of the author’s collection of slum Cockneyisms… Altogether I feel that as an experiment in realistic writing the story will not do… But in the event of publication I would suggest that it should be carefully read in view of certain passages which strike me as particularly offensive. The author’s capacity for vulgarity on his own account is considerable.’

·     Fisher Unwin, despite what Maugham used to say about him, did have a flair for spotting talent, and he must have been very dissatisfied with this report. So he sent the MS to another reader for whom he had a great regard, Edward Garnet, who was to become one of the outstanding literary figures of his day. This is what he had to say in his report, dated 25^th January 1897: ‘Mr. Maugham has not produced so forceful a study as The Jago – but when all is said and done A Lambeth Idyll is a very clever realistic study of factory girls and cosher life. The women, their roughness, intemperance, fits of violence, kind-heartedness, slang – all are done truthfully. Liza and her mother Mrs. Kemp are drawn with no little amount of humour and insight. The study is a dismal one in its ending, but the temper and tone of the book is wholesome and by no means morbid. The work is objective, and both the atmosphere and the environment of the mean district are unexaggerated. The question for Mr. Unwin to decide is this – the Arthur Morrison public – a slowly growing one, will understand and appreciate the book – though of course it was through Mr. Henley’s backing that Mean Streets and The Jago found publisher and public, and Mr. Maugham has not got Mr. Henley at his back. If Mr. Unwin does not publish A Lambeth Idyll somebody else certainly will… We should say Publish. P.S. The conversation is remarkably well done.’

·     There could not have been a more confident report than this and Fisher Unwin must have been duly impressed. However, it would seem that he was still not quite happy about certain passages in the book or its ‘realism’ for he decided to seek the opinion of yet another reader, certain Mr. W. H. Chess. His report is dated 2^nd February 1897. He writers: ‘This is interesting, impressive and truthful. It might be described as an attempt to do for the South East of London what Mr. Morrison has done for the Bethnal Green district. Both from the moral and artistic point of view we should advise the publication of this study… We have said that it is also a story to “take or leave”. A process of pruning down would be absurd. If people don’t like to read of a love that takes the form of a “swinging blow in the belly” they won’t; if they do, they will. Yet one feels that Mr. Maugham knows his people and between those and these there is not a great gulf fixed, after all.’

·     Not all the reviews, it may be remarked, of Maugham’s first book were favourable. The reviewer in The Athenaeum (11.9.97) wrote that ‘Liza of Lambeth is emphatically unpleasing as literature,’ while the reviewer in the Academy (11.9.97) [G0a] after reading the novel felt as if he had taken ‘a mud bath in all the filth of a London street.’

                          A1b.  First American edition, George H. Doran Company, September 1921.

                          A1c.  Second edition, T. Fisher Unwin, May 1904. “To / My Good Friend, Still / Walter Payne”. Title page: “Popular Edition, Revised”

·     Another interesting variation is that the first edition is dedicated to Adney Payne, whereas the second edition is dedication to Walter Payne. Walter Payne was a qualified accountant and a barrister. He succeeded to his father’s theatrical interests and became of the outstanding figures in the theatre world. He died in 1949.

·     A comparison of the text of the first and second editions reveals that the author made a large number of small revisions, particularly to the Cockney dialogue, as for example changing ‘ter’ to ‘to’. On the title page the title of the novel ‘Orientations’ is wrongly spelt.

·     [Amusing mistake by Mr Stott. He is correct about the wrong spelling (“Orientation”), but he is quite wrong about the form of the book. Orientations was, of course, Maugham’s first short story collection (A3).]         

                          A1d.  Cheap edition, T. Fisher Unwin, May 1915. The Copyright page lists later “Impressions” in 1897, 1904, 1906, 1914 and 1915.

                          A1e.  Travellers’ Library edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 1930. Travellers’ Library No. 141. [Rather charming yellow dust jacket.]

·     Contains a new (6 pp.) preface in which the author refers to the changes in the habits and speech of the Cockney since 1897.

                           A1f.  Jubilee edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 8 December 1947. Limited to 1000 copies, numbered and signed by the author.

·     The preface to this edition consists of the Travellers’ Library edition preface, with a 4 pp. Special Supplement to the Jubilee edition. The preface to the Collected Edition contains another 14 pp., in which the author explains how he came to write not only Liza of Lambeth but also all other novels of his youth, and why he is not including them in the Collected Edition. It is a very important, as well as revealing, disclosure of his attitude towards his own writing, and perhaps it would not be out of place to reproduce here a very beautiful letter he wrote to a stranger who out of the blue asked his advice on how to become an author. ‘What I have to say,’ he writes, ‘is the result of my own experience and that is this. The chances of one writing anything of permanent value before one is thirty are small. And if one is a literary man who has to earn his living the probabilities are that one will waste very good themes which one realises afterwards one could have made much more of with greater knowledge and experience. My advice to you therefore is to adopt any occupation which will give you a living and keep writing for your spare time. In that spare time you will be able to write a novel in a year or two and from its result you can judge whether it is worth your while to go on. The life of the writer is extremely specialised and by following some other avocation it is likely that he will gain experience which will be of great value to him afterwards. So far as I personally am concerned I can only wish that I had remained a doctor for three or four years instead of writing books which have long been as dead as mutton.’ (From a collection of letters in the Yale University.)

·     To those fortunate few who have read the first draft of Of Human Bondage which Maugham wrote in Seville in 1898, soon after Liza of Lambeth under the title The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey, the manuscript of which is now in The Library of Congress, the force of this argument is vividly brought home, for its rejection by Fisher Unwin (because Maugham was asking £100 for it) was one of the luckiest breaks that could ever have fallen on a young author.

                          A1g.  [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New Preface: B2. The preface, a greatly expanded version of A1e, is of paramount importance as Maugham’s longest and most candid discussion of his early works. Mr Stott mentions this in A1f and B2.]

                          A1h.  [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 1. Preface rehashed from A1g. See B21.]

                            A1i.  [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the full 1934 preface from A1g.]

         A2.   The Making of a Saint (1898) [2^nd novel]

                          A2a.    First edition, L. C. Page and Company, Boston, 31 May 1898. Illustrated by Gilbert James with 4 black-and-white plates: (1) “As I rode along, I meditated.”, frontispiece; (2) “You need have no fear about your character.”, facing p. 112; (3) “It was empty but for a few rapacious men, who were wondering about, like scavengers.”, facing p. 222; (4) “In a bound I had reached him.”, facing p. 328.

·     The book was reprinted in 1900 with paper wrappers (1500 copies) and again in 1902. In 1922 the copyright was renewed and the book reprinted under the title The Making of a Saint: A Romance of Medieval Italy by The St Botolph Society (Boston). It was again reprinted from this edition in 1966 by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, who had absorbed the firm of L. C. Page. John Farrar writes a most interesting 20 pp. foreword to this edition giving the history of the book, and quotes a pencilled memo by L. C. Page to a member of his office which is of such interest that it is reproduced here: ‘I purchased the American rights on my first or second visit to London, back in the 90’s – probably ’96 or ’97. I did not make the deal with Mr. Fisher Unwin, an elderly man who was little at his office (although I dined with him at his London club). The deal was made with his manager, a fair practical man who was dissatisfied with Unwin, and was even then considering going into business for himself which he later did, and like Unwin has gone out of business. He, the manager, Benn, informed me that the Saint was a first novel and was purchased outright by Unwin who yearly ran a First Novel competition, purchasing these novels outright.’ Mr. Page went on to say that he purchased the American rights outright for £40.

·     He was not right of course in stating it was a first novel – it was in fact Maugham’s second novel.

                          A2b.    First English edition, T. Fisher Unwin, 25 June 1898.

·     The author has described this novel as the worst book he ever wrote. [Where did the author share this revelation, Raymond?]

·     [Epigraph (also in A1a):

Quanto e bella giovinezza,

Che si fugge tuttavia;

Chi vuol esser lieto, sia,

Di doman non c'e certezza.

 

Youth – how beautiful is youth!

But, alas, elusive ever!

Let him be light of heart who would be so,

For there's no surety in the morrow.]

                          A2c.    Colonial edition, T. Fisher Unwin, 1898.

                          A2d.    [Kessinger Publishing, 2008. Reprint of the edition by the St Botolph Society, March 1922, which in turns seems to reprint the text and the illustrations of A2a. The latter are a little too dark but not unpleasant to look at; it is unwise to expect more in such edition. The text is clean and easy to read. No blurred pages.]

·     [As a last note, it may be remarked that the Introduction which appears in all editions, the first one included, is part of the novel itself. It is not a non-fiction piece. It is one of those tricks for adding verisimilitude. It pretends to be introducing the memoirs of “Beato Giuliano, brother of the Order of St Francis of Assisi, known in his worldly life as Filippo Brandolini.” Only when one has finished the book, does one grasp the irony of the title.]

         A3.   Orientations (1899) [1^st short story collection]

                          A3a.    First edition, T. Fisher Unwin, June 1899. “To / Mrs. Edward Johnston”.[1]

·     In the preface to the Collected Edition of Liza of Lambeth Somerset Maugham says that following the success of his first novel he spent 8 months in Spain writing (among other activities) some short stories and to these he added two he had previously sent to T. Fisher Unwin and so made up the volume which he called Orientations. These two short stories were A Bad Example and Daisy and in Eddie Ayerbach’s copy of Orientations (now in the possession of Leonard Meldman) Maugham has written ‘A Bad Example and Daisy are the first stories I ever wrote, I was then 18.’

·     In the folder of the Berg Collection at The New York Public Library, referred to earlier, is the reader’s reports on these two stories. As they were written by ‘E.G.’ (Edward Garnett) they will not be without interest. Of A Bad Example on the 20^th July 1896, he wrote: ‘There is some ability in this, but not very much. Mr. Maugham has imagination and he can write prettily, but his satire against Society is not deep enough or humorous enough to command attention. He should be advised to try the humbler magazines for a time, and if he tries anything more important to send it to us.’

·     Of Daisy on the 30^th December 1898, he wrote: ‘In some respects this story is not very artistic. Nevertheless [it] is very effective. It is strong and able, and the end undoubtedly has emotional force. In fact, the story hits one – there is no denying that: we believe the story will hit every reader… We believe the story will meet with a good reception, and will increase Mr. Maugham’s reputation. And we should call it a publisher’s mistake for Fisher Unwin to lose an opportunity of issuing a volume of such stories.’

·     Contents: The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian – A Bad Example – De Amicitia – Faith – The Choice of Amyntas – Daisy.

·     [Only the first story is known to have appeared in a magazine (D1). All stories are reprinted in Seventeen Lost Stories, 1969 (B36). In one of his prefaces (A25e), Maugham was rather devastating about Orientations:]

·     [“I read it again the other day. It sent so many cold shivers down my spine that I thought I must be going to have another attack of malaria. As a measure of precaution I dosed myself with quinine and arsenic. The book was reviewed with kindliness and strangely enough it brought me a commission from Punch to write three stories. I suppose those in Orientations showed promise. Reading them five and thirty years later it seemed to me that here and there they were moving, but they had passages so preposterously unreal that I could hardly believe it possible that I had written them. Their worst fault, however, was their superciliousness. In the arrogance of my youth I sneered at everything that offended my fastidious and narrow prejudices.”]

·     [A year earlier, in the preface to A1g, Maugham was less harsh:]

·     [“As soon as I had taken my medical degrees, with the success of Liza of Lambeth to encourage me and the future before me, for I was only twenty-three, I set out for Spain. I spent eight months there and wrote some short stories. To these I added the two I had previously sent to Mr Fisher Unwin and so made up a volume which I called Orientations. […] The title (which indeed might serve as the general title of all my work) very well described what I had in mind, and though I have not looked at this volume since it was published I have a notion that the stories it contains did in fact in a crude and fumbling way suggest the directions in which I was afterwards to make further experiments. I am conscious now that my imaginary quotation [see the epigraph] seemed a trifle arrogant, for it was unlikely that anyone then should have the least curiosity about my turn of mind; but I meant by it merely that I knew how immature and tentative my work was. The stories were highly praised by the critics and brought me some welcome commissions, but I do not think that in their present form they are worth including in this edition.”]

·     [Epigraph: “C'est surtout, par ses nouvelles d'un jeune écrivain qu'on peut se rendre compte du tour de son esprit. Il y cherche la voie qui lui est propre dans une série d'essais de genre et de style différents, qui sont comme des orientations, pour trouver son moi littéraire.”[2]]

         A4.   The Hero (1901) [3^rd novel]

                          A4a.    First edition, Hutchinson & Co., 3 July 1901. “To Miss Julia Maugham”.

·     The Hero is the author’s first book to have his well known Eastern symbol on the cover, and it is the only book in which it appears in this position – upside down!

·     In a letter in 1951 to his agent A. P. Watt, Maugham comments on The Hero: ‘It was one of my earliest novels, it was not a success when it came out, and I don’t believe it has any merit at all.’

·     The Maugham symbol is an Eastern sign against the Evil Eye found in Morocco. The author’s father had the sign engraved on some glass bought for a house built and newly furnished just before he died, and his son adopted and used it on the covers of all his books from The Hero onwards.

·     [Epigraph:

"Rule, Britannia!

Britannia, rule the waves;

Britons never will be slaves."

"Alfred": a Masque. By James Thomson.

 

"O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"

"Sophonisba": a Tragedy. By the same Author.]

                          A4b.    [Kessinger Publishing, 2000. Very poor reprint of the First edition. Looks like a hideous Xerox copy. Dark and fuzzy. Barely readable. Avoid.]

                          A4c.    [Norilana Press, 2008. Decent modern edition. Clean text.]

         A5.   Mrs. Craddock (1902) [4^th novel]

                          A5a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1902. Epistle Dedicatory signed W. M., pp. v-vi.

·     The notable fact about Mrs. Craddock is that it is the only one of this author’s early novels (with the possible exception of Liza) that is today at all readable. Here for the first time one catches unexpected flashes of the later Maugham, with his worldly wisdom and uncanny, intuitive understanding of human nature, breaking through the somewhat hackneyed prose.

·     [The first sentence is rubbish. I have yet to read The Bishop’s Apron, but the rest of Maugham’s early novels I have found quite readable, far more so than many famous (and shorter!) books by celebrated authors with greater pretensions. The second sentence, however, is pure wisdom. I consider also The Hero as one of the earliest, if intermittent, manifestations of the mature Maugham, but since it was written after (though published before) Mrs Craddock, I will not argue with Mr Stott on chronological matters.]

·     After the publication (for those days) of the somewhat ‘daring’ Mrs. Craddock, Mr. Maugham evidently suffered some rebuffs from publishers and editors, for he is constantly stressing in his letters to Pinker that ‘I can be trusted to be suitably moral…’ and again ‘My new work (The Bishop’s Apron) is different than anything I have hitherto done in that it is exceedingly decent and is presumed to be humorous.’ In a letter to his agent written from Capri about 1905, asking him to protect the American rights of Loaves and Fishes, later published under the title The Bishop’s Apron, he declared, ‘My novels have apparently been too shocking for the American public. Only one was published there and that was six years ago by Page of Boston, I think… I don’t know if it had any success. I should think not. I don’t think there is in Loaves and Fishes anything that would bring a blush to the cheek of an American matron.’

·     [Loaves and Fishes was, of course, first novelised, and then published as The Bishop’s Apron.]

                          A5b.    First edition sheets remaindered to the Times Book Club, with new title page, William Heinemann, 1903.

                          A5c.    First American edition, George H. Doran Company, March 1920.

                          A5d.    The Collected Edition, William Heinemann Ltd, February 1937. “The Collected Edition of the Works of W. Somerset Maugham”. Preface, pp. v-vii. Epistle Dedicatory, pp. ix-x.

·     The author made considerable textual revisions to this edition, tidying up the grammar and the punctuation, as will be seen from the illustration of one of the pages which Mr. Grenville Cook has annotated, showing the revisions.

                          A5e.    New and Revised edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 1955.

·     The first reprint of this novel appeared in the Collected Edition in 1937 and was reprinted from the original manuscript with the passages that William Heinemann found shocking left in. Mr. Maugham had forgotten what they were and, on the contrary, says the propriety of the book seemed to him almost painful. However, for the reader interested in bibliographical niceties, the texts of two of the passages are extracted and compared below. They appear towards the end of the book when Mrs. Craddock is contemplating eloping with her young lover.

                                                                    i.   First edition, p. 316: “…person… they might be separated by ten thousand miles, but they would always be joined together. How else could she prove to him her wonderful love, how else could she show her immeasurable gratitude?”

                                                                   ii.   Collected edition, p. 291: “…body… they might be separated by ten thousand miles, but there would always be the bond between them. Her flesh cried out to his flesh, and the desire was irresistable [sic]. How else could she prove to him her wonderful love? How else could she show her immeasurable gratitude?”

                                                                 iii.   First edition, p. 321: “She gave way; she no longer wished to resist. She turned her face to Gerald.”

                                                                 iv.   Collected Edition, p. 296: “She gave way, she no longer wished to resist, flesh called to flesh, and there was no force on earth more powerful. Her whole frame was quivering with passion. She turned her face to Gerald…”

·     The author states in the preface to the new edition that he has made minor amendments in the text and corrected the ‘haphazard punctuation’, but otherwise left it as it was with “all its faults”. The Epistle Dedicatory (2 pp.) was dropped with this edition, and the preface expanded.

                           A5f.    [Heinemann/Doubleday Doran, 1928. According to Norman Moore, it was this edition, published in both England and America, that first reverted to the original manuscript and for which Maugham wrote his amusing preface pretending to be revising the book of a deceased author. In later editions the preface was further revised, and so, presumably, was the main text.]

                          A5g.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1955 version of the preface and the revisions. The preface is even dated “1955” and signed “W.S.M”.]

         A6.   A Man of Honour (1903) [1^st play]

                          A6a.    “A Play in Four Acts” [two candidates for First edition:]

·     Separate issue: Chapman and Hall, 22 February 1903. “As performed by the Stage Society at the Imperial Theatre, Westminster, on Monday, February 23^rd, 1903”.

·     Supplement issue: The Fortnightly Review, March 1903. Literary Supplement.

·     A Man of Honour was published in two states – as a single play in wrappers and in the unusual form as a supplement to The Fortnightly Review. Indeed, had it not appeared in this latter form, it is unlikely that it would ever have been printed. It may be of interest to recount how this came about. When the play was accepted for production by The Stage Society, one of the members on the committee was W. L. Courtney, who was also editor of The Fortnightly Review. He liked the play and offered to publish it as a Supplement to that magazine. Mr. Maugham was, of course, delighted. Apart from the satisfaction it would give him to see his first play in print, it was a signal honour for a comparatively unknown author to have his work accepted for an important and influential magazine as The Fortnightly Review then was.

·     Just before the play was due to go into rehearsal Mr. Maugham approached the editor and asked him if he would run off a few copies for use at rehearsal and also for sale as a souvenir on the opening night. Mr. Courtney obliged, and 150 copies were put at the author’s disposal and published under the imprint of the magazine’s publishers, Messrs. Chapman and Hall. The only variation in the two issues was the addition of the two words ‘Literary Supplement’ in the top left-hand corner of the Supplement’s title page.

·     The circulation of The Fortnightly Review at that time was about 5000 or 6000 copies, and there is little question that the procedure followed by the printer was to print the several thousand copies of the Supplement, then remove from the type the words ‘Literary Supplement’ and run off Mr. Maugham’s copies. A reverse of this procedure was most unlikely. The ‘Supplement issue’, therefore, preceded in actual printing the separate Maugham issue.

·     Unfortunately, it has not been possible to ascertain the exact dates of publication of the two issues. Mr. Maugham states that the ‘separate issue’ was on sale in the theatre on February 22^nd (which the publisher confirms) despite the fact that in The English Catalogue the month of publication is given as March. The fact, however, that the ‘separate issue’ was on sale at the theatre on the opening night definitely establishes that it was published on or before February 22^nd.

·     The date of publication of The Fortnightly Review (March issue) is uncertain. The British Museum copy is stamped April 3^rd, but this signifies very little as periodicals normally take about three weeks to a month after delivery to be stamped. The scanty evidence available, however, would seem to point to the magazine having been received some time in March.

·     In all circumstances, I regard the Supplement issue in the original magazine wrappers as the true first edition, but collectors of the Separate issue may be encouraged to know that the late Mr. Michael Sadleir, who was faced with a parallel problem in his Trollope bibliography, sides with them. This is what he has to say on the point: ‘I belong to the somewhat pedantic school who give to any item wrappered separately and with no magazine material between its covers priority over a serial issue in periodical magazine form. So I should regard the Maugham A Man of Honour as the true first. But I should “collect” the Supplement series all the same. One cannot ignore a second issue of such intimate interest and one as vital to the complete A Man of Honour as are the back legs of a pantomime horse.’

·     [The above paragraphs are quoted as an amusing illustration of the pedantry of collectors. I never cease to wonder at their incomparable passion for trivial details. What is so “intimate” and “vital” about having two issues which differ from one another by exactly two words – “Literary Supplement” – is quite beyond me. In any case, to readers the next edition is far more important.]

·     A Man of Honour was the author’s first acted full-length play. The separate issue consisted of only 150 copies. Very few were sold and the remainder were sent to the author at his flat in Portland Place shortly before the war and, according to the author, disappeared when the house was bombed. This, however, is not in accord with the facts. The true story of the whereabouts of these remainder copies is revealed in the correspondence between the author and Fred Bason, the Cockney bookseller, author and broadcaster, from which it would appear that Fred Bason sold six of them for him on a commission basis and the remainder were divided, some going to friends as gifts and some being retained by the author.

·     The play is a dramatization of one thread of The Merry-go-Round, which provided the author with several plots for later books. It was written in Rome in 1898. A year after its production by The Stage Society, the play was put on at the Avenue Theatre for a short run with a revised ending, but was not a financial success.

·     [It is the other way round, of course: part of the plot of The Merry-Go-Round is a novelisation of the play.  The “plots for later books” that stemmed from this novel remain elusive. The 1904 revival in the Avenue Theatre was presented by Muriel Wylford who also played Jenny, but it closed after only 28 performances. Both publications and the first production were of the play as revised in 1902. The revised ending from the 1904 does not seem to have been published. See F93, pp. 22, 26. For more about Bason, see C11 & F63.]

                          A6b.    First Heinemann edition, 11 December 1911. “A Tragedy in Four Acts”. “To Gerald Kelly”. General Preface, pp. ix-xii.

·     First American edition: (1912) Chicago (The Dramatic Publishing Co.). Reissue of the First Heinemann edition with new American title leaf. Heinemann sheets, comprising 500 copies, were dispatched to Chicago in 1912.

·     Contains a new 3½ pp. preface by the author. [This preface is hardly “by the author”. It consists entirely of one long quote from Herodotus about the mighty attempts of Clisthenes to marry his daughter. It is one of the very few among Maugham’s prefaces that may be skipped with clear conscience. It is tedious to the extreme and its relevance to the play remains a mystery.]

·     [This edition, save for one or two minor changes, contains very much the same last act as the Supplement of The Fortnightly Review. The revised ending from the 1904 production at the Avenue Theatre has apparently vanished.]

·     [Epigraph: "Ich übersah meine Sache und wusste wohin ich wollte." Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe.]

         A7.   The Merry-Go-Round (1904) [5^th novel]

                          A7a.    First edition, William Heinemann, 19 September, 1904. “To Herbert and Marguerite Bunning”.

·     [Epigraph:

I bring not only all I wrought

Into the faltering words of speech,

I dedicate the song I sought

Yet could not reach.]

                          A7b.    First edition sheets remainder to the Times Book Club, with new title page, Heinemann, 1905.

                          A7c.    American Copyright issue, lodged with the Library of Congress (not for sale), Double, Page & Company, New York, 1904.

·     Contains Chapter 1 of Part One and Chapters 1 and 15 of Part Two. Only parts of the chapters are printed, but sufficient to comply with the requirements of American copyright.

                          A7d.    First Cheap edition, William Heinemann, September 1916.

·     The break between Maugham and his first literary agent William Maurice Colles, who was a barrister by profession but carried on a literary agency, came about as a result of the failure of The Merry-go-Round. Colles had persuaded Heinemann to accept the book but he evidently did so reluctantly, and only after the author had made considerable cuts. He did very little to promote the novel and when sales continued to drag Maugham put the blame not on the book’s shortcomings but on his agent’s lack of initiative in not pressing the publisher to do more advertising. He then began looking around for a new literary agent and on Arnold Bennett’s recommendation contacted J. B. Pinker who agreed to handle his new novel (The Bishop’s Apron). Thereupon he wrote to Colles from Capri, where he was staying, informing him that owing to the lamentable failure of The Merry-go-Round he proposed to make his own arrangements with regard to his next novel.¹ Evidently Colles protested, for then Maugham revealed how deeply he felt about the whole business. ‘With regard to The Merry-go-Round I think we must agree to differ; I do not wish to break into recriminations; but I cannot help thinking that what is obvious to me now, your experience might have suggested to you then, namely, that when a publisher does not like a book and has made up his mind that it will not sell, one might just as well throw it in the Thames as let him publish it.’²

·     In his next letter to Pinker, Maugham declared that he did not want his new novel (The Bishop’s Apron) offered to Heinemann. ‘…he has grown slack of late and he does not seem to me to advertise well. My last novel (The Merry-go-Round) he only sold two thousand copies of.³

·     ¹ Grenville Cook Collection; ² Yale University Library; ³ The University of Texas Library.

·     [In his 1934 preface to Liza of Lambeth (A1g), Maugham wrote:]

·     [“Then I wrote a novel called The Merry-go-round. I am not reprinting it, but I look upon it, nevertheless, with indulgence. It was a failure, but the experiment was interesting and I have sometimes thought that it would be worth repeating. It had struck me for some time that the novelist's usual practice of taking two or three persons and treating them as though the world moved round them, bringing in others only in so far as the protagonists were concerned with them, gave a very false impression of the multifariousness of life. I am not alone in the world with the girl I love and the rival who is disturbing the course of my passion. All sorts of thrilling adventures are occurring to the people all round me, and to them they are just as important as mine are to me. But the novelist writes as though his hero and heroine dwelt in a vacuum. I thought I could give a much fuller effect of life by taking a number of people, loosely connected as people are who live in the same world, and giving all their stories with equal fullness, and telling all I knew about all of them. I chose the necessary number of persons and devised four series of events that occurred simultaneously. I saw my novel like one of those huge frescoes in an Italian cloister in which all manner of people are engaged in all manner of activities, but which the eye embraces in a single look. The scheme was too ambitious for my powers. I had not realised that one set of characters would prove more interesting than the rest and that the reader, wanting to know about them, would be impatient of the others. The book suffered also from the pernicious influence on me at the time of the writings of the aesthetes. The men were inanely handsome and the women peerlessly lovely. I wrote with affectation. My attitude was precious. I was afraid to let myself go. But still I think there was something in the idea. Perhaps it could be carried out successfully if the intertwined stories and the persons who acted them were seen rigidly through the eyes of one of the characters in the book. The interest of this character in the various events he was concerned in might give them unity, and the dramatic value of his reactions towards the other persons of the novel hold the reader's attention by giving him the illusion of a single theme.”]

         A8.   The Land of the Blessed Virgin (1905) [1^st travel book]

                          A8a.    First edition, William Heinemann, January 1905. “To Violet Hunt”. Subtitled “Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia”.

·     First American edition: July 1920, New York, A. A. Knopf. The title of the first American edition reads: The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impression of Andalusia. There are two 1920 Knopf editions of this travel book. The first is made up from sheets of the 1905 English printing with a new title page which is on a stub. The second Knopf edition, published later the same years, reads: Andalusia: Sketches and Impressions. This edition has the note ‘A small edition of this book (printed in England and bound in the United States) was published in the Spring of 1920 by Mr. Knopf under the title The Land of the Blessed Virgin.’

·     This book was written from notes made by Maugham while living in Seville for eight months in 1898. A draft of the book was ready the following June and Maugham suggested to his agent that he should try and get the book serialised in a magazine and perhaps get a Spanish artist to do some sketches, as to illustrate it with photos ‘would be absurd’.¹ But these ideas came to nothing for no publisher would have the book at any price. It was entirely rewritten in 1902 and by the beginning of 1903 it was in Heinemann’s hands, though he did not want to publish it ‘…this year because he has in hand another book of the same class.’²

·     Ultimately, Heinemann signed an agreement with Maugham in June 1904 though this of course was before it had become evident through the failure of The Merry-go-Round that he was not the go-ahead publisher that Maugham had been led to believe. In any event it was too late to do anything about The Land of the Blessed Virgin even if he had wanted to, but having got it off his hands after seven years, this seems most unlikely.

·     However, Heinemann remained under a cloud and in 1905 Maugham was writing from Paris to Pinker: ‘…Heinemann has published my last three books, but I am tired of him.’ Again, the same year, he was writing ‘…There is no reason to leave Heinemann to fare worse, and he will give me a substantial advance. But if I can help it I do not want to go to him as I think his day is over.’ The fact of the matter was that the young novelist was beginning to fall on his feet and his experience with his first publisher, Fisher Unwin who, he declared in a letter to Pinker, did him ‘thoroughly in the eye’ over Liza of Lambeth, had probably done more than anything else to strengthen the shrewd business acumen which, as the Pinker correspondence discloses, stood him in good stead in his future relations with publishers. He was not destined, however, to continue with the struggle to make a living out of novel writing. Success was just around the corner and within eighteen months Lady Frederick had relieved him of the necessity of ever again having to write ‘for money’. He was not to write another novel for nearly eight years, by which time he was a famous playwright, and then followed Of Human Bondage and a relationship with William Heinemann that was to endure for over half a century.[3]

·     ¹ Grenville Cook Collection. ² Yale University Library.

·     [In The Summing Up (1938), chap. IX, Maugham had a good deal of fun at the expense of his first travel book – and his younger self. Having described how he read Oscar Wilde’s Intentions, Salome and Dorian Gray, studied the King James Bible and copied passages from Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Dying in order to learn to write in the grand manner, he continues:]

·     [“The first fruit of this labour was a little book about Andalusia called The Land of the Blessed Virgin. I had occasion to read parts of it the other day. I know Andalusia a great deal better than I knew it then, and I have changed my mind about a good many things of which I wrote. Since it has continued in America to have a small sale it occurred to me that it might be worth while to revise it. I soon saw that this was impossible. The book was written by someone I have completely forgotten. It bored me to distraction. But what I am concerned with is the prose, for it was as an exercise in style that I wrote it. It is wistful, allusive, and elaborate. It has neither ease nor spontaneity. […] The vocabulary is sentimental. It does not remind one of an Italian brocade, with its rich pattern of gold, but of a curtain material designed by Burne-Jones and reproduced by Morris.”]

·     [The book was reprinted in the late 1960s by Heron, incongruously coupled with A10. See B9.]

         A9.   The Bishop’s Apron (1906) [6^th novel]

                          A9a.    First edition, Chapman and Hall Ltd., February 1906. “To Harry Philips”. Subtitle: “A Study in the Origins of a Great Family”.

·     Copies of the novel, in all respects identical to the first edition except for the addition of ‘Second Edition’, ‘Third Edition’ or ’Fourth Edition’ on the title page, have been traced. In the absence of any explanation from the publishers, who state that their records are no longer available, I had to rely on the author’s memory and he affirmed that the book did not sell particularly well and he believes that the whole edition did not exceed 1500 copies. A comparison of the sheets of the first edition and the so-called ‘Second’, ‘Third’ and ‘Fourth’ editions shows that all these ‘editions’ were run off the same casting of type. I am confident that the novel was never reprinted by the original publishers, and conclude that these additions to the title-page were made to give a spurt to sales that were lagging – a not uncommon contrivance in those days, even among established publishers. It is probable that the reprint of the novel by Newnes in 1908 was inspired by the publicity Maugham had gained through having four plays running in the West End at the same time.

·     Arthur Waugh, head of Chapman and Hall, the publishers, writing to Pinker to inform him that he would be glad to read the MS. of The Bishop’s Apron, said: ‘As a rule I have not cared for his stories as I think they are too gloomy and pessimistic for the general public to take them.’

                          A9b.    Bell’s Indian & Colonial Library edition: George Bell & Sons, 1906. “This Edition is issued for Circulation in India and the Colonies only”. No. 652.

                          A9c.    Second and First Illustrated edition: George Newnes Limited, 22 December 1908. Illustrated by Joseph Simpson in black-and-white: (1) “Ponsonby, have you any – white satin in the house?”, frontispiece; (2) He stood up, and without another left her”, facing p. 28.

·     [This used to be the rarest of Maugham’s novels. It was last reprinted, as far as I know, in 1977 by Arno Press, but even this relatively modern edition is all but unobtainable today. Older editions are usually offered at ludicrous prices. In 2015, finally, cheap modern reprints appeared on the market (CreateSpace, Lushena Books). See A32.]

      A10.   The Explorer (1907) [7^th novel]

                      A10a.    First edition, William Heinemann, December 1907. “To My Dear Mrs. G. W. Steevens.” New impressions January, November 1908.

·     Sir Gerald Kelly’s copy bore this inscription from the author: ‘Gerald Kelly from W. S. Maugham, his worst book.’ Maugham also considered The Making of a Saint as his ‘worst book’ and the truth of the matter is that he would have liked, as he said in The Summing Up, to have suppressed much of his early literary work because of its immaturity.

·     [This is the second time Mr Stott mentions the “worst book” claim about The Making of a Saint, and for a second time he neglects to give his source. The reference in The Summing Up occurs in the beginning of chap. XLIV and is specifically concerned with the two novelised plays (A16, A32), not with “much of his early literary work”:]

·     [“There is no need for me to speak of the novels I wrote during the next few years. One of them, Mrs. Craddock, was not unsuccessful and I have reprinted it in the collected edition of my works. Of the others two were novelisations of plays that I had failed to get produced and for long they lay on my conscience like a discreditable action; I would have given much to suppress them. But I know now that my qualms were unnecessary.”]

·     [In the Preface to A1g, Maugham says this about The Explorer:]

·     [“It was the novelisation of a play that was afterwards produced. The chief character was suggested by H. M. Stanley, whose exploits had long fascinated my young fancy, and the strong, silent man, owing to Mr Kipling's vogue, was then very much the fashion. But the story depended on the hero's refusal to clear himself of abominable accusations at the cost of betraying to his betrothed that her brother was not the gallant creature she fondly believed but a worthless scamp. No audience would accept this quixotic behaviour as probable and the play failed. I turned it into a novel because another, The Magician, was returned to me by the publishers, when already set up, owing to one of the partners reading it in proof and being shocked by it. I have always thought that publishers should never learn to read; it is enough if they can sign their names. But this mishap left me without money to support myself during the rest of the year. I wrote The Explorer in a month and very tedious work I found it. On this account I have a great dislike for it and if it were possible would willingly suppress it. At one time it irked my conscience like the recollection of a discreditable action, but I know now that this is foolishness; the public can be trusted to forget far more completely than the author the books he would prefer not to have written.”]

                      A10b.    First edition sheets remainder to the Times Book Club, with new title page, William Heinemann, 1908.

                      A10c.    First American and First Illustrated edition: The Baker and Taylor Co., January 1909. Col. front. and 3 illustrations in black-and-white by J. Graham Coates: (1) Col. front.; (2) “She gave a gasp as she saw Alec’s face”, facing p. 198; (3) “Alec”, facing p. 170; (4) “Lucy”, facing p. 252.[4]

                      A10d.    Second and First Illustrated English edition, Heinemann, April 1915. Heinemann’s Sevenpenny Novels. Illustrations: The front. illus. (“Alec led the way”) and the engraved title-page, printed on art paper and forming a quarter octavo sheet, is inserted before the title-page and not included in the pagination.

                      A10e.    [Heron Books, 1969, strangely coupled with A8. See B9.]

                        A10f.    [Various modern reprints abound. The one by Aegipian Press, for instance, is a truly piratical affair – no publication history whatsoever – but it’s readable.]

·     Mrs. G. W. Steevens, whose name figures on the title page of The Explorer, got ‘the grandest whitewashing that ever came the way of erring mortal,’ according to Sir John Pollock in the October 1966 issue of The Quarterly Review. She was the prototype of Lady Frederick Berolles in Lady Frederick. When Maugham met her she was well on the way to old age, the widow of the brilliant reporter and special correspondent of then young Daily Mail. When she was approaching seventy years, she became manageress of an hotel in Holborn. At earlier dates she had run a large soup kitchen in Marylebone with immense success, a day nursery for the poor, probably the first of its kind to exist, suggests Sir John, ‘and an orphanage for 30 children in the country, only to drop them like hot potatoes when she became bored with them.’

·     Happily for Mrs. Steevens she did not live long enough for Somerset Maugham in turn to see through her. ‘He gave her an apotheosis; but she gave him Lady Frederick, fame and fortune.’  

      A11.   The Magician (1908) [8^th novel]

                      A11a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1908. “Copyright, London, 1908, by William Heinemann / and Washington, U.S.A., by Duffield & Company”.

·     Forwarding the MS. of The Magician to his agent, Maugham wrote: ‘Here is the book. I have come to the conclusion it is very dull and stupid: and I wish I were an outside Broker, or --- (naming a best-selling novelist), or something equally despicable!’

                      A11b.    First Colonial edition, William Heinemann, November 1908. Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction. “Issued for Sale in the British Colonies and India, and not to be imported into Europe or the United States of America”.

                      A11c.    First American edition, Duffield & Company, February 1909.

·     A collation of the text with the English version reveals that Maugham made several revisions in the text of the American edition, in some instances considerably expanding it, i.e. see p. 236. The book was acquired by George H. Doran in 1921 and it was reprinted that year.

                      A11d.    Second and First Illustrated edition, William Heinemann, April 1914.

·     The Magician had a somewhat chequered career. It was accepted by Methuen and Maugham signed an agreement with them for three novels under which he obtained an advance of £75. Then it was returned to him by the publishers when already set up ‘owing’ as Maugham says in his preface to Liza of Lambeth [A1g] ‘to one of the partners reading it in proof and being shocked by it.’ Nothing more was heard of the arrangement until Heinemann published The Magician, by which time the erstwhile young novelist had become a successful and popular playwright, having created a theatrical record by having four original plays performing in London concurrently. Then came a reminder from Methuen that they had an agreement with him for three books. No doubt suspecting that Methuen was not unaware of his new standing in the literary world the young dramatist wrote indignantly to his agent Pinker and a long correspondence ensued, culminating in a letter in which he set out very clearly the full facts of the matter. ‘Upon Methuen’s refusal to publish the first novel’ he wrote, ‘I gathered the agreement was cancelled by mutual consent, and I returned the amount I had received upon signing it. Referring to your letter… I certainly have never understood that the agreement was to remain in existence, to come into operation whenever I might like to write a novel. For in that case it might have remained dormant for twenty years. This is a position I should certainly not have agreed to; nor do I think you would have advised me to. If you have not already done so you might remind Methuen that since the cancellation I have published a novel The Explorer; and their silence at that time makes their present contention the more incomprehensible. I should like to hear definitely from Methuen that they have abandoned their contention, for if they have not I propose to take steps to have the Agreement declared at the end by the Courts.’ In the end the affair fizzled out.  

                      A11e.    New edition, with ‘Fragment of Autobiography’, William Heinemann, 1956. Title page: “A Novel / together with / A Fragment of Autobiography”. [My emphasis.]

·     Mr. Maugham wrote a considerable ‘Fragment of Autobiography’ [sic] as preface to this new edition. The fragment begins in 1897 when he had left St. Thomas’s Hospital and had published Liza of Lambeth. Among the many interesting anecdotes of his early struggles is one which tells of his meeting in Paris with Aleister Crowley, who was ‘dabbling in Satanism, magic and the occult’. Crowley became the model of his character in The Magician.

·     [Mr Stott carelessly forgets the important detail that this edition was actually part of The Collected Edition. He corrects this mistake in B2, where he even provides a cross-reference. In 1934, in the Preface to A1g, Maugham gave the following reasons for omitting The Magician from The Collected Edition:]

·     [“The last of the novels I have written which also finds no place in this edition is The Magician. It is the only one about which I have hesitated. I took great pains over it and spent much time in getting together the materials. The principal character was suggested partly by the portrait of Alessandro del Borro in the Museum at Berlin and partly by an acquaintance I made when I was spending a year in Paris. […] I read the works of Eliphas Levi and devised a story melodramatic enough to serve as a frame for the outrageous and bombastic creature of my fancy. But the book would never have been written except for the regard I had for Joris Karl Huysmans who was then at the height of his vogue. I do not suppose that anyone could read Là-Bas now with more than a languid interest, but at that time it seemed suggestive and mysterious. It had a palpitating horror that many found strangely fascinating. It was a new sort of shocker written in a curious, vivid and unusual French. I suppose Huysmans' three most important works will be remembered for some time as a picture of a certain side of French feeling at a certain period. Their influence on current literature, though ephemeral, was wide-spread. But Hyusmans had a cardinal advantage over his imitators: he sincerely believed what he wrote. He was a man insanely superstitious who was convinced of the real existence of the maleficent powers of which he treated. He lived in craven terror of spells, charms and incantations. To me it was all moonshine. I did not believe a word of it. It was a game I was playing. A book written under these conditions can have no life in it. This is the chief reason that has induced me to omit The Magician from this selected edition of my writings.”]

·     [By 1956 he had apparently changed his mind. In the fascinating “A Fragment of Autobiography”, he reveals that Aleister Crowley was the mysterious “acquaintance I made when I was spending a year in Paris” mentioned above, draws an amusing portrait of him and an evocative picture of those dissolute Parisian years in the beginning of the last century, and finally makes the usual disclaimer (seldom taken seriously by biographers and critics, alas) that Crowley was a “model” for his character, “by no means a portrait of him”:]

·     [“I do not remember how I came to think that Aleister Crowley might serve as the model for the character whom I called Oliver Haddo; nor, indeed, how I came to think of writing that particular novel at all. When, a little while ago, my publisher expressed a wish to re-issue it, I felt that, before consenting to this, I really should read it again. Nearly fifty years had passed since I had done so, and I had completely forgotten it. Some authors enjoy reading their old works; some cannot bear to. Of these I am. When I have corrected the proofs of a book, I have finished with it for good and all. I am impatient when people insist on talking to me about it; I am glad if they like it, but do not much care if they don't. I am no more interested in it than in a worn-out suit of clothes that I have given away. It was thus with disinclination that I began to read The Magician. It held my interest, as two of my early novels, which for the same reason I have been obliged to read, did not. One, indeed, I simply could not get through. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes, but the humour filled me with mortification, and I should have been ashamed to see it republished. As I read The Magician, I wondered how on earth I could have come by all the material concerning the black arts which I wrote of. I must have spent days and days reading in the library of the British Museum. The style is lush and turgid, not at all the sort of style I approve of now, but perhaps not unsuited to the subject; and there are a great many more adverbs and adjectives that I should use to-day.”]

·     [“Though Aleister Crowley served, as I have said, as the model for Oliver Haddo, it is by no means a portrait of him. I made my character more striking in appearance, more sinister and more ruthless than Crowley ever was. I gave him magical powers that Crowley, though he claimed them, certainly never possessed. Crowley, however, recognised himself in the creature of my invention, for such it was, and wrote a full-page review of the novel in Vanity Fair, which he signed 'Oliver Haddo'. I did not read it, and wish now that I had. I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation, but probably, like his poems, intolerably verbose.”]

·     [Quite true. Crowley’s review is indeed intolerably verbose. He exposed at tedious length, not to mention the pontificating tone, Maugham's plagiarising several erudite volumes on black magic. See G3a.]

      A12.   Lady Frederick (1911) [2^nd play]

                      A12a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1911. “A Comedy in Three Acts”

·     First American edition: 1912, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Co. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 500 copies, were despatched to Chicago in July 1912. George H. Doran received 100 copies from the 1927 reprint.

·     Lady Frederick was written in 1903. It was produced at the Court Theatre on October 26 1907, with Ethel Irving [Lady Frederick] and W. Graham Browne [Lord Mereston] in the cast.

·     [The play was moved to four other London theatres in the next one year or so and lasted for the impressive 422 performances. Paradine Foulds was played by C. M. Lowne. It was revived in 1913 and 1946, for 57 and 144 performances respectively. See F93.]

·     This was the author’s first commercial play and it brought him fame overnight at the age of 33. He was soon to have the distinction of having four plays running in London at the same time, and the even was recorded by a cartoon drawn by Bernard Partridge in an issue of Punch (June 24, 1908) in which Shakespeare was shown biting his fingers in front of the boards advertising Maugham’s plays. ‘I did not make a lot of money,’ Mr. Maugham wrote in The Summing Up, ‘for in those the takings of a popular play were much less than they are now, and my royalties were small, but I was at all events relieved from financial anxiety and my future seemed sure… I was much photographed and much interviewed. Distinguished people sought my acquaintance. My success was spectacular and unexpected.’

·     [Lady Frederick is reprinted in The Collected Plays (B6, B18). In his preface to vol. 1, Maugham relates with gusto and all his flare for dramatic effect the famous story of his rushing from Italy to London to attend the first rehearsals. The account must be taken with a solid pinch of salt, but it makes for a hilarious read nonetheless. He also has some rather interesting things to say about the side effects of success.]

      A13.   Jack Straw (1911) [3^rd play]

                      A13a.    First edition, William Heinemann, December 1911. “A Farce in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition: 1912, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Co. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in July 1912. George H. Doran received 100 copies from the 1913 reprint in 1923.

·     Jack Straw was produced at the Vaudeville Theatre on March 26, 1908, with Charles Hawtrey [Jack Straw] and Lottie Venne [Mrs Parker-Jennings] in the cast. The play was written in 1907.

·     [According to Mander and Mitchenson the play was written in 1905. It run for the remarkable (considering its quality) 321 performances. A revival in 1923 with the same cast lasted for 90 performances. See F93. Included in The Collected Plays (B6, B18).]

      A14.   Mrs. Dot (1912) [4^th play]

                      A14a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1912. “A Farce in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition: December 1912, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Co. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in 1912.  

·     This play was originally called Worthley’s Entire. In a bibliography of the author issued by Heinemann in 1934, containing Desmond MacCarthy’s Appreciation [F37], it was stated that the first edition was published in 1904 and a new edition in 1912. This is incorrect. The play was written in 1904.

·     Mrs. Dot was produced at the Comedy Theatre on April 26^th, 1908, with Marie Tempest [Mrs. Worthley (“Mrs. Dot”)], W. Graham Browne [Gerald Halstane] and Fred Kerr [James Blenkinsop] in the cast. Mr Maugham said it was the most successful of the three – the other two being Lady Frederick and Jack Straw.

·     [Maugham did say that, in the preface to vol. 1 of B18 where the play in included, but I wonder if he didn’t really mean Lady Frederick. Mrs Dot lasted for 272 performances. According to Mander and Mitchenson (F93), the play opened on 27 April, 1908.]

      A15.   Penelope (1912) [5^th play]

                      A15a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1912. “A Comedy in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition: December 1912, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Co. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in November 1912. George H. Doran received 100 copies of the 1913 reprint.

·     This play was originally called Man and Wife. It was written in 1908, and produced at the Comedy Theatre on January 9^th, 1909, with Marie Tempest [Penelope] (for whom it was written), Graham Browne [Dr. O’Farrell] and Kate Bishop [Mrs. Golighty] in the cast.

·     [The play ran for 246 performances. It is included in The Collected Plays (B6, B18). See F93. In The Summing Up, Maugham makes a fascinating reference to this play:]

·     [“I had no intention of fizzling out with a passing success, and I wrote my next two plays [Penelope and Smith] to consolidate my hold on the public. They were a little bolder and, mild and unsophisticated as they must seem now, they were attacked by the more straitlaced for their indecency. One of them, Penelope, must have had some merit, for when it was revived in Berlin twenty years later it filled the theatre for a whole season.”]

      A16.   The Explorer (play) (1912) [6^th play]

                      A16a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1912. “A Melodrama in Four Acts”.

·     First American edition: December 1912, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Co. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in 1912.

·     The Explorer was produced at the Lyric Theatre on June 13^th, 1908, with Lewis Waller [Alec Mackenzie], Eva Moore [Mrs Crowley] and Evelyn Millard [Lucy Allerton] in the cast. It was omitted from the Collected Plays.

·     This was the play Maugham wrote in 1899 after writing A Man of Honour and Maurice Colles, his agent, after submitting it unsuccessfully to several managements, sent it to Lewis Waller, the actor manager. He was interested but said he could entertain it in its present form and advised him to try elsewhere, but if he met with no success, to come back to him. Maugham then withdrew the play from Maurice Colles and sent it to two other agents. In 1905 he altered the play and added the first act, turning it into a four act play. He then re-submitted it himself to Lewis Waller and it was accepted. It was produced in 1908 and folded after only 48 performances, but Maugham still had faith in it and was prepared to re-write the last act for a production in 1909 that was even more of a flop.

·     It was also in 1909 that Maurice Colles brought an action against Maugham in the High Court for his commission on The Explorer on the grounds that it was his introduction to Lewis Waller that led eventually to the play being accepted, and he won his case.

·     [The play opened on 13 June, 1908, being the last and by far the least successful of Maugham’s four plays running at the same time. The 1909 production of the Revised Version was a disaster. It closed after 9 performances! It is funny that Maugham should have been so keen on revising apparently hopeless play; he must have had a lot of faith in it. Indeed, though melodrama never was Maugham’s forte, the play is far from terrible. Some scenes are intense and absorbing, others are prodigiously amusing. Certainly, it is superior to the eponymous novelised version (A10).]

      A17.   The Tenth Man (1913) [7^th play]

                      A17a.    First edition, William Heinemann, December 1913. “A Tragic Comedy in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition: 1913, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Company. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in November 1913. George H. Doran received 100 copies from the 1913 imprint in 1923.

·     The Tenth Man, written in 1909, was produced at the Globe Theatre on the 24^th February, 1910, with Arthur Bouchier [George Winter], Godfrey Tearle [Rt. Hon. Robert Colby] and Frances Dillon [Catherine Winter] in the cast. It was omitted from the Collected Plays.

·     The whole of the issue of The Playgoer and Society Illustrated No. 6 (1910) was devoted to a summary of The Tenth Man with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [The play is better than the 65 performances of its first run suggest. See F93.]

      A18.   Landed Gentry (1913) [8^th play]

                      A18a.    First edition, William Heinemann, November 1913. “A Comedy in Four Acts”.

·     First American edition: 1913, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Company. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in November 1913.

·     The play was originally produced under the title Grace at the Duke of York’s Theatre, October 15^th, 1910, with Dennis Eadie (Claude Insole), Leslie Faber (Rev. Archibald Insole), Arthur Wontner (Henry Cobbett), Edmund Gwenn (Gann), Irene Vanbrugh (Grace Insole), Lady Tree (Mrs Insole) and Lillah McCarthy (Miss Vernon of Foley) in the cast. It was written in 1910, and is omitted from the Collected Plays.

·     The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 100 (1910) was devoted to a summary of Landed Gentry with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [The play closed after 72 performances. On the next year it was revived at the same place and with substantially the same cast. It flopped completely: 8 performances. See F93.]

·     [In The Summing Up, chap. XXXIII, Maugham describes with his usual eloquence the change of attitude that the last two plays above represented:]

·     [“I had by now learnt all that I was ever able to learn of the technique of the drama, and with the exception of The Explorer, which for a reason I saw very clearly had failed to please so well, I had had an uninterrupted series of successes. I thought it time to try my hand at more serious work. I wanted to see what I could do with more complicated subjects, I wanted to make one or two small technical experiments which I thought would be theatrically effective, and I wanted to see how far I could go with the public. I wrote The Tenth Man and Landed Gentry, and finally, after it had been lying in my desk a dozen years, produced Loaves and Fishes.”]

      A19.   Smith (1913) [9^th play]

                      A19a.    First edition, William Heinemann, December 1913. “A Comedy in Four Acts”.

·     First American edition: 1913, Chicago, The Dramatic Publishing Company. Reissue of the first English impression with new American title leaf, printed in England. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 1000 copies, were despatched to Chicago in November 1913.

·     Smith was written in 1909, and was produced at the Comedy Theatre on September 30^th, 1909, with Robert Loraine [Thomas Freeman], A. E. Matthews [Algernon Peppercorn], Kate Cutler [Mrs Dallas-Baker] and Marie Lohr [Smith] in the cast.

·     [Marie Lohr was succeeded by Irene Vanbrugh as Smith on November 20, 1909. The play run for a total of 168 performances. It is included in The Collected Plays (B6, B18). See F93.]

      A20.   The Land of Promise (1913) [10^th play]

                      A20a.    First Copyright edition, Bickers & Son, London, 1913. “A Comedy in Four Acts”.

·     This play was printed by Messrs. Bickers & Son for purposes of copyright only. It does not appear in The English Catalogue. Not more (probably less) than 25 copies were printed. It is the scarcest of all Mr. Maugham’s works.

                      A20b.    Second Copyright (Canadian) edition, Geo A. Popham, Ottawa, 1914.

·     This edition is similarly scarce, as it was printed for purposes of copyright only.

                      A20c.    First Published edition, William Heinemann, June 1922. “A Comedy in Four Acts”. “To Irene Vanbrugh”.

·     First American edition: 1923, New York, George H. Doran. Reissue of the Heinemann edition with new American title leaf, printed in America. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 100 copies, were dispatched to New York in February 1923.

·     The Land of Promise was suggested to Mr. Maugham by Charles Frohman, who told him that he would like him to write a modern play on the theme of The Taming of the Shrew. [See B18, vol. 1, preface.]

·     It was written in 1913 and first produced in New Haven, Conn., at the Hyperion Theatre with Billie Burke [Norah Marsh] and Lumsden Hare [Edward Marsh] in the cast. In London, it was produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre on February 26^th, 1914, with Godfrey Tearle [Edward Marsh] and Irene Vanbrugh [Norah Marsh] in the cast.

·     The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 144 (1914) was devoted to a summary of The Land of Promise with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [The American production was transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, New York, on 25 December 1913, and it run for a total of 76 performances. The London production lasted for 185 shows. See F93. Included in The Collected Plays (B6, B18).]

      A21.   Of Human Bondage (1915) [9^th novel]

                      A21a.    First edition, George H. Doran Company, 12 August 1915.

                      A21b.    First English edition (separate issue printed in England from stereotype plates made from the American type), William Heinemann, 13 August 1915.

                      A21c.    Presentation edition, William Heinemann, 1934.

·     Presentation Edition, reset, with a new preface (6½ pp.) of biographical and bibliographical interest, which has not been published in America.

                      A21d.    First Illustrated edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., Garden City, 1936.

·     An edition-de-luxe on rag paper, limited to 751 copies, with 24 illustrations in colortype by Randolph Schwabe, with a new preface by the author. Later produced in a cheaper edition, using the same electros of the type but with smaller margins. The work was not published in England.

                      A21e.    Limited Editions Club edition, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1938.

·     With an introduction by Theodore Dreiser and 16 etchings by John Sloane, signed by the illustrator. Theodore Dreiser’s long review of this novel in The New Republic [G9] did a great deal to focus attention on Somerset Maugham in the United States, particularly among the more serious critics.

                        A21f.    Cardinal Pocket Book edition, Pocket Books, Inc., 1952. “With a new introduction by the author especially written for this abridged edition”.

·     The interest of this new edition lies in the two-page introduction in which Mr. Maugham characteristically points out than an author is obliged to conform to the methods of publication common to the time at which he writes, and if it necessary to prune and cut in order to achieve a worthy object, in this case to put the novel within the reach of every pocket, then he has no legitimate right to refuse.

·     [It is not clear whether it was Maugham himself who did the abridgement, but he certainly approved of it. Whatever one’s opinion of this mutilated version, it says something about Maugham’s integrity that he was ready to do with his most famous book the same thing that he had recently done with ten undisputable classics (C36–C45).]

                      A21g.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1937. Contains the 1934 “Instead of a Preface” from A21c.]

                      A21h.    [Modern Library, 1999. Contains the 1936 Foreword (A21d). Bonuses include haphazard contributions by Vidal (G243), Greene (F146, only the part about The Summing Up) and Dreiser (G9).]

                        A21i.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1936 Foreword (A21d).]

      A22.   The Moon and Sixpence (1919) [10^th novel]

                      A22a.    First edition, William Heinemann, April 1919.

                      A22b.    Colonial edition, William Heinemann, April 1919.

                      A22c.    First American edition, George H. Doran Company, 13 July 1919.

                      A22d.    Collins Cheap edition, Wm. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd, May 1933.

·     In 1930 Messrs. William Collins Sons & Co. was granted a licence to publish five Maugham titles: The Moon and Sixpence, The Trembling of a Leaf, The Casuarina Tree, The Painted Veil, and Ashenden at a published price not exceeding one shilling throughout the world with the exception of the United States of America. The licence was to last for a period of seven years from the date of publication of each book. This was not an unusual arrangement for one publisher to make with another, particularly those with special cheap editions as these reached an additional market and did not normally compete with the original, more expensive edition.

·     The cheap editions published by William Collins were the 1s. Fiction Library (the ‘BOB’ Novels), The Novel Library published for Collins by The London Book Company, and a 7d. Novel Library.

·     The ‘Bob’ novels as they were familiarly known, first issued in 1928, proved a great attraction and their sale was reckoned in millions. In 1932, when competition was very fierce, Collins improved the format of the ‘World’s Best Shilling Novel’ with a better grade of paper, art cloth binding with gilt lettering, and pictorial jackets with a standard ‘green’ background.

·     In Appendix II [sic] will be found a full list of the Maugham titles published by William Collins over the period of their licence.

·     [These editions, much like later paperbacks, must have introduced Maugham to quite a few new readers all around the world. Compare the prices. Collins sold their editions at prices ranging from 6d. to 1s., while Heinemann’s First and Colonial editions cost 7s. No wonder there was no competition between the publishers and arrangements for republishing were not unusual. The history of publishing is a terribly fascinating stuff and here Mr Stott provides much scarce information that is nowadays hard to obtain. Unfortunately, he is a little sloppy. He mentions a 6d. edition, but it is not clear which that one is, presumably The Novel Library published by The London Book Company. In note 5 of Appendix V (not II), he provides a table for all Maugham titles comparing data from Collins own catalogues and the English Catalogue of Books, but this too is a little confused and not easy to use. I reproduce it here as faithfully as I could:]

 

Collins Own Catalogues [Not always showing Year of Publication]			English Catalogue of Books [Showing Year of Publication]
Title / Length	1/- Novels	7d Novels
The Moon and Sixpence 250 pp.	September 30 31 31 37 38	November 34 35 36	1/- 31 32 L. Bk. Co. 6d. 33 7d. 34
The Painted Veil 248 pp.	30 31 32 37	July 34 35 36	1/- 30 36 L. Bk. Co. 6d 32 7d. 34
Ashenden 254 pp.	30 31 32 37	36	1/- 30 L. Bk. Co. 6d 34 7d. 36 37
The Casuarina Tree 254 pp.	31 32 37 38	October 34 35 36	1/- 31 L. Bk. Co. 6d 34 7d. 36
The Trembling of a Leaf	32 37 38	July 35 36	1/- 32 7d. 35 37
The Letter [The Casuarina Tree]			Detective Club 6d. 30 33

 

                      A22e.    First Illustrated edition, The Heritage Press, 1941.

·     Illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steele (14 pen-and-ink illus. in Part One) and Paul Gauguin (11 illus. in colour, incl. front., plus the end-papers). “Excerpts from a brief correspondence between the publisher and the author of this novel” (pp. 5-6). [See a review here.]

                        A22f.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1935. New Preface: B2.]

                      A22g.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 2. Preface rehashed from A22f.]

                      A22h.    [Vintage Classics, 1999. Does not contain the 1935 Preface.]

      A23.   The Unknown (1920) [11^th play]

                      A23a.    First edition, William Heinemann, 1920. “A Play in Three Acts”. “To Viola Tree”. “Author’s note, p. x.

·     First American edition, George H. Doran, 1920. Reissue of the Heinemann edition with new American title leaf, printed in America. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 100 copies, were dispatched to New York in 1920.

·     In this play Maugham took up an idea he had used many years before in his novel The Hero [A4].

·     [This is a rare case in Maugham’s writings, the only one in fact, of novel turned into play. Please note that this is not a dramatised novel in the manner of which, though in reverse direction, The Bishop’s Apron (A9) and The Explorer (A10) are novelized plays. The Unknown is a completely independent work. The basic idea is the same – war veteran returns home and finds his pious fiancée intolerable – but the treatment is completely different. The comparison is illuminating.]

·     The Unknown was written in 1920 and was produced at the Aldwych Theatre on August 9^th, 1920, with C. V. France [Col. Wharton], Basil Rathbone [John Wharton], Lady Tree [Mrs. Wharton] and Haidée Wright [Mrs. Littlewood] in the cast. In the preface to the Collected Plays Maugham confesses that he had never seen such a moving performance as that of Miss Haidée Wright in this play [and Flora Robson in For Services Rendered (A45)].

·     [The play was transferred to the Lyric Theatre on 20 September 1920 and it lasted for 77 performances. In the same Preface [B18, vol. 3], Maugham again proved to be his own best critic:]

·     [“I took up again in it an idea I had used many years before in a forgotten novel called The Hero and the drama I saw in my mind’s eye lay in the conflict between two persons who loved one another and were divided by the simple piety of the one and the lost faith of the other. But to my surprise it appeared in representation that the drama lay in the arguments on one side and the other, and not at all in the personal relations of the characters. The result was that the play came to an end with the second act; the third consequently was meaningless and there was no trick or device I could think of that could make it significant.”]

      A24.   The Circle (1921) [12^th play]

                      A24a.    First edition, William Heinemann, March 1921. “A Comedy in Tree Acts”.

·     The Circle was written in 1919 and produced at the Haymarket Theatre on March 3^rd, 1921, with Fay Compton [Elizabeth], Léon Quartermaine [Edward Luton] and Ernest Thesiger [Arnold] in the cast.

·     The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 349 (1931) was devoted to a summary of The Circle with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play. This, of course, was a revival.

·     [During the first run, which was 181 performances, Muriel Alexander and Henry Kendall replaced Fay Compton and Léon Quartermaine, respectively. There were revivals in 1931 (86 shows) and 1944 (110 performances). In 1944 John Gielgud played Arnold and the play was produced in his Repertory Season together with Hamlet and Love for Love. See F93. Included in The Collected Plays (B6, B18), of course.]

                      A24b.    First American edition, George H. Doran Company, 1921.

      A25.   The Trembling of a Leaf (1921) [2^nd short story collection]

                      A25a.    First edition, George H. Doran Company, 17 September 1921. Subtitle: “Little Stories of the South Sea Islands”. “To Bertram Alanson”.

·     [Epigraph:

L’extrême félicité à peine séparée par

une feuille tremblante de l’extrême

désespoir, n’est-ce pas la vie?

Sainte-Beuve”]

                      A25b.    First English edition (separate issue bound from the American sheets, with an English title page also printed in America), William Heinemann, 6 October 1921.

                      A25c.    Readers Library edition, The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd., March 1928, under the title Sadie Thompson: and Other Stories of the South Sea Islands.

·     The book was reissued under the title Rain in Readers Library (1933); as Sadie Thompson etc. in The Daily Express Fiction Library (1938); as Sadie Thompson in the New Chevron Series, No. 98 (1940).

                      A25d.    Collins cheap edition, W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, March 1932.

                      A25e.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1935. New Preface: B2.]

                        A25f.    [Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #35, Avon, 1946. Indentical contents.]

                      A25g.    [Heron Books, 1969. Contains the 1935 Preface. See B9.]

·     Contents: The Pacific [preface] – Mackintosh – The Fall of Edward Barnard – Red – The Pool – Honolulu – Rain – [Envoi].

·     [All stories except “The Fall of Edward Barnard” (and the two short pieces that introduce and conclude the collection) appeared in magazines between November 1920 and October 1921. See D21, D22, D23, D25, D26.]

·     [Mr Stott also omits the curios fact, unusual in short story collections, that the pieces in the First edition, including the preface and the postscript, are accompanied by Roman numbers. This is the case in many reprints as well.]

·     [“The Fall of Edward Barnard” did also appear in a periodical, but much later (Ainslee’s Magazine, May 1926) after it was published in book from. That’s why it’s omitted from Section D. Magazine reprints are given only when the piece in question was first published in this form, which is almost always the case.]

      A26.   Caesar’s Wife (1922) [13^th play]

                      A26a.    First edition, William Heinemann, June 1922. “A Comedy in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition, George H. Doran, 1923. Reissue of the English impression with new American title leaf, printed in America. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 100 copies, were despatched to New York in 1922.

·     In the Collected Plays, Somerset Maugham has this to say of Caesar’s Wife: ‘It was suggested by Madame de Lafayette’s La Princesse de Cleves… one of the most exquisite novels that has ever been written. [It will] to me remain a pleasing memory for the beautiful performance that Miss Fay Compton gave in the part of Violet. The gesture with which she held out her arms to her lover after she had sent him away for good and all and he had miserably gone, had a grace, tenderness and beauty the like of which I have never before or since seen on the stage.’

·     Caesar’s Wife was written in 1918 and was produced at the Royalty Theatre on March 27, 1919, with Helen Haye [Mrs Pritchard], C. Aubrey Smith [Sir Arthur Little] and Fay Compton [Violet] in the cast. The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 206 (1919) was devoted to a summary of Caesar’s Wife with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [The first run lasted for 241 performances. In the same Preface [B18, vol. 3], Maugham also has some intriguing things to say about the changes he made to the original:]

·     [“He [the protagonist in the French novel] had not indeed the strength of character to play the heroic part for which he had cast himself. I did not see why a man should not play it to the end if he had courage, tolerance and self-control; but tolerance and self-control are virtues that the old learn, they seldom come naturally to the young; so I made my hero an elderly man. This further explained and excused the wife’s infatuation for the pleasant young secretary. […] And since honour, which was a reasonable motive for action in the seventeenth century and which, I suppose, is nothing more than self-respect, would in these days fail to convince, I brought in patriotism to help me to make Violet’s abnegation reasonable. By doing this, of course, I limited the success of the play to this country, since patriotism is a motive that does not travel; it is faintly ridiculous to a German or an American than an Englishman should make sacrifices to England.”]

      A27.   East of Suez (1922) [14^th play]

                      A27a.    First edition, William Heinemann, September 1922. “A Play in Seven Scenes”.

·     East of Suez, written in 1922, was produced at His Majesty’s Theatre on September 2, 1922, with Meggie Albanesi [Daisy], Basil Rathbone [George Conway] and Malcolm Keen [Henry Anderson] in the cast. The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 248 (1922) was devoted to a summary of East of Suez with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     In this play Somerset Maugham attempted what was for him something quite novel – a play of spectacle. ‘I had long wanted to try my hand at something of the sort,’ he wrote in the preface to the Collected Plays, ‘and a visit to China presented me with an appropriate setting… I cannot think that anyone who saw the play will have forgotten the thrill and strangeness of the mob of Chinese, monks and neighbours, who crowded in when the wounded man was brought in after the attempted assassination in the fourth scene. With their frightened gestures and their low, excited chatter they produced an effect of great dramatic tension.’

·     [The first run was 209 performances. Meggie Albanesi was succeeded by Norah Robinson.]

·     Eugene Goossens wrote the incidental music to East of Suez. The score was published in 1922 as Op. 33, Suite from the Incidental Music to East of Suez (A play in seven scenes by W. Somerset Maugham), B. Feldman & Co.: J. & W. Chester Ltd, 35 pp. In his autobiography Overtures and Beginners (1951) Eugene Goossens gives an amusing account of his search for Chinese musicians in order to get some idea what they sounded like, and tells how he tracked down an amateur Chinese orchestra composed of working men in a back room in one of the streets leading off Soho.

                      A27b.    First American edition, George H. Doran Company, 25 November 1922.

      A28.   On a Chinese Screen (1922) [2^nd travel book]

                      A28a.    First edition, George H. Doran Company, 5 October 1922. “For Syrie”.

                      A28b.    First English edition (separate issue printed in England from stereotype plates made from the American type), William Heinemann, 9 November 1922.

                      A28c.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1935. New Preface: B2. In this Preface, Maugham explains the origins of the book and pays a handsome tribute to his most favourite activity after writing:]

[“This is not a book at all, but the material for a book. I travel because I like to travel. I like the sensation it gives you of freedom from all responsibility. Time never spreads out so spaciously before you as on a journey and, though perhaps you do little of what you had in mind to do, you have the feeling that you have leisure for everything. You have long empty hours that you can fritter away without the uneasy consciousness that time is flying and there is not a moment to waste.”

[…]

“I went to China in 1920. I did not keep a diary, for this is a thing I have never been able to do since I was ten, but I made notes of the people and places that excited my interest. I vaguely thought they would be useful for stories or a novel. They mounted up and it occurred to me that I might make them into a connected narrative of my journey. […] But when I got them into some sort of order it seemed to me that they had a freshness, for they were made when the impression was vivid, that they might lose if I elaborated them into such a narrative as I had intended. I thought it enough if I made them a little more succinct and if I tried as far as I could to remove the carelessness and slip-shod character of hasty writing. I hoped they would give the reader who cared to make some use of his imagination a truthful and perhaps lively picture of the China I had seen.”]

                      A28d.    [The Travel Books, Heinemann, 1955. Preface rehashed from A28c.]

                      A28e.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Does not contain the 1935 Preface.]

·     [Contents: I. The Rising of the Curtain – II. My Lady's Parlour – III. The Mongol Chief – IV. The Rolling Stone – V. The Cabinet Minister – VI. Dinner Parties – VII. The Altar of Heaven – VIII. The Servants of God – IX. The Inn – X. The Glory Hole – XI. Fear – XII. The Picture – XIII. His Britannic Majesty's Representative – XIV. The Opium Den – XV. The Last Chance – XVI. The Nun – XVII. Henderson – XVIII. Dawn – XIX. The Point of Honour – XX. The Beast of Burden – XXI. Dr Macalister – XXII. The Road – XXIII. God's Truth – XXIV. Romance – XXV. The Grand Style – XXVI. Rain – XXVII. Sullivan – XXVIII. The Dining-Room – XXIX. Arabesque – XXX. The Consul – XXXI. The Stripling – XXXII. The Fannings – XXXIII. The Song of the River – XXXIV. Mirage – XXXV. The Stranger – XXXVI. Democracy – XXXVII. The Seventh Day Adventist – XXXVIII. The Philosopher – XXXIX. The Missionary Lady – XL. A Game of Billiards – XLI. The Skipper – XLII. The Sights of the Town – XLIII. Nightfall – XLIV. The Normal Man – XLV. The Old Timer – XLVI. The Plain – XLVII. Failure – XLVIII. A Student of the Drama – XLIX. The Taipan – L. Metempsychosis – LI. The Fragment – LII. One of the Best – LIII. The Sea-Dog – LIV. The Question – LV. The Sinologue – LVI. The Vice-Consul – LVII. A City Built on a Rock – LVIII. A Libation to the Gods.]

·     [A number of these sketches also appeared in periodicals (D28–D33). “The Consul” and “The Taipan” are the only ones that were later included in the collected editions of the short stories (B7, B17, B20). Mr Stott mentions specifically in his notes only some sketches in “The American Bookman” (September 1922)”, but he lists none of them in Section D.]

      A29.   Our Betters (1923) [15^th play]

                      A29a.    First edition, William Heinemann, September 1923. “A Comedy in Three Acts”.

·     First American edition, George H. Doran, 1924. Reissue of the English impression with new American title leaf, printed in America. Heinemann sheets, consisting of 200 copies, were despatched to New York in January 1924.

·     Our Betters was first produced at the Hudson Theatre in New York in 1917, where it created a minor sensation. In London, it was produced at the Globe Theatre on 12^th September, 1923, with Margaret Bannerman [Pearl] and Constance Collier [Duchess de Surennes] in the cast. The play was written in 1915 [and in Rome].

·     There was a six year gap between the New York presentation of Our Betters and the London presentation. When eventually it was put on at the Globe Theatre, the program carried a printed note: ‘Owing to various rumours which were circulated when the play was produced in America, the Author wishes to state that the characters in it are entirely imaginary.’ That was in 1923. Almost forty years afterwards, in Looking Back [D186], the author wrote: ‘Gordon Selfridge had fallen madly in love with her’ (‘her’ being Syrie Wellcome, later to become Maugham’s wife) ’and had offered to settle £5000 a year on her. She refused. She was very amusing about him and on what she told me I created a character in a play called Our Betters.’ He called him Arthur Fenwick and the New York Times dramatic critic, writing in 1917, quoted the ‘lobby gossips’ as saying that Fenwick was a ‘quite recognizable character, drawn from life.’

·     [Mr Stott would have done better if he had concentrated on production history rather than gossip. The first night was at the Nixon Theatre, Atlantic City, N.J., 8 March 1917; it was transferred to the Hudson on 12 March. Altogether the American run lasted for 112 performances. In London the play became a major sensation. It opened on 12 September 1923 and it was played 548 times, far longer than any other of Maugham’s plays. The end of Act 2 created a scandal. The prudish censor insisted on changes, but the horrible word “slut” was unwisely left in and it “made the spectators on the first night gasp with horror”. See the Preface to B18, vol. 2, and especially Desmond MacCarthy’s wonderful review in the New Statesman from October 6, 1923 (F93, F175).][5]

      A30.   Home and Beauty (1923) [16^th play]

                      A30a.    First edition, William Heinemann, December 1923. “A Farce in Three Acts”.

·     Produced in America under the title Too Many Husbands. See B10.

·     Home and Beauty was written in a sanatorium during the last winter of the first world war. ‘It was an admirable opportunity to write a farce,’ wrote Somerset Maugham in the preface to the Collected Plays [B18, vol. 2]. ‘I never had an opportunity of seeing it, but I believe it made people laugh very much. Some of the critics called it cruel and heartless. I should not have thought it was. It was written in the highest possible spirits. It was intended to amuse.’

·     Home and Beauty was first produced at the Globe Theatre, Atlantic City on August 4^th 1919, with Estelle Winwood [Victoria] and Kenneth Douglas [William], and in London at the Playhouse on August 30^th 1919, with Gladys Cooper [Victoria] and Charles Hawtrey [William] in the cast. The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 213 (1919) was devoted to a summary of Home and Beauty with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [The American production was transferred to the Booth Theatre, New York, on 8 August, but that didn’t prevent its failure. It closed after 15 performances. In England it lasted some 15 times longer: 235 performances. A 1942 revival was a flop (12 shows), but another one in 1950 lasted for 180 performances, a remarkable run for a thirty-years-old farce.]

      A31.   The Unattainable (1923) [17^th play]

                      A31a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., December 1923. “A Farce in Three Acts”.

·     Produced under the title Caroline at the New Theatre on February 8^th, 1916, with Irene Vanbrugh [Caroline], Lillah McCarthy [Maude Fulton] and Dion Boucicault [Dr. Cornish] in the cast. The author had a somewhat unusual experience with this play, which is dealt with in the manuscript section of Appendix I.

·     [Mr Stott refers to Maugham’s rewriting of the last act in the last moment. This may wait until Appendix I. Much more unusual were the circumstances under which the play was originally written. From the preface to vol. 2 of B18:]

·     [“I wrote it in Geneva during the autumn of 1915. I was engaged in work for the Intelligence Department which the Swiss authorities did not approve of, and my predecessor had had a nervous breakdown owing to the strain it put upon his temperament, more sensitive than mine, to break the law; my colleague at Lausanne had lately been sent to prison for two years. I did not know how political prisoners were treated and I had no notion whether, should such an unpleasant fate befall me, I should be allowed pens and paper. I hated the idea of leaving the play unfinished, and I knew it would be very difficult to take it up again after a long interval. It was a great relief to me when I wrote the last line.”]

·     [So next time when you read “Miss King” (A37) you will know which play Ashenden writes in Geneva.]

      A32.   Loaves and Fishes (1923) [18^th play]

                      A32a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., November 1924. “A Comedy in Four Acts”.

·     Loaves and Fishes was the author’s third full length play and was written in 1902. It was many times rejected by managers and the novelisation of it under the title The Bishop’s Apron was the first to appear in book form [A9]. It was not included in the Collected Plays.

·     Loaves and Fishes was produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre on February 24^th, 1911, with Robert Loraine [Canon Spratte] and Athol Stewart (Lord Wroxham) in the cast.

·     [It’s baffling that this play should have been published for the first time more than 20 years after it was written. The first production, mere eight years later, lasted for only 48 performances. A 1951 revival by Peter Coates closed after 24 performances.]

      A33.   The Painted Veil (1925) [11^th novel]

                      A33a.    First and Limited edition, George H. Doran Company, 20 March 1925. “…limited to two hundred and fifty numbered copies signed by the author, of which this is Number…”

·     [Epigraph from Shelley: “…the painted veil which those who live call Life.”]

·     [The complete sonnet:

Lift not the painted veil which those who live

Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,

And it but mimic all we would believe

With colours idly spread, – behind, lurk Fear

And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave

Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.

I knew one who had lifted it--he sought,

For his lost heart was tender, things to love,

But found them not, alas! nor was there aught

The world contains, the which he could approve.

Through the unheeding many he did move,

A splendour among shadows, a bright blot

Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove

For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.]

                      A33b.    First Trade edition (separate impression from the same formes), George H. Doran Company, 20 March 1925.

·     Mr. Maugham wrote a piece (which was published in Colliers [sic]) for a booklet which Doran proposed to produce when The Painted Veil was published but it did not appear, and Maugham was much aggrieved. In a letter to Charles H. Towne¹, he was much dissatisfied with the way Doran had handled The Painted Veil, ‘He promised,’ he said, ‘that he would issue a booklet about my work before it came out and I expected him to give it individual attention. As a matter of fact he just sent it out like a parcel of tea, and let it sell on its own merits, without anything more than a mechanical and useless advertising.’

·     An outcome of this dissatisfaction with Doran was that for a while he played with the idea of changing his publishers, but his natural disinclination for change eventually prevailed. ‘As you know,’ he wrote to Towne, ‘my inclinations are very much to stick to whatever publishers I have. I have been with Heinemanns [sic] in London for twenty years and have resisted very substantial offers to leave them. So long as Doran will do his best for me I am willing to do my best by him. I have received his letter and am about to reply to it. I do not honestly think very much of his offer to give me a larger advance since I cannot but feel that my books will earn than on their own account without any pushing by a publisher and I am not so anxious to make a large sum of money out of a book as to have it as widely read as possible. I seem distinction rather than lucre…’

·     ¹ From the Charles H. Towne collection of Maugham letters in Yale Univ.

·     [The piece from “Colliers”, presumably another name of Collier’s Magazine, is not listed in Section D, nor has it been traced.]

                      A33c.    First English edition (separate issue printed in England from stereotype plates made from the American type), William Heinemann Ltd., 23 April 1925.

·     The first issue of the first English edition of The Painted Veil, which consists at the most of 74 copies, has a cancel title and its text entirely in unaltered state with Hong Kong, Happy Valley and The Peak referred to as such instead of the later issue version of Tching-Yen, Pleasant Valley and The Mount. Kowloon is changed to Lushan, and all references to Canton because of its proximity to Hong Kong have been obliterated (or such was the intention).

·     There are three states of the first issue. The first state of The Painted Veil was never issued (so far as is known). In the second state the reverse of the half-title lists 8 titles by the same author with a review of each book, in the third state twenty-six of the author’s works are mentioned.

·     In the second issue, first state Hong Kong etc. has been changed to Tching-Yen throughout by the insertion of cancelled leaves, and an Author’s Note inserted between the title leaf and the leaf recording the single-line quotation. The half-title is now a single inset.

·     In the final version the whole book was reimposed, the copies of the original sheets with a full set of cancellans gatherings replacing the cancellant leaves.

·     The extraordinary complexity of the various issues and states of The Painted Veil demand at least an attempted explanation. It arose out of two threatened libel actions which necessitated drastic alterations in the text. The first was during the serialisation of the story in Nash’s Magazine [24 December 1924 – 25 July 1925] when some people having the same names as the hero and heroine Lane brought an action for libel, which was settle for 250. The author says that, as a result of this action, he changed the name to Fane. Actually, during the run of the English serialisation, he changed it to Forr, and it was only in the final published form the name became Fane. The second alteration in the text (and a major one) occurred when the Assistant Secretary of the Hong Kong Government protested against the setting of the story and to avoid further trouble the author changed the names of the places. The second protest, however, was not made until two printings (each of 4000) had been run off and a large number of press copies actually dispatched. The copies were recalled but not all the recipients responded and 74 copies of the two states were unaccounted for. Most of these were review copies which, on some pretext or other, were not returned. [See also D52a.]  

                      A33d.    Collins Cheap edition, W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, February 1930. “Author’s Note”, p. 8. [See A33c.]

                      A33e.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New Preface: B2.]

                        A33f.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 2 (B21). Preface rehashed from A33e.]

                      A33g.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1934 Preface.]

      A34.   The Casuarina Tree (1926) [3^rd short story collection]

                      A34a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 2 September 1926. An “author’s note”, pp. vii-viii, a generic title of the eponymous preface, no doubt.

·     The Outstation, a story by W. Somerset Maugham, edited by Max Moser, was published separately in Bern, Switzerland, by A. Francke AG.1942. (Collection of English Texts for use in Schools, v. 57). Stiff orange wraps. 40 p. 19½ cm. The work went into several impressions, and one or two editions. It was still being published in 1955.

·     [This is probably a simplified version of the original. Heaven knows why the garrulous Mr Stott decided to mention it here. On the other hand, he is suspiciously silent about this “Author’s Note”. It is not in the description of the First American edition and I know nothing about it in later editions, for example Heinemann’s Cheap Edition from 1926. It is probably a variant title of the preface that was later changed to “The Casuarina Tree”.]

                      A34b.    First American edition, George H. Doran, 17 September 1926. “The Casuarina Tree”, pp. v-vi.

·     Contents: The Casuarina Tree [preface] – Before the Party – P. & O. – The Outstation – The Force of Circumstance – The Yellow Streak – The Letter – Postscript.

·     [All six stories appeared in magazines between December 1922 and August 1925. See D35, D36, D41, D46, D48 and D58. “The Letter” is the only one that also appeared in book form prior to its “official release” in this collection. See C5.]

                      A34c.    Collins Detective Club edition, Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., January 1930, under the title The Letter: Stories of Crime. See A22d.

      A35.   The Constant Wife (1927) [19^th play]

                      A35a.    First edition, George H. Doran Company, April 1927. “A Comedy in Three Acts”. Front. port. of Ethel Barrymore, tipped in.

                      A35b.    First English edition, William Heinemann, September 1927. Reissue of the American impression with new English title leaf. Doran sheets, consisting of 750 copies, were dispatched to London in September 1927.

·     The Constant Wife was first produced in America at the Ohio Theatre [Cleveland] on November 1, 1926, with Ethel Barrymore [Constance Middleton], Mabel Terry-Lewis [Mrs Culver] and C. Aubrey Smith [John Middleton] in the cast. In London, the roles were taken by Mary Jerrold [Mrs Culver], Fay Compton [Constance] and Léon Quartermaine [John].

·     [The American production was transferred to the Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York, on 29 November and, thanks largely to Ethel Barrymore, was a great success that lasted for 295 performances. Not so in England. The play opened on 6 April 1927 at the Strand Theatre, but everything was over after mere 70 performances. Revivals in 1937 and 1946 fared a good deal worse, managing only 36 and 26 performances, respectively.]

      A36.   The Letter (1927) [20^th play]

                      A36a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., June 1927. “A Play in Three Acts”.

·     The Letter, with its two endings, is a particularly interesting example of the author’s dramatic technique. It was produced at the Playhouse on February 24, 1927, with Gladys Cooper [Leslie Crosbie] and Leslie Faber [Howard Joyce] in the cast. Not included in the Collected Plays.

·     The whole of the issue of The Play Pictorial No. 30          2 (1927) was devoted to a summary of The Letter, with excerpts from the dialogue as captions to the photographs illustrating scenes from the play.

·     [Based on the eponymous short story (D46), the only one turned into play by the author himself, this was one of Maugham’s hits. The first run was of the remarkable 338 performances. The play is reprinted, with both endings, in B47. The original ending has Leslie recalling the murder as a monologue. The alternative shows it on the stage as a “flashback”. The final line is the same in both versions: “With all my heart I still love the man I killed.”]

                      A36b.    First American edition, George H. Doran Company, September 1927. Front. port. of Katharine Cornell, tipped in.

·     [Katherine Cornell was the first Leslie Crosbie on Broadway where the play opened on 26 September 1927 in the Morosco Theatre and closed 104 performances later.]

      A37.   Ashenden (1928) [4^th short story collection]

                      A37a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 29 March 1928. Dedicated to Gerald Kelly.

·     Contents: [1.] R – [2.] A Domiciliary Visit – [3.] Miss King – [4.] The Hairless Mexican – [5.] The Dark Woman – [6.] The Greek – [7.] A Trip to Paris – [8.] Giulia Lazzari – [9.] Gustav – [10.] The Traitor – [11.] Behind the Scenes – [12.] His Excellency – [13.] The Flip of a Coin – [14.] A Chance Acquaintance – [15.] Love and Russian Literature – [16.] Mr. Harrington's Washing.

·     [Mr Stott forgets to mention that in many later editions the contents are numbered and, more importantly, 15 of the 16 chapters were merged into the six well-known stories (“The Flip of a Coin” was left out); chap. 1–3 = “Miss King”; chap. 4–6 = “The Hairless Mexican”; chap. 7–8 = “Giulia Lazzari”; chap. 9–10 = “The Traitor”; chap. 11–12 = “His Excellency”; chap. 14–16 = “Mr. Harrington's Washing”.]

                      A37b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 30 March 1928.

·     In 1941 Doubleday, Doran reprinted Ashenden and a new 7-page preface by the author on his feelings about this book was included for the first time in this edition.

·     [As a matter of fact, only the last three paragraphs, a page and a half, are new. The rest five pages are straightforward reprint of the 1934 Preface for The Collected Edition (A37d). The new parts contain some interesting remarks about the changes in espionage that might have taken place between the wars as well as the famous reference to Dr Goebbels:]

·     [“I have heard it suggested that the service is less efficiently conducted than it was when I was a very obscure and insignificant member of it, but whether this is so I have no means of telling. The circumstances are different and I daresay more difficult to deal with. At that time the nationals of neutral countries were allowed considerable liberty of movement and it was possible by their means to get much useful information; but now, taught presumably by past experience, the authorities are watchful and it would go ill with any alien who displayed unreasonable curiosity.]

[…]

[Though twenty years have passed since these stories were written I cannot think they are entirely out of date, since till quite recently, I am told, they have been required reading for persons entering the Department; and early in this war Dr Goebbels, speaking over the air, taking one of them as a literal statement of recent facts, gave it as an example of British cynicism and brutality.”]

                      A37c.    Cheap Collins edition, Wm. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd, January 1934. See A22d.

                      A37d.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New Preface: B2.]

                      A37e.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1934 Preface.]

      A38.   The Sacred Flame (1928) [21^st play]

                      A38a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., November 1928. “A Play in Three Acts”. “To / His Friend / Messmore Kendall / The Author / Dedicates This Play”.

·     [Epigraph from Coleridge:

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.]

·     The Sacred Flame was produced first in New York in November 1929 where it was a ‘flop’, and then in February 1929. In this play the author attempted an experiment – to introduce a literary dialogue instead of naturalistic speech. It was quite a success, but the author did not repeat the experiment. [See the preface to vol. 3 of The Collected Plays (B18).]

                      A38b.    First English edition, William Heinemann, Ltd., February 1929.

·     Title-page dated 1928. Reissue of the American impression with new English title leaf. Doubleday, Doran sheets consisting of 1000 copies were dispatched to London in 1928. Reprinted 1931 (778 copies) also with sheets from America.

·     [The play was first presented by its dedicatee, Messmore Kendall, at the Belasco Theatre, Washington, on 12 November 1928, and subsequently at the Henry Miller Theatre, New York, but it closed after 24 performances. In London it was first presented by Gladys Cooper (who also played Stella) at the Playhouse on 8 February 1929 and it managed the respectable 209 performances. It starred Mary Jerrold (Mrs Tabret), Clare Eames (Nurse), C. V. France (Major Liconda) and David Hawthorne (Dr Harvester).]

      A39.   The Gentleman in the Parlour(1930) [3^rd travel book]

                      A39a.    First edition, William Heinemann, Ltd., February 1930. Subtitled “A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong”.

                      A39b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 18 April 1930. “Copyright, 1930 / by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.” & “Copyright, 1929 / by International Magazine Company Inc.”

                      A39c.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1935. New Preface: B2.]

                      A39d.    [The Travel Books, Heinemann, 1955 (B25). Preface largely rehashed from A39c, but the opening paragraph does contain some fascinating original stuff.]

                      A39e.    [Vintage Classics, 2001. Contains the 1935 Preface.]

[Five chapters, with minor changes (usually in the opening paragraphs), were later included in B17 as short stories: chap. VI = “Mabel”; chap. X = “Masterson”; chap. XXXII = Princess September; chap. XXXIV = A Marriage of Convenience; chapter XLIII = “Mirage”. All of them were also published in magazines between 1922 and 1929. See D34, D45, D83, D84 and D85.]

      A40.   Cakes and Ale (1930) [12^th novel]

                      A40a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 29 September 1930. Subtitled “Or The Skeleton in the Cupboard”. See D86.

                      A40b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 3 October 1930.

                      A40c.    Another edition, with a special Introduction by the Author, Modern Library, 1950. “With a special introduction for this edition by Mr. Maugham”.

·     Contains a new 8 pp. introduction by the author, in which he admits that the character of Alroy Kear in Cakes and Ale was based on Hugh Walpole. He confessed that Walpole had been in his mind when he described the character of Alroy Kear. He made the excuse that it was his belief that ‘no author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but hen his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess... It is only in this way that a novelist can give his characters the intensity, the reality which makes them not only plausible, but convincing.’

·     According to Alec Waugh, Cakes and Ale ruined the last ten years of Walpole’s life. Accounts of this remarkable controversy are to be found in Hart-Davis’s Huge Walpole: A Biography (1952) and Myrick Land’s The Fine Art of Literary Mayhem (1963). See also F30.

·     [Remarkable controversy, indeed!  There is another controversy in this edition that I find more remarkable but nobody else seems to care about it.[6] As for the Roy-Hugh scandal, an extensive quotation from Maugham’s preface gives a much better idea than Mr Stott’s highly selective treatment. Here it goes:]

·     [“It had but just been published when a letter delivered by hand was brought into me at my lodgings in Half Moon Street. It was from Hugh Walpole. He was on the committee of the English Book Society and had taken my novel to bed with him to read it with a view of recommending it as the book of the month. As he read, it was born in upon him that in the character of Alroy Kear I had drawn what seemed to him a cruel portrait of himself. Hugh Walpole then was the most prominent member of that body of writers who attempt by seizing every opportunity to keep in the public eye, by getting on familiar terms with critics so that their books may be favourably reviewed, by currying favor wherever it can serve them, to attain success which their merit scarcely deserves. They attempt by push and pull to make up for their lack of talent. It was true that I had had Hugh Walpole in mind when I devised the character to whom I gave the name of Alroy Kear. No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess, and when he has finished with him the complete character he presents to the reader has little in him of the person who had offered the first suggestion. It is only thus that a novelist can give his characters the intensity, the reality which makes them not only plausible, but convincing. I had no wish to hurt Hugh Walpole's feelings. He was a genial creature and he had friends who, though they were apt to laugh at him, were genuinely attached to him. He was easy to like, but difficult to respect. When I devised the character of Alroy Kear I did all I could to cover my tracks; I made him a sportsman who rode to hounds, played tennis and golf much better than most, and an amorist who skillfully avoided the entanglement of marriage. None of this could be said of Hugh Walpole. When I replied to his letter I told him this, and I added that I had taken one characteristic from an author we both knew and another from another, and moreover that above all I had put in Alroy Kear a great deal of myself. I have never been unaware of my own defects and I have never regarded them with complacency.”]

[…]

[“But the fact remained that I had given Alroy Kear certain traits, certain discreditable foibles which Hugh Walpole too notoriously had, so that few people in the literary world of London failed to see that he had been my model.”]

·     [Few years later, in the preface to vol. 1 of B21, Maugham further clarified the issue by stating that Walpole was “in part my model”. He also repeated one of his famous dictums, that “we are more apt to recognise persons by their defects than by their merits”, which for me concludes the matter. It is no coincidence that he first expressed in print this profound observation in 1931, just one year after the publication of Cakes and Ale. See A42.]

·     [As for the Edward-Thomas “controversy”:]

·     [“When Cakes and Ale was first published a lot of fuss was made in the papers because in the character I had called Edward Driffield I was supposed to have had Thomas Hardy in mind. It was in vain that I denied it. It was in vain that I pointed out to the journalists who came to question me how different the life of my hero was from that of Thomas Hardy. It is true that both were of peasant stock, that both had written novels of life in the English countryside, that both had been twice married and that both in their old age had achieved fame. But that was the beginning and the end of the resemblance. I met Thomas Hardy but once and that was at a dinner party in London when the ladies, as is the custom in England, had retired from the dining-room to leave the men to drink their port and over coffee and brandy discuss the affairs of state. […] I have no recollection of what we talked about on that occasion and remember only that I took away with me the impression of a small, grey, tired, retiring man who was, though not in the least embarrassed to be at such a grand party as that was, no more intimately concerned with it than if he had been a member of the audience at a play. […] There was certainly nothing in him of the somewhat freakish and ribald attitude towards life which was characteristic in his old age of Edward Driffield.”]

·     [“I think the newspaper men only identified my character with Thomas Hardy because when my book was written he had recently died. Otherwise they might just as easily have thought of Tennyson or Meredith. I had had occasion to see old and eminent writers receive the homage of their admirers, and as I watched them I had sometimes asked myself whether at such moments their minds ever carried them back to their obscure and tumultuous youth and whether when they looked at the ladies who gazed at them, their eyes misty with adoration, or listened gravely to the earnest young men who told how great an influence their works had had on them, they did not chuckle within themselves and with amusement wonder what those admirers would say if they knew the whole truth about them. I asked myself whether sometimes they did not grow impatient with the reverence with which they were treated. I asked myself whether they greatly relished being perched up on a pedestal.”]

[…]

·     [“In point of fact I founded Edward Driffield on an obscure writer who settled with his wife and children in the small town of Whitstable, of which my uncle and guardian was vicar. I do not remember his name. I don’t think he ever amounted to anything and he must be long since dead. He was the first author I had ever met, and though my uncle strongly disapproved of my association with him, I used to slip away to see him whenever I had the chance. His conversation thrilled me. It was a shock to me and a satisfaction to my uncle when one day he vanished from the town with all his debts unpaid.”]

                      A40d.    Eightieth Birthday edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 25^th January 1954.

·     “With an Original Lithograph and decorations by Graham Sutherland”. Limited to 1000 numbered copies signed by the Author and the Artist. Facsimile reproduction of the first and last two pages of the orig. MS. Preface on pp. v-xii [probably the one from 1934, see A40f.] Price: £5 5s.

                      A40e.    The Folio Society edition, May 1970.

                        A40f.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New Preface: B2.]

·     [In 1934 Maugham was more evasive about the foundations of his characters, understandably so considering the outstanding superficiality and passion for scandals of the literary circles. Nevertheless, he wrote about Kear-Walpole’s most notorious characteristic with sympathy and understanding:]

·     [“I am told that two or three writers thought themselves aimed at in the character of Alroy Kear. They were under a misapprehension. This character was a composite portrait: I took the appearance from one writer, the obsession with good society from another, the heartiness from a third, the pride in athletic prowess from a fourth, and a great deal of myself. For I have a grim capacity for seeing my own absurdity and I find in myself much to excite my ridicule. I am inclined to think that this is why I see people (if I am to believe what I am frequently told and frequently read of myself) in a less flattering light than many authors who have not this unfortunate idiosyncrasy. For all the characters that we create are but copies of ourselves. It may be of course that they really are nobler, more disinterested, virtuous, and spiritual than I. It is very natural that being godlike they should create men in their own image. When I wanted to draw the portrait of a writer who used every means of advertisement possible to assist the diffusion of his works I had no need to fix my attention on any particular person. The practice is too common for that. Nor can one help feeling sympathy for it. Every year hundreds of books, many of considerable merit, pass unnoticed. Each one has taken the author months to write, he may have had it in his head for years; he has put into it something of himself which is lost for ever, it is heart-rending to think how great are the chances that it will be disregarded in the press of matter that weighs down the critics' tables and burdens the booksellers' shelves. It is not unnatural that he should use what means he can to attract the attention of the public.”]

·     [So much for Cakes and Ale.[7]]

                      A40g.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 1. Preface rehashed from A40c.]

                      A40h.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1934 Preface from A40f.]

      A41.   The Bread-Winner (1930) [22^nd play]

                      A41a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 29 September 1930. “A Comedy in One Act”.

·     The Breadwinner was written in 1930. It was produced at the Vaudeville Theatre on September 30, 1930, with Jack Hawkins [Patrick Battle], Marie Lohr [Margery Battle] and Peggy Ashcroft [Judy Battle] in the cast.

·     [Mr Stott apparently never read or saw this play. He missed Ronald Squire who played the protagonist, Charles Battle. The play was a success (158 performances), though revivals in 1944 (30) and 1953 (31) were far less successful. This is Maugham’s only play in which the action is continuous: “the curtain in lowered twice during performance” only “to rest the audience”, as a note in the published version says. Cf. Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as another example of continuous action.]

                      A41b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., October 1930.

      A42.   Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular (1931) [5^th short story collection]

                      A42a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 17 September 1931. Introduction, pp. vii-x.

                      A42b.    First English edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 28 September 1931. Introduction, pp. vii-xi.

·     In the Zipkin copy in the University of Texas, Maugham has written: ‘The Alien Corn was first published in Florence by Gino Orioli.’ If the author’s memory was not at fault, then this indeed is a startling revelation, as no copy to my knowledge has ever emerged from its Italian demesne.

                      A42c.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New “Preface to the Collected Edition”, B2. Contains also the original introduction (without title).]

                      A42d.    [Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #8, Avon, 1943. Reprints 5/6 stories plus “A Marriage of Convenience” (late version, see D84) but without “The Alien Corn”, and probably without the prefaces either.]

·     Contents: [introduction] – Virtue – The Round Dozen – The Human Element – Jane – The Alien Corn – The Creative Impulse.

·     [All stories appeared in magazines between April 1923 and August 1931. See D37, D44, D65, D88, D89 and D94.]

·     [The original introduction is a fascinating discourse on the art of character creation. It is the only place I know of where Maugham admitted to have drawn a portrait from real life (who became Mortimer Ellis, the “Ardent Bigamist of “The Round Dozen”) instead of using his usual practice of elaboration, invention and imagination applied to one or several living models. Also, this is the earliest appearance in print, only one year after Cakes and Ale, significantly, of his famous dictum that “we know our friends by their defects and not by their merits”:]

·     [“...I have at one time or another been charged with portraying certain persons so exactly that it was impossible not to know them. I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me, not so much for my own sake (since I am used to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune) as for the sake of criticism in general. We authors of course try to be gentlemen, but we often fail and we must console ourselves by reflecting that few writers of any consequence have been devoid of certain streak of vulgarity.”]

[…]

·     [“The complete character, the result of elaboration rather than of invention, is art, and life in the raw, as we know, is only its material. It is unjust then for the critics to blame an author because he draws a character in whom they detect a likeness to someone they know and wholly unreasonable of them to expect him never to take one trait or another from living creatures. The odd thing is that when, these charges are made, emphasis is laid only on the less laudable characteristics of the individual. If you say of a character in a book that he is kind to his mother, but beats his wife, everybody will cry: Ah, that's Brown, how beastly to say he beats his wife; and no one thinks for a moment of Jones and Robinson who are notoriously kind to their mothers. I draw from this the somewhat surprising conclusion that we know our friends by their defects and not by their merits.”]

      A43.   The Book Bag (1932) [short story]

                      A43a.    First edition, Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc., April 1932. “20 Best Short Stories in Ray Long’s 20 Years as an Editor”. Introduction by Ray Long.

·     From Ray Long’s preface it is clear that Maugham submitted The Book Bag to Cosmopolitan when most of his stories were being serialised in this magazine, but it had been rejected because Ray Long feared the subject of the story might offend many of its readers. Then, when later on he was turning over in his mind which of the stories he had published in Cosmopolitan were the best 20, he recalled that two of them which he ranked very high, he had rejected, and one of these was The Book Bag. So he wrote to Maugham and asked his permission to include it in the anthology. Presumably, because Ray Long had been very generous to him over the years, Maugham agreed, no doubt persuaded that it would hardly affect the publication of the story by Orioli in Florence in a limited edition. So the story appeared in Ray Long’s anthology approximately three months before its publication in a separate edition.

·     Oddly enough, Ray Long lost his life because of his association with Maugham. He was sent the typescript of The Moon and Sixpence and after reading it decided he, too, wanted to paint. He was over 50 but he threw up his job and went to live in one of the islands in the Pacific. He painted for a number of years, then decided he had no aptitude for it, and killed himself.[8]

·     [Mr Stott’s reasons to include this book here remain obscure. The entry evidently belongs to Section C. See also C35a.]

                      A43b.    First Separate edition, G. Orioli, Florence, July 1932. “This Edition is printed on hand-made paper, and limited to 725 copies, signed by the Author; 700 are for sale. This is number…” Front. port. inserted (a photograph by Killar of the Jo Davidson bust of Mr. Maugham).

·     Mr. Maugham had the front. portraits forwarded to him, across which he signed his name. In a letter (in the Grenville Cook collection) written from Ormond House, St James to Orioli, 11 May [1932], Mr. Maugham writes: ‘I shall be here till May 28 and can sign the portraits if you send them.’

·     [“The Book Bag” does not seem to have been published in magazine form, a rare case among Maugham’s short stories indeed. Its next appearance in book from was in A46.]

      A44.   The Narrow Corner (1932) [13^th novel]

                      A44a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 7 November 1932. [See D97.]

·     [Epigraph:

Short, therefore, is man’s life,

and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.

Marcus Aurelius (120–181),

Meditations, iii, 10, unknown translation.]

                      A44b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 9 November 1932.

                      A44c.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1935. New Preface: B2.]

                      A44d.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 2 (B21). Preface largely rehashed from A44c, but it does contain one or two original touches. The most important of them is about the real-life foundations of Dr Saunders:]

·     [“Some critics who have been sufficiently interested in me to write about my books have stated that in Dr. Saunders I drew a portrait of myself. I don’t know how they got such a queer idea in their heads. It is true that I lent him one or two of my own experiences. But that is quite another matter. When a novelist has had an experience that will fit in with the characteristics of a creature of his invention he looks upon it a as bit of luck and makes haste to use it. I founded Dr. Saunders on a medical student I had known when I was myself one and whom I continued to know till he died forty years later. He was never a good doctor, but he had gaiety, a great sense of humour, a pleasant cynicism and not a little unscrupulousness. He was a most pleasant companion.”[9]]

      A45.   For Services Rendered (1932) [23^rd play]

                      A45a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 14 December 1932. “A Play in Three Acts.”

                      A45b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., April 1933.

·     For Services Rendered was written in 1932. It was produced at the Globe Theatre on November 1, 1932, with Ralph Richardson [Collie Stratton], Flora Robson [Evie] and Cedric Hardwicke [Sydney] in the cast. See D97a.

·     [The play was transferred to the Queen’s Theatre on 2 January 1933, but it wasn’t received well (78 performances). A 1946 revival by Peter Cotes was not a success, either (40).]

      A46.   Ah King (1933) [6^th short story collection]

                      A46a.    First and Trade edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 19 September 1933. [Original preface titled “Ah King”.]

                      A46b.    Limited Issue, on Large Paper (separate impression from the same formes), William Heinemann Ltd., September 1933 (after the trade edition).

                      A46c.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 9 November 1933.

                      A46d.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1934. New Preface: B2; expanded from the original.]

                      A46e.    [Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #18: Romance Stories from the Tropics, Avon, 1944. Reprints all stories from A46a without “Neil MacAdam”.]

·     Contents: [Ah King] – Footprints in the Jungle – The Door of Opportunity – The Vessel of Wrath – The Book Bag – The Back of Beyond – Neil MacAdam.

·     [All stories except “The Book Bag” (A43) were published in magazines between March 1927 and April 1932. See D67, D90, D93, D95 and D96. Two of the stories, “Footprints in the Jungle” (C6b) and “The Back of Beyond” (C14), had already appeared in book form.]

·     [These two prefaces present an interesting example of Maugham’s adroitness and creativity when he reworked old stuff. The original piece from 1930 concludes thus: “To the best of my belief the characters that play their parts in [these stories] are creatures of my own fancy.” The 1934 Preface reprints the original piece complete, except for the last sentence which becomes “To the best of my belief they are the last stories technically, though I think not quite accurately, called exotic that I shall write”. This launches a fascinating discussion of the so-called “exotic stories”:]

·     [“It is indefensible to place a story in a foreign setting merely because it is picturesque. If the incidents you relate might as well have happened in England it is an affectation, if you are an English writer, to put them elsewhere. If you go outside your own country it must be because your story depends on the alien scene. Of course I do not claim that the stories in this book could only have taken place in the part of the world I have described. I think they could have taken place in India or in other colonies of the British Empire; they certainly could not have taken place in England, for they depend on the environment in which the characters chosen find themselves and on the effect upon them of a manner of life which is not quite natural to them.”]

·     [“I have confined myself to describing the effect on a number of white people of the manner of their lives in certain remote places. But the subject is limited. Life in these places is curious, but it is simple. It is a picture painted with a restricted palette. The writer who treats of subjects that demand the exotic setting finds eventually that he has arrived at the end of them. The characters he has to deal with are often peculiar, for people under these conditions often have the opportunity to develop their idiosyncrasies to a degree that in another situation would be impossible, but they somewhat lack variety. They tend to fall in recognisable types. Even when they are eccentric they are eccentric according to a pattern. The fact is of course that they are ordinary people on whom the same causes have the same effects. You don’t often find in them the complexity that makes those who dwell amid the sophisticated circumstances of cultured life an inexhaustible subject of study.”]

      A47.   Sheppey (1933) [24^th play]

                      A47a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd., 13 November 1933. “A Play in Three Acts”. “To John Gielgud”.

·     First American edition, W. H. Barker, Boston, 1949.

·     Sheppey was written in 1932. It was produced at the Wyndham’s Theatre on 14 September, 1933, with Ralph Richardson [Sheppey] and Laura Cowie [Bessie] in the cast. After this production, Mr. Maugham announced that he would write no more plays.

·     [Not the best way to end one’s career as a dramatist, Sheppey puzzled critics and public alike, closing after 83 performances. Maugham announced his retirement from the stage and never returned to play writing. As he wonderfully put it The Summing Up (chap. XLI): “I sighed for the liberty of fiction, and I thought with pleasure of the lonely reader who was willing to listen to all I had to say and with whom I could effect an intimacy that I could never hope for in the garish publicity of the theatre.”]

      A48.   The Judgment Seat (1934) [short story]

                      A48a.    First edition, The Centaur Press, December 1934. With a frontispiece portrait of Maugham [by whom?]. Limited to 150 copies signed by Author and Artist.

·     [This story never appeared in a magazine. It was collected in A50.]

      A49.   Don Fernando (1935) [1^st non-fiction]

                      A49a.    First and Trade edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 17 June 1935. Subtitled “or Variations on Some Spanish Themes”.

                      A49b.    Limited Issue, on Large Paper (separate impression from the same formes), William Heinemann Ltd., May 1935 (after the trade edition). [Here Mr Stott says the Trade edition was first published in “May 1935”?] Limited to 175 copies for sale in Great Britain and Ireland, numbered and signed by the Author.

                      A49c.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 19 July 1935.

                      A49d.    New and Revised edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 1950.

·     New and completely revised edition (in the Collected Edition). The author has omitted certain details concerning ideas which he says he expressed better after further reflection, in The Summing Up. Chapter VII has also been omitted and Chapter IX (which becomes Chapter XIII in the revised edition) has been entirely re-written and considerably augmented. There is also an Author’s Note (3 pp.) on the changes.

                      A49e.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1937. New Preface: B2. Similar/identical to the part of the preface in A49f?]

                        A49f.    [The Travel Books, Heinemann, 1955. New Preface. See B25.]

                      A49g.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the preface and the revisions from A49d.]

      A50.   Cosmopolitans: Very Short Stories (1936) [7^th short story collection]

                      A50a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 21 February 1936. Preface, pp. v-x. Subtitled “Very Short Stories”.

                      A50b.    First English and Trade edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 30 March 1936. Preface, pp. vii-xiii.

                      A50c.    Limited Issue, on Large Paper (separate impression from the same formes), William Heinemann Ltd., March 1936 (after the trade edition). [Apparently this edition appeared on 31^st March.]

                      A50d.    [Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #1, Avon, 1943. Identical stories, no preface.]

·     Contents: [Preface] – Raw Material [D38] – Mayhew [D39] – German Harry [D40] – The Happy Man [D49] – The Dream [D47] – In a Strange Land [D42] – The Luncheon [D43] – Salvatore [D50] – Home [D51] – Mr. Know-All [D53] – The Escape [D55] – A Friend in Need [D56] – Portrait of a Gentleman [D57] – The End of the Flight [D62a] – The Judgement Seat [A48] – The Ant and the Grasshopper [D52] – French Joe [D63] – The Man with the Scar [D60] – The Poet [D61] – Louise [D59] – The Closed Shop [D66] – The Promise [D62] – A String of Beads [D68] – The Bum [D78] – Straight Flush [D80] – The Verger [D81] – The Wash Tub [D77] – The Social Sense [D79] – The Four Dutchmen [D76].

·     [All stories except “The Judgement Seat” (A48) were published in magazines between November 1923 and August 1929. Three of them, “In a Strange Land” (C2), “The Promise” (C6) and “The End of the Flight” (C8), had previously appeared in book form as well. The original Preface is a gem worth quoting at length, almost complete in fact:]

·     [“The little stories in this volume were written on commission. The first was written in 1924 [sic: 1923]; the last, I think, in 1929. When I was in China I took notes of whatever I saw that excited my interest; but when I came home and read them it seemed to me that they had a vividness that I might easily lose if I tried to elaborate them into a connected narrative. So I changed my mind and decided to publish them as they stood under the title: On a Chinese Screen. Ray Long, who was then editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine chanced to read this and it occurred to him that some of my notes might very well be taken for short stories. If you are a story-teller any curious person you meet has a way of suggesting a story, and incidents that to others will seem quite haphazard have a way of presenting themselves to you with the pattern your natural instinct has imposed on them.”]

·     [“Magazine readers do not like starting a story and, after reading for a while, being told to turn to page a hundred and something. Writers do not like it either, for they think the interruption disturbs the reader and they have an uneasy fear that sometimes he will not take the trouble and so leaves their story unfinished. There is no help for it. Everyone should know that a magazine costs more to produce than it is sold for, and it could not exist but for the advertisements. The advertisers think that their announcements are more likely to be read if they are on the same page as matter which they modestly, but often mistakenly, think of greater interest. So in the illustrated periodicals it has been found advisable to put the beginning of a story or an article, with the picture that purports to illustrate it, at the beginning and the continuation with the advertisements later on.”]

·     [“Neither readers nor writers should complain. Readers get something for far less than cost price and writers are paid sums for their productions which only the advertisements render possible. They should remember that they are there only as baits. Their office is to fill blank spaces and indirectly induce their readers to buy motor accessories, bust bodices and join correspondence courses. Fortunately this need not affect them. The best story from the advertisers' standpoint (and they make their views felt on this question) is the story that gives readers most delight. Ray Long conceived the notion that the readers of Cosmopolitan would like it if they were given at least one story that they could read without having to hunt for the continuation among the advertisements, and he commissioned me to write half a dozen sketches of the same sort as those in On a Chinese Screen. They were to be short enough to print on opposite pages of the magazine and leave plenty of room for the illustration.”]

·     [“The sketches I wrote pleased and the commission was renewed. I went on writing them till my natural verbosity got the better of me and I found myself no longer able to keep my stories within the limits imposed upon me. Then I had to stop.”]

·     [“But I think I learned a good deal from the writing of them and I am glad I wrote them. My difficulty was to compress what I had to tell into a number of words which must not be exceeded and yet leave the reader with the impression that I had told all there was to tell. It was this that made the enterprise amusing. It was also salutary. I could not afford to waste a word. I had to be succinct. I was surprised to find how many adverbs and adjectives I could leave out without any harm to the matter or the manner. One often writes needless words because they give the phrase a little ring. It was very good practice to try to get balance into a sentence without using a word that was not necessary to the sense.”]

·     [“The matter of course had to be chosen with discretion; it would have been futile to take a theme that demanded elaborate development; and I have a natural predilection for completeness, so that even in the little space at my disposal I wanted my story to have a beginning, a middle and an end. I do not for my own part much care for the shapeless story. To my mind it is not enough when the writer gives you the plain facts seen through his own eyes (which means of course that they are not plain facts, but facts distorted by his own idiosyncrasy); I think he should impose upon them a design. Naturally these stories are anecdotes. […] The anecdote is the basis of fiction. The restlessness of writers forces upon fiction from time to time forms that are foreign to it, but when it has been oppressed for a period by obscurity, propaganda or affectation, it reverts and returns inevitably to the anecdote.”]

·     [“The University of Columbia a little while ago very kindly sent me a little book entitled Modern Fiction[10] [F27] written by two of its professors. I read it with interest and edification. It offers the best guide I have ever met across the fog-bound swamps, shining mountains, pleasant oases and dreary deserts of Mr. Joyce’s Ulysses. It treats of no book that it does not make one wish to read again. It is tolerant, perspicacious and stimulating. But there is one thing about it that very much surprised me. The books of which it treats are discussed in the most improving way. Their technique is acutely analysed. Their value as psychological, sociological or ethical documents is estimated. But I can find nowhere a reference to their entertainment. So far as I can make out these two professors in all the years during which they have thought the ardent young who have attended their lectures never even hinted to them that a novel should be read for fun. The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your aesthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it does not entertain you it is a bad novel. It is merely laziness that induces people to go to novels for instruction on subjects that are the province of experts. There is no short road to knowledge and you will only waste your time if you seek it in a work of fiction.”]

[…]

·     [“The novelist deals with individual cases which he has chosen to suit his own purpose. They may exemplify a rule; they cannot serve to formulate one. The novelist gives you his private view of the universe. He offers you intelligent entertainment; and the first thing you should ask of an entertainment is that it should entertain.”]

·     [“I hope the reader will not think it presumptuous on my part to have touched on these matters of theory in a preface written to introduce a little collection of very short stories. I wish merely to warn him that I ask nothing from him but that he should find amusing. I think it would be very tiresome to read them at a sitting, but I have a hope that if he reads one or two now and then when he has nothing better to do he will take the same pleasure in them that was taken by the readers of the Cosmopolitan Magazine when they appeared once every month or so in its pages.”]

      A51.   My South Sea Island (1936) [pamphlet]

                      A51a.    First edition, Chicago, 1936. “Printed by order of Ben Abramson without the author’s permission, but with firm held hope that being done, it will not be spurned nor the act censured”.

·     This insignificant article about a few days spent on an island in the South Seas appeared in the Daily Mail, London, 31 January, 1922 [D27]. According to Ben Abramson, there was a misprint in the spelling of ‘Somerset’ on the title page of the first printing, and all but two copies were destroyed. The pamphlet was then reprinted. My South Sea Island has every mark of the bibliographical fraud without finally being altogether one. If it had been an article found in manuscript among the author’s papers, then there might have been some real interest in publishing it, but to pay £200 (as has been done twice recently in a London auction room) for a reprinted newspaper article seems to be bibliomania carried to extremes. For such a sum a collector could acquire a first edition of A Man of Honour or a first issue of The Painted Veil – genuine rarities which would greatly add to the value of one’s collection.

·     The germ for My South Sea Island is to be found in A Writer’s Notebook (A70) from which the author undoubtedly wrote up his article. [Reprinted in B43.]

                      A51b.    First Miniature edition, Black Cat Press, Chicago, February 1965. Foreword (by Norman F. Forgue). “This first printing in book is limited to 199 copies.”

      A52.   Theatre (1937) [14^th novel]

                      A52a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 3 March 1937. An “author’s note”, p. v [reprinted in A52b, p. vii].[11]

                      A52b.    First English edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 22 March 1937.

                      A52c.    [The Collected Edition, Heinemann, 1939. New Preface: B2.]

·     [This was the last preface Maugham wrote for this prestigious edition. Since later volumes were included in it relatively shortly after their first publication, he considered it unnecessary to repeat in prefaces what he had just said better in the works themselves. As he explains charmingly in the opening paragraph:]

·     [“It is not very difficult to write a preface to a book that you wrote a long time ago, for the hurrying years have made a different man of you and you can look upon it with a stranger’s eyes. You see its faults, and for the reader’s delectation you can recall, according to your temperament with toleration or with dismay, the defects in your character as it was then which account for the defects of your book; or you can look back, maybe with the pleasure that distance lends to the past, upon the conditions under which you wrote; you can draw a pretty picture of your garret or dwell with modest complacency on the stiff upper lip with which you faced neglect. But when, in order to tempt a reader to buy a book that has no longer the merit of novelty, you set about writing a preface to a work of fiction that you composed no more than two or three years back, it is none too easy to find anything that you want to say, for you have said in your book all you have to say upon the theme with which it deals and having done so have never given it another thought. As nothing is more dead that a love that has burnt itself out, so no subject is less interesting to an author than one upon which he has said his say. Of course you can quarrel with your reviewers, but there is little point in that; what such and such a critic thought of a novel that he read the year before last can only matter to an author if his susceptibility is really too tender for the rough and tumble of this queer world; the critic has long forgotten both the book and his criticism, and the generality of readers never trouble their heads with criticism anyhow.”]

                      A52d.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 1. Preface rehashed from A52c.]

                      A52e.    [Vintage Classics, 2000. Contains the 1939 Preface (A52c).]

      A53.   The Summing Up (1938) [2^nd non-fiction]

                      A53a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 6 January 1938.

                      A53b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 25 March 1938.

                      A53c.    Eightieth Birthday edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., May 1954.

·     “This edition is limited to / three hundred and ninety-one / numbered and signed copies / printed from the type which has been destroyed. / Three hundred and seventy-five copies are for sale / of which this is number…” “Copyright, 1938, 1954, by W. Somerset Maugham”. Price: $15.

·     This limited edition was published in May 1954 to celebrate the author’s 80^th birthday. The partners in the firm of A. P. Watt, his literary agents, presented him with some brandy ‘a little younger than yourself’.

·     [I surmise the copyright page refers, not to some revisions in the text, but to the addition of a postscript from the preface to The Partial View (B22). This is how the book is reprinted in Mr. Maugham Himself (B23), again in 1954.]

      A54.   Christmas Holiday (1939) [15^th novel]

                      A54a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 6 February 1939.

                      A54b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 20 October 1939.

·     Christmas Holiday was serialised in Redbook Magazine commencing August 1939, concluding November 1939.

                      A54c.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 3. New Preface: B21.]

·     [This preface is the only place where Maugham mentions something about the origins of this novel. It was apparently inspired by a murder trial in Paris which the author attended:]

·     [“I found the experience, so new to me, immensely thrilling. There was no doubt about the prisoner’s guilt. The evidence was damning. The only question was whether he would be sentenced to death, or whether the jury would admit extenuating circumstances, in which case by law the judges could only sentence him to a term of penal servitude. There was a long string of witnesses and they were allowed to deliver themselves at length. The prisoner, little more than a boy, was well-dressed and nice-looking, dapper and vain. Before the judges entered on the first morning of the trial the photographers had asked him to stand up so that they could take better pictures of him and he had preened himself before them with insolent satisfaction. He came of good bourgeois stock. His father, who was dead, had been a general in the Army, and his mother, a typical French woman of her class, was obviously of the utmost respectability. Even before she took her place on the witness stand you had only to look at her to know what her life had been. She had passed the greater part of it in one garrison town after another, and as her husband rose in rank she took the deference the wives of her husband’s subordinates showed her as her due. She ran her successive establishments with competence and strict economy. She performed her religious duties punctiliously. On stated occasions she paid and received the visits which her position required of her. She knew her son was guilty and at best would be parted from her for many years, but she delivered her testimony with precision. Her dignity impressed the court. One wondered whether she had ever asked herself why God had given her, who had always done her duty, a son who had brought upon her ageing head such a terrible disgrace. People are very strange and have fantastic notions. One wondered whether she thought bitterly that after this the widows of her husband’s brother officers would no longer pay their visits of ceremony and that, and if she ventured to call on them, their doors would be closed to her.”]

·     [“From her testimony and from that of others it became evident that the prisoner had from an early age been a scamp. He was dissolute, extravagant and dishonest. For one of his escapades he had been sentenced to a short term of imprisonment. The prisoner’s wife took the stand. She was a pretty little thing, very plainly dressed, a Russian, and she spoke French with a slight accent. She was very nervous and spoke in so low a tone that it was hard to hear what she said. Now and then her voice was choked with sobs and once she broke down altogether. One got the impression that she loved her husband, but had found life with the worthless creature she had married and his prim, conventional mother, for the three of them lived together, far from easy. She was a deeply pathetic figure. The prisoner was found guilty, but, for what reason I do not know, extenuating circumstances were allowed, perhaps because the bookmaker he had murdered for a few thousand francs was a disreputable character, perhaps because of his father’s distinguished war record, and he was given a life sentence.”]

      A55.   Princes September and the Nightingale (1939) [short story]

                      A55a.    First edition, Oxford University Press, 1939. Illustrated by Richard C. Jones. “Princess September and the Nightingale” is reprinted from The Gentleman in the Parlour by W. Somerset Maugham, copyright, 1930, by Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc., by special permission of the author and publisher”. Copyright copy deposited Library of Congress 14 October 1939.

·     A reprint in juvenile form of the fairy story which first appeared in Pearson’s Magazine [D34] and was later embodied in The Gentleman in the Parlour [A39]. Not published in England. See also C6 [sic: C3].

·     [This illustrated version was reprinted in 1998, with an Introduction by Jan Morris and an Afterword by Samuel J. Rogal.]

                      A55b.    First edition under the title Princess September, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969. Illustrated with coloured drawings by Jacqueline Ayer.

                      A55c.    First English edition under the title Princess September, William Collins, Sons & Co. Ltd., 16 March 1970. The English edition was bound from American sheets.

                      A55d.    [Orchid Press, Thailand, 2003. Under the title A Siamese Fairy Tale. Illustrated by Fleur Brofos Asmussen.]

      A56.   France at War (1940) [3^rd non-fiction]

                      A56a.    First edition, William Heinemann, 18 March 1940.

                      A56b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., April 1940.

·     This was a survey of French affairs early in the war, commissioned by what later became The Ministry of Information. It gave what proved to be an inaccurate picture of French morale at that time, which is surprising considering Maugham’s knowledge of France and her people, but the fault was not altogether his and he sets out elsewhere the facts and obstacles he met with during its composition. Publication was discontinued on the fall of France.

·     [Mr Stott remains silent where this “elsewhere” might be, but I guess he means A60. If France at War was a little propaganda book, and it certainly was, it stands to reason that Strictly Personal was written as a response to it.]

      A57.   Books and You (1940) [4^th non-fiction]

                      A57a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 18 March 1940. Preface, v-xx. “To Barbara Rothschild”.

                      A57b.    American First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 22 March 1940.

·     This book was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post.

·     [Sometimes Mr Stott’s carelessness is truly exasperating! This book was not serialised at all. It simply consisted of three essays (D112, D114, D118) that first appeared in the Sat. Eve. Post and, being enthusiastically received by the public, were later collected in more permanent form on this account. Mr Stott also neglects to mention in his Collation section that the American edition also contains the original Preface on pp. 5-22. This is an unforgivable omission.]

·     [The Preface is an essential part of the book. For one thing, it contains absorbing discussions on three novels – Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds, Meredith’s The Egoist and Eliot’s Middlemarch – for which Maugham had not space in his original article on English literature (which, like the other two on European and American books, was limited to 4000 words). For another thing, it contains one of the most concise expositions of Maugham’s credo as a reader:]

·     [“I repeat here what you will find in my first chapter, that the only thing that signifies to you in a book is what it means to you, and if your opinion is at variance with that of everyone else in the world it is of no consequence. Your opinion is valid for you. In matters of art people, especially, I think, in America, are apt to accept willingly from professors and critics a tyranny which in matters of government they would rebel against. But in these questions there is no right and wrong. The relation between the reader and his book is as free and intimate as that between the mystic and his God. Of all forms of snobbishness the literary is perhaps the most detestable, and there is no excuse for the fool who despises his fellow-man because he does not share his opinion of the value of a certain book. Pretences in literary appreciation are odious, and no one should be ashamed if a book that the best critics think highly of means nothing to him. On the other hand it is better not to speak ill of such books if you have not read them.”]

·     [“The first thing I have asked of a book before I put it on my list was that it should be readable; for I want you to read these books, and readability is something I have a notion the professors of literature and the critics whom they have trained take for granted. But it is not a thing to be taken for granted at all. There are many books important in the history of literature which it is now unnecessary for anybody but the student to read. Few people have the time today to read anything but what immediately concerns them. My claim is that the books I have mentioned in the following pages concern everybody. By readability I do not mean that it should be possible to read the book without attention. The reader must bring something of his own; he must have at least the capacity of interesting himself in human affairs and he must have at least some imagination. I know a number of people who say they cannot read novels, and I have noticed they are apt to suppose that it is because, their minds being busy with important matters, they cannot trouble to occupy themselves with imaginary events; but I think they are deceived; it is either because they are so absorbed in themselves that they cannot take an interest in what happen to others, or because they are so devoid of imagination that they have not the power to enter into the ideas and sympathize with the joys and sorrows of the characters of fiction.”]

      A58.   The Mixture as Before (1940) [8^th short story collection]

                      A58a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 6 June 1940. Foreword, pp. vii-ix.

                      A58b.    First American edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 12 July 1940. Foreword, pp. v-vii. Copyright copy deposited Library of Congress, 18 July 1940.

·     In the foreword to The Mixture as Before Mr. Maugham wrote: ‘I have now written between eighty and ninety stories, I shall not write any more’. When a further volume – Creatures of Circumstance – appeared some seven years later he wrote another foreword in which he explained that the typist or typesetter had left out an m and that the line should have read ‘I shall not write many more stories’. In view of this disclaimer, it is interesting to know that it was not the first time Mr. Maugham had threatened to retire from the short story market. In a letter to Pinker in November 1907, he wrote: ‘I do not propose to write any more short stories. I have so many commissions for plays that I should not have the time even if I had the inclination.’ Luckily for English literature he did not adhere to this resolution.

·     Mr. Maugham, somewhat ironically, took the title of this book from a review in The Times of his last volume of short stories was headed The Mixture as Before.

·     [The review was in fact titled “Mr. Maugham’s Mixture as Before” (G37b) and it easily ranks as one of the most inane pieces of criticism on his work ever to have appeared in print. No wonder it was anonymous. For the “mixture as before” was Cosmopolitans (A50), the one and only short story collection in Maugham’s bibliography that has nothing to do with the others, especially the earlier ones. It contains 29 “very short stories”: his previous five collections contained six stories each, any of them very much longer than the longest of the “cosmopolitans”. More importantly, the “mixture as before” were written on magazine commission. Maugham’s earlier stories were not; they duly appeared in periodicals, often on both sides of the Pond due to his great popularity, but they were not written for that purpose. This is a difference of signal importance. The review, in short, proudly joins the ranks of Edmund Wilson, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Rebecca West, Malcolm Cowley, Morton Zabel, Theodore Spencer, Woodburn O. Ross and many other exalted personalities who have become symbols of critical imbecility as far as Somerset Maugham is concerned.]

·     [In his Foreword, Maugham made the same mistake about the title as Mr Stott. But then he transformed the phrase, much as he did real events and people in his fiction, into something entirely his own and of much greater import:]

·     [“When my last volume of short stories was published The Times headed their review of it with the title The Mixture as Before. This of course was meant in a depreciatory sense, but I did not take it as such and so I have made so bold as to use it for the collection which I am now inviting the public to read. After pursuing the art of fiction for over forty years I have a notion that I know a good deal more about it than most people. In that long period I have seen a number of bright stars creep shyly over the horizon, travel across the sky to burn for a while in mid heaven with dazzling effulgence, and then dwindle into an obscurity from which there is little likelihood that they will ever again emerge. The writer has his special communication to make, which when you come to analyse it is the personality with which he is endowed by nature, and during the early years of his activity he is groping in the dark to express it; then, if he is fortunate, he succeeds in doing this and if there is in his personality a certain abundance he may continue for a long time to produce work which is varied and characteristic; but the time comes at last (if he is so imprudent as to live to a ripe age) when, having given what he has to give, his powers seem to fail. He has fashioned all the stories he himself is capable of digging out of the inexhaustible mine which is human nature and he has created all the characters which can possibly be constituted out of the various sides of his own personality. (For no one I believe can create a character from pure observation; if it is to have life it must be at least to some degree a representation of himself: I do not believe Shakespeare could have begotten Hamlet, Brutus and Iago if he had not been himself Iago, Brutus and Hamlet.) A generation has arisen which is strange to him and it is only by an effort of will that he can understands the interests of a world of which he can now be only an observer. But to understand is not enough; the novelist must feel, and he must not only feel with, he must feel in. It is when he has reached this stage that he finds his readers turning from him in weariness. It is well then if he can bring himself to cease writing books which might just as well have remained unwritten. He is wise to watch warily for the signs which will indicate to him that, having said his say, it behoves him to resign himself to silence. He must be content, he must rejoice even, if a new work which he tenders to the approbation of the public shows no falling off; if, in fact, it can truthfully be called The Mixture as Before.”]

·     Contents: The Three Fat Women of Antibes [D98] – A Man with a Conscience [D116] – The Treasure [D100] – The Lotus Eater [D107] – The Lion’s Skin [D110] – Lord Mountdrago [D113] – Gigolo and Gigolette [D106] – The Voice of the Turtle [D105] – An Official Position [D108] – The Facts of Life [D115].

·     [All stories published in magazines between October 1933 and June 1939.]

      A59.   Up at the Villa (1941) [16^th novel]

                      A59a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 5 April 1941.

·     Warner Bros. paid Somerset Maugham $30 000 for the movie rights of Up at the Villa, but although a number of experienced script writers including Christopher Isherwood were employed on it they were never able to produce a script that has satisfied the censor.

·     [Nearly 60 years later, in 2000, a movie version finally appeared. It’s been forgotten since. The script, by one Belinda Haas, is a fine elaboration on Maugham’s bare skeleton of a plot, and it makes the whole story more coherent and probable. But the characters have lost all their charm, vividness and complexity. The soporific acting of Kristin Scott Thomas (Mary), Sean Penn (Rowley) and James Fox (Edgar) doesn’t help the matter. Even the cinematography, the one thing you would expect to be stunning, is drab, monotonous and unimaginative.]

·     In the files of the American Play Company now preserved in The New York Public Library (Berg Collection) is the typescript (carbon) of a short story (29 pp.) unsigned and undated entitled A Night in June. Presumably it went the round of the Editors but never found a publisher and many years later Maugham re-wrote it as a novel Up at the Villa with the same characters and the names unchanged.

·     [In the process of re-writing, Maugham improved the piece a great deal. It was serialised in Redbook between February and April 1940. See D119.]  

                      A59b.    First English edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 12 May 1941.

                      A59c.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 3. New Preface: B21]

·     [This preface is the only place where Maugham shares some details about the origins of Up at the Villa. He mentions nothing about “A Night in June”, but tells an amusing story how the piece was commissioned and then rejected by “the editor of a woman’s magazine” and finishes by modestly asking “no more of the reader than that he should find in [Up at the Villa] an hour’s diversion”:]

·     [“Up at the Villa is a novelette. I had long had in mind its central episode, that in which a woman of uncommon beauty gives herself to a man she hardly knows, not out of love or lust, but out of pity. But it was just one out of perhaps a dozen ideas that now and then suggested themselves to me, that I thought about from time to time, but which for one reason or another I never used. One day when I was in New York the editor of a woman’s magazine asked me to lunch and told me that she would very much like me to write a short novel for her that could serialised in three or four numbers. I was in a good mood that day and, improvising as I went along, I proceeded to tell her in some detail a story centring on that particular episode. It pleased her and she commissioned me to write it. But when I had finished it and she read it, she was shocked. She said it wasn’t at all the sort of thing to suit her readers. I have never wanted to hold any editor to a contract when he was not satisfied with a piece of work I had presented to him, so I cheerfully begged the charming but naïve lady (I am putty in the hands of a woman in distress) not to give the matter another thought and withdrew the manuscript.”]

·     [“The story was Up at the Villa. It was easy and amusing to write. I never attached any great importance to it and it has surprised me to learn that in the Latin countries and in the Near East it has been one of the most popular of my books. I ask no more of the reader than that he should find in it an hour’s diversion.”]

·     [Even confirmed Maugham admirers have found it difficult to appreciate Up at the Villa. On its first publication the critics lambasted it like no other of Maugham’s works before (see G53). Personally, I find it a superb piece of entertainment, far deeper than its hundred pages may suggest.]

      A60.   Strictly Personal (1941) [5^th non-fiction]

                      A60a.    First and Limited edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 3 September 1941. “This edition / is limited to five hundred and fifteen copies / numbered and signed by the author / of which this is / No…”. Photogravure front. port.

                      A60b.    First Trade edition (separate impression from the same formes), Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 5 September 1941. Front. port., inserted.

                      A60c.    First edition under the title The Inside Story of the French Collapse. “Reprinted from Redbook October 1940 issue.” Cover captioned: “France fell… on June 17. Now, just a few weeks later, W. Somerset Maugham… previously reported dead or captured – returns to London to give his masterful, eye-witness story of the Collapse of France…”

·     The greater part of this pamphlet was incorporated in Strictly Personal, but in the latter the author watered down his earlier impressions and was less inclined to blame himself for his lack of perspicacity in summing up the situation. See D121, D122 and D123.

                      A60d.    First English edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 2nd March 1942. Front. port., inserted. A Letter to Sir Edward Marsh, pp. v-vi. [Chapter 15 omitted.]

·     The English edition contains a two-page letter addressed to Sir Edward Marsh, K.C.V.O., which is not in the American edition. Strictly Personal, which covers the author’s experiences during the first fifteen months of the war, was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post on March 22, 29, April 5, 12, 1941, under the title Novelist’s Flight from France. [See D128–D131.]

·     [It has been suggested (G203) that it was Godfrey Winn whom Maugham described mercilessly in Chapter 15 as a slick-and-slack journalist; so mercilessly, indeed, that Heinemann feared a libel action and the chapter was dropped from the British edition. See F137 and G26. With his typically casual attitude to the contents of Maugham’s books, as opposed to his scrupulous scholarship about their bindings, collations, states, issues and the like, Mr Stott mentions nothing at all about this important difference between the First American and English editions.]

·     [A little anti-propaganda book written to set the record straight after the embarrassing fall of France shortly after Maugham praised the French morale and courage in France at War (A56).]

      A61.   The Hour Before the Dawn (1942) [17^th novel]

                      A61a.    First edition, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 19 June 1942.

·     This novel was written at the request of the Ministry of Information and was intended to show the effect of the war on a typically British family. It was written originally in the form of a documentary and serialised in Redbook in January, February, March, and April 1942 issues [sic: D137]; then expanded into a novel. It is of all Maugham’s books the one he was most dissatisfied with, probably because it was written to order and was propaganda, instead of developing in his mind over a number of years as did all his other novels. In a letter to Eddie Marsh in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, he writes: “No, I am not going to send you my novel to correct because I have decided not to publish it in England. It was written as propaganda, first as a picture, then as a short serial and finally as a full-length novel. How could anyone be expected to run out a decent piece of work in that way? I knew very well it was poor and I was miserable about it. I tried to console myself by looking upon it as my contribution to the war effort, but that did not help much and I prefer to think now that it will be unread in England and forgotten in America.”[12]

·     That he had at one time, however, contemplated publishing it here is apparent from the publisher’s records which show that although the type was set up and the book actually proofed at the Windmill Press, it was never produced in book form. See A61c.

·     [Epigraph:

In every work regard the writer’s end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

Pope.]

                      A61b.    First Australian edition, Angus and Robertson Ltd, 7 April 1945.

                      A61c.    English Advanced Proof state, William Heinemann Ltd, 1942.

·     This copy has part of pictures on the inside wrappers, suggesting that left over sheets were used for the binding, as it was not intended to complete more than a few copies for distribution. The only copy in proof form that has come to my notice is in the Leonard Meldman collection.

      A62.   The Unconquered (1943) [short story]

                      A62a.    First edition, House of Books, Ltd., New York, 1 December 1944. “This First edition is limited to / three hundred numbered copies / signed by the Author / this is No….”

·     This is the original text of the short story that had appeared previously in Collier’s Magazine [D143] in expurgated form. It was reprinted in Creatures of Circumstance [A66] in the original version. The certificate of limitation refers to 300 numbered copies, but there were actually 26 additional copies (lettered a–z), 12 of which were used for presentation to the author, 12 for review and presentation by the Publisher, and 2 for entry in the Library of Congress for copyright purposes.

      A63.   The Razor’s Edge (1944) [18^th novel]

                      A63a.    First and Limited edition, Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 18 April 1944. “This edition / is limited to seven hundred and fifty copies / numbered and signed by the author / of which this is No…”. “Copyright, 1943, 1944, by the McCall Company / Copyright 1944 by W. Somerset Maugham”. In slip case. Price: $6.

                      A63b.    First Trade edition (separate impression from the same forms), Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 20 April 1944. Price: $2,75.

·     [Epigraph:

The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over;

thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard.

Katha Upanishad]

·     The Razor’s Edge was serialised in Redbook in the December 1943, January, February, March, April and May 1944 issues. [See D148a.]

                      A63c.    First English edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 17 July 1944.

·     On the front of the American trade edition dust wrapper is printed an aphorism – The Story of a Man Who Found a Faith. It does not appear in the book nor anywhere at all in the English edition, and was probably written by Maugham himself.

·     The Theme of The Razor’s Edge came from an unproduced and unpublished play of Maugham’s called The Road Uphill.

·     [See Mander and Mitchenson, F93, pp. 198-99, who apparently discovered “a script of a play […] called The Road Uphill” that had languished in oblivion for more than 30 years and was thought by Maugham to have been destroyed. They date the play to 1924 and suggest that it contains not only the germ of The Razor’s Edge, but also that of the short story “The Alien Corn” (D94).]

                      A63d.    [The Selected Novels, Heinemann, 1953, vol. 3. New Preface: B21]

·     [This is the only place where Maugham discloses something about the genesis of The Razor’s Edge. Characteristically, he says nothing about The Road Uphill but instead concentrates on deeper and more elusive matters:]

·     [“The Razor’s Edge on the other hand had been in my mind for many years. But in this case also the idea for it would perhaps never have come to me but for an accident. In the very early ‘twenties I happened to be in Chicago and one evening I met at dinner a young man whose name, if I ever knew, I have long forgotten, who somehow or other attracted my attention. He was fairly tall, slender, not particularly good-looking, but with a pleasant face. He had an ingenuous charm and engaging manners, but what chiefly struck me in him was his air of candour. There was something touching about it. I could not but think that he must have a singular sweetness of disposition. He was obviously a general favourite and I ascribed this, perhaps fancifully, to the goodness that he seemed to exhale as a rose its perfume. I have met plenty of young Americans with good manners, a frank expression and good-nature, and I don’t know why the recollection of this one should have lingered with me. I don’t suppose I exchanged a dozen sentences with him and I never saw him again. It was from what I saw of him and what I divined that in the course of years the character of Larry formed itself in my mind, and, as happens in such cases, incidents, fugitive notions, predicaments clustered round this wraith of my imagination to render him more real to me. From time to time something of a thread of narrative suggested itself to me. In 1936 I spent three or four months in India. I had read a good deal of Indian philosophy and had been peculiarly attracted to Hinduism. When I got to India and the Indians to whom I had letters of introduction found that I neither wanted to shoot a tiger, nor to sell anything, but was desirous to meet philosophers, writers and holy men, they were interested and did everything in the world to meet my wishes. I thus came to know persons who were entirely new to my experience and who by their lives and their conversation made a deep impression upon me. What I learnt then fitted in very well with the ideas for a novel that in the course of years I had been slowly evolving. A number of seemingly haphazard circumstances, a cluster of characters, half-forgotten experiences, reminiscences of my own past emerged from I hardly knew where to give shape, coherence and substance to the novel that by now absorbed my thoughts, and in 1942 I began to write it. That was exactly twenty years after I had had that fleeting encounter with the young man in Chicago who became my hero.”]

      A64.   Then and Now (1946) [19^th novel]

                      A64a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 13 May 1946. Author’s Acknowledgments, p. v.

                      A64b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 23 May 1946. Author’s Note, p. v.

·     [These unexplained authorial contributions are probably the same as the short note on p. [v] in the Vintage Classics edition:]

·     [“No one could write a book of this kind out of his head, and I have taken what I wanted where I could find it. My chief source of information has naturally been the works of Machiavelli. I have found much that was to my purpose in Tommasini’s biography and something in Villari’s, and I have made some use of Woodward’s solid Cesare Borgia. I wish to acknowledge the great debt I owe to Count Carlo Beuf for his lively and accurate life of Caesar, for his kindness in lending me books which otherwise I should never have known about, and for his patience in answering the many questions I put to him.”]

      A65.   Of Human Bondage: With a Digression on the Art of Fiction (1946) [pamphlet]

                      A65a.    Limited edition, The Library of Congress, April 1946. “Designed and printed for / The Library of Congress at / the U.S. Government Print- / ing Office at Washington, in / an edition of 800 copies, 500 / of which have been signed by / Mr. Maugham. / April 1946.”

·     Mr. Frederick R. Goff, then Chief of the Rare Book Division, the Library of Congress, to whom I am indebted for this information, tells me that from his own personal recollection ‘the signed copies, representing the first state, were issued first. They were distributed to the audience who attended the presentation ceremony. Presumably at the time the remaining 300 copies were being prepared for binding, alterations took place which resulted in the colophon leaf being mounted on a stub. Subsequently the second edition in wrappers was issued to satisfy popular demand.’

                      A65b.    First and Trade edition (separate impression from the same formes), The Library of Congress, April 1946. [20] pp.; p. [3]: “This Address / was given by Mr. Maugham / in the Coolidge Auditorium, / The Library of Congress, on / the occasion of his presenting / the original manuscript of his / novel “Of Human Bondage” / to the Library”; p. [17]: “Designed and printed for / The Library of Congress at / the U.S. Government Print- / ing Office at Washington, in / an edition of 2,500 copies, of / which 1000 are for sale by / the Superintendent of Docu- / ments at 25 cents a copy. / April 1946 / Second printing”.

·     In this address, Maugham tells how the novel came to be written, and makes other observations of varying biographical interest. On the 11 October 1950, Mr. Maugham made a further presentation to the Library of the manuscript The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey, the first version of Of Human Bondage written shortly after he had received his degree in medicine. One of the stipulations of the gift is that it is never to be published.

      A66.   Creatures of Circumstance (1947) [9^th short story collection]

                      A66a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 17 July 1947. “The Author Excuses Himself”, pp. 1-4.

·     Throughout his professional career, Mr. Maugham showed a great reluctance to waste material, and time and again he has resurrected stories written in his youth, and revised them for book form. The Mother, to which he originally gave the title La Cachirra, The Luncheon, originally published as Cousin Amy, and The Happy Couple, are instances in point. He apparently kept no record of these stories, for in 1922 he wrote to Pinker asking if he could trace them.

·     [No more than five stories – out of, say, 112 that Maugham wrote in toto – can be shown to be revised versions of early works originally written before the First World War. So the statement “time and again he has resurrected stories written in his youth” is hardly accurate. Besides, only two of these five were revised. The rest were rewritten, which is a very different matter. Revision means that the story is improved but remains substantially the same. Rewriting means what it says: writing a new story on the same plot lines. Mr Stott is strong on bold statements, but when it comes to close examination of contents he leaves a great deal to be desired. In this entry, he provides not a single cross-reference to explain the complex history of Maugham’s last short story collection. True, he does so in Section D, intermittently, but he should have done so here, too.]

·     Contents: The Author Excuses Himself [preface] – The Colonel's Lady [D152] – Flotsam and Jetsam [D120a] – Appearance and Reality [D104] – The Mother [D18] –Sanatorium [D111] – A Woman of Fifty [D153] – The Romantic Young Lady [D160] – A Casual Affair [D103] – The Point of Honour [D158] – Winter Cruise [D125a] – The Happy Couple [D141] – A Man from Glasgow [D8a] – The Unconquered [D143] – Episode [D157] – The Kite.

·     [All stories except “The Kite” were published in magazines, two of them before WWI (“The Mother”, “A Man from Glasgow”), the rest between November 1934 and March 1947. Mr Whitehead has speculated[13] that the other two “Spanish Stories”, namely “The Point of Honour” and “The Romantic Young Lady”, also stemmed from early versions, but none has so far been identified in periodicals, typescript or manuscript. “The Happy Couple” appeared in a magazine as early as 1908, but the later version included here is thoroughly rewritten and virtually a different story; it was published in Redbook in 1943.]

·     [For further details on the five youthful stories Maugham recycled later in his life, see D8a, D12, D15, D16, D18.]

                      A66b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., July 1947.

·     [This edition, of course, also contains the original introduction titled “The Author Excuses Himself”, pp. 3-6. Mr Stott missed that in his Collation, but he didn’t miss to inform his readers that “each story has a title page printed in grey with decorative design and border in white and title in black.”]

                      A66c.    [Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #51, Avon, 1950. reprints 7/15 stories.]

      A67.   Catalina (1948) [20^th novel, last work of fiction]

                      A67a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 19 August 1948. Subtitled “A Romance”.

                      A67b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 26 October 1948.

·     Catalina was serialised in 4 issues of The Windmill, the first two instalments appearing before book publication. It was also serialised in Harper’s Magazine beginning with the June 1948 issue. [See D170.]

·     Somerset Maugham was looked upon by the reading public as such fabulously successful novelist, that it came as a surprise to many to know how recent was his success. In 1930, Harper’s were writing to Pinker: ‘Maugham still needs a good deal of advertising to put him across.’ And this was after the publication of his most popular book of short stories Ashenden. He did not really come into the top-selling class in his own country until The Razor’s Edge was published in a first edition of 50 000 copies. In America, however, he achieved recognition earlier through the serialisation of his short stories in the Hearst Magazines Cosmopolitan and Nash’s. For these contributions he was paid a dollar a word up to 6 000 words. In a letter to Eddie Marsh in the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library, Maugham writes: ‘Since you toiled over the proof it may slightly interest you to know that by the end of its first month The Razor’s Edge had sold 507 000 copies. I will not pretend that I am not staggered.’

      A68.   Quartet (1948) [short stories]

                      A68a.    First edition, William Heinemann, Ltd., 28 October 1948. “Stories by W. Somerset Maugham”. “Screen-Plays by R. C. Sheriff”. Foreword by Mr Sheriff, pp. v-vii. Illus. with front. port. and 4 plates (stills from the movie).

                      A68b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., May 1949. Copyright copy deposited Library of the Congress, 12 May 1949. Lacks the illustrations.

·     Script of the film by R. C. Sheriff. Reprints also the four stories upon which the film is based. The Facts of Life from The Mixture as Before [A58] – The Alien Corn from First Person Singular [A42] – The Kite and The Colonel’s Lady from Creatures of Circumstance [A66]. Mr. Maugham made a personal appearance in the film, introducing each story. These introductions are printed in the book.

·     [The introductions are certainly printed in the book and they were no doubt written by Maugham, not by Mr. Sheriff. But Mr Stott and I seem to have seen different movies. Only one of Maugham’s introductions actually appears on the screen, and that one is a general introduction before the first story (which, oddly, is printed before the last one in the book). The special introductions to the stories were either never shot in the first place or for some reason cut from the final product. The latter seems slightly more likely because the movie appeared two days before the book. What sense would it make to print parts of the script that can’t be seen and heard on the screen? In any case, it remains a mystery why these introductions are missing in the film. All of them, except for the general part, are rare pieces not to be found anywhere else in Maugham’s works. I give them here complete:]

·     [“The story you are now going to see is called The Facts of Life, but I didn't invent it. I was sitting one night in Monte Carlo in the Casino with a friend having a glass of beer before going home to bed, and then he suddenly told me this story out of the blue. It amused me and I hope it will amuse you. He assured me it was perfectly true, but it was very late at night and I dare say he embroidered on the facts a little. Anyhow I don't think any young man would be wise in going to Monte Carlo hoping that anything of the sort would happen to him, because it wouldn't... The Facts of Life.”]

·     [“I think the moral of this story is that it's a great help in this life to be born lucky, but of course that isn't enough. You have to have the brains to take advantage of your luck and the determination to make the best possible use of it, because unfortunately you can't count on it.”]

·     [“The Alien Corn is a story about a young man who wanted to be a pianist. He was a great friend of mine and it has been a grief to me that his life was wasted. There is a certain amount of invention in the story of course, but the main facts are as I have stated them.”]

·     [“In the arts many are called but few are chosen. It's not enough to have a burning desire to paint, to write or to play an instrument. You must have at least a streak of talent and that is a gift of nature. If you haven't got no amount of industry will help you, but if you have that streak only unremitting industry will enable you to make something worth while out of it. I am quite sure of this – that it's better to be a good plumber or a good typist than an indifferent painter, writer or pianist.”]

·     [“The story we are going to show you now is called The Kite. I should tell you right away that it isn't my story at all. I only wrote it. Before the war I had some small connection with the Prisoner's Aid Society and on that account I heard some stories that interested me. This was one of them. I hesitated to write it for a long time because to tell you the truth, I couldn't quite understand it myself. So at last I said to myself: Well there's only one thing to do and that is to sit down and write it and see how it comes out. That is precisely what I did.... The Kite.”]

·     [“Since The Kite was published, I have received any number of letters from psychologists and psycho-analysts explaining my story to me. And all I can tell you is that if Herbert Sunbury and his mother knew what shocking instincts lay behind his unfortunate passion for flying a kite, they would be very much surprised.”]

·     [“The fourth is called The Colonel's Lady. I should like to tell you how the idea of it came to me, but if I did I should spoil it. So I'm not going to till after you've seen it.”]

·     [“I got the idea for this story nearly fifty years ago, but I may tell you that I was comparatively young man at the time. I was listening to two women gossiping. It appears that one of their friends had just published a book of passionate love poems which were obviously not addressed to her husband, and they were wondering how the husband would take it. I thought it would make a pretty good subject for a story and made a note of it. Then I forgot all about it. But one day two years ago I happened to be going through my old notebooks and came across it. I still thought it was a pretty good subject for a short story, so I wrote it.”]

·     [After the last story there is a short and charming epilogue. It is slightly abridged on the screen, but it is substantially the same piece as printed in the book:]

·     [“Now you have seen all these stories, and I shall be happy if they have given you as much pleasure to see as they gave me to write. At the start I told you that I had used in my writings pretty well everything that has happened to me in the course of my life. It has been a long and varied one. I think I have learnt a little something about human nature and I have tried to tell others what I knew as truthfully and honestly as I could. The public – you – have been very kind to me, but sooner or later we must part. I hope we shall part good friends.”]

·     [Cast. The Facts of Life: Jack Watling (Nicky), Mai Zetterling (Jeanne), Basil Radford (Henry Garnet). The Alien Corn: Dirk Bogarde (George Bland), Francoise Rosay (Lea Makart), Honor Blackman (Paula), Raymond Lovell (Sir Frederick), James Hayter (Foreman of the Jury). The Kite: Mrs Sunbury (Hermione Baddeley), George Cole (Herbert Sunbury), Susan Shaw (Betty Baker), Mervyn Johns (Samuel Sunbury). The Colonel’s Lady: Cecil Parker (George Parker), Nora Swinburne (Evie Peregrine), Linden Travers (Daphne), Ernest Thesiger (Henry Dashwood), Felyx Aylmer (Martin).]

      A69.   Great Novelists and their Novels (1948) [6^th non-fiction]

                      A69a.    First edition, John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia, September 1948. “Essays on the Ten Greatest Novels of the World, and the Men and Women Who Wrote Them”. Illustrated with pen and ink portraits of the authors by Robert W. Arnold.

·     The American edition was on sale in England and distributed by John Crowther (Publishers) Ltd., of Bognor Regis. The material of this book, which the author has described as his first book of essays, appeared in the American Atlantic Monthly under the title Ten Best Novels, issues commencing November 1947 onwards [D161–D169]. These were again reprinted as introductions to new editions of the ten novels (issued by Winston [C36–C45]) and edited by Mr. Maugham to omit ‘everything but the story the author has to tell… some people have cultivated the art of skipping to their profit; but most people haven’t; it is surely better that they should have their skipping done for them by someone of taste and discernment. If he has made a good job of it he should be able to give the reader a novel of which he can read every word with enjoyment.’

·     [Contents: “The Ten Best Novels of the World” – Leo Tolstoy and War and Peace – Honoré de Balzac and Old Man Goriot – Henry Fielding and Tom Jones – Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice – Stendhal and The Red and the Black – Emily Brönte and Wuthering Heights – Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary – Charles Dickens and David Copperfield – Fyodor Dostoevsky and The Brothers Karamazov – Herman Melville and Moby Dick – Postscript.]

                      A69b.    First English edition, under the title Ten Novels and Their Authors, William Heinemann Ltd, 25 October 1954. [This entry wrongly given as “A69a”.]

·     As pointed out in the note to the American edition, these essays were written as introductions to a reissue of the ten novels. They were written in a hurry and the author has, on reflection, seen fit to revise extensively each biography. Considerable new material has been added, the introduction has been extended, and there is an interesting new chapter in which the author sums up the whole field of creative literary activity – a subject that has always held for him a singular fascination.

·     A number of these essays, including the introduction and the conclusion, were serialised in The Sunday Times (D181) and in the final instalment the Editor describes them as ‘one of the most distinguished and successful serials ever to appear in these columns[’]. The negotiations for the publication were carried through Ian Fleming who was then on its staff, and this correspondence is in the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library.

·     There was also a Colonial edition issued on 11 October 1954 at 21s. Reprinted in Heinemann’s Mercury Book No. 38 (1963).

·     [Contents: 1. The Art of Fiction – 2. Henry Fielding and Tom Jones – 3. Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice – 4. Stendhal and Le Rouge et le Noir – 5. Balzac and La Père Goriot – 6. Charles Dickens and David Copperfield – 7. Flaubert and Madame Bovary – 8. Herman Melville and Moby Dick – 9. Emily Brönte and Wuthering Heights – 10. Dostoevsky and The Brothers Karamazov – 11. Tolstoy and War and Peace – 12. In Conclusion.]

·     [Epigraph:

J’ai toujours aimé les correspondaces, les conversations, les pensées, tous le détails du caractère, des moeurs, de la biographie en un mot, des grands écrivains…

Sainte-Beuve

 

La première condition d’un roman est d’intéresser. Or, pour cela, il faut illusionner le lectueur à tel point qu’il puisse croire que ce qu’on lui raconte est réellement arrivé.

Balzac]

                      A69c.    [The Art of Fiction: an Introduction to 10 Novels and their Authors, Doubleday, 1955. First American edition of A69b. Mr Stott mentions it in his notes and does list it as B24, but he really should have included it here as A69c. Bibliographers have strange ways of doing some things.]

      A70.   A Writer’s Notebook (1949) [7^th non-fiction]

                      A70a.    Preprint edition, Hearst Magazine Building, 1949. “Preprinted from Cosmopolitan Magazine”. “This book is a preprint of the condensed version of “A Writer’s Notebook” being serialised in Cosmopolitan Magazine. It is not for sale. The complete book will be published in the fall of 1949 by Doubleday and Company, Inc.”.

·     Although the book was stated to have been issued in a limited edition ‘not for sale’, the edition was very substantial – about 6 000 copies. Later, most were said to have been withdrawn and sent to military hospitals.

                      A70b.    First and Trade edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 3 October 1949. “In / Loving Memory of My Friend / Frederick Gerald Haxton / 1892–1944”. Preface, pp. vii-xvi. Price: 12s. 6d.

                      A70c.    Limited edition (separate impression from the same formes), William Heinemann Ltd, 1949. “This edition of “A Writer’s Notebook” / is limited to 1000 copies and is signed / by the Author. / Number…”. Published simultaneously with A70b. Price: £ 2,2.

                      A70d.    American First and Limited edition, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 20 October 1949 (simultaneously with the trade edition).  “This Edition is limited to One Thousand / Numbered and Signed copies, of which / Nine Hundred and Eighty-five are for sale / This is number…”. Preface, pp. vii-xvi. Portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly, inserted. Price: $15.

                      A70e.    First American and Trade edition (separate impression from the same formes), Doubleday and Company, Inc., 20 October 1949. “First edition after the printing of a limited edition of one thousand numbered and signed copies”. Preface, pp. vii-xvi. Portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly, inserted. Price: $4.

      A71.   Trio (1950) [short stories]

                      A71a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 13 November 1950. “Stories by W. Somerset Maugham / Screen adaptation by W. Somerset Maugham. R. C. Sheriff and Noel Langley. Illus. front. port. and 3 plates (stills from the film).

                      A71b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., December 1950. Lack the illustrations.

·     Reprints also the three stories upon which the film is based. The Verger and Mr Know-All from Cosmopolitans [A50]; Sanatorium from Creatures of Circumstance [A66]. Mr. Maugham made a personal appearance in the film, introducing each story. These introductions are printed in the book.

·     There was an odd sequel to the filming of The Verger. It appears that a Mr. Konrad Bercovici wrote a story closely similar in the early twenties, and made a claim on the grounds of breach of copyright. Mr. Maugham was rightly indignant, stating that it was strange that he should have waited 30 years (for The Verger was published in Hearst’s International Magazine in 1929 before taking any action. Maugham had actually been told the story by Ivor Back, who was then Head Surgeon at St. George’s Hospital, but admitted that after the publication in Hearst’s International Magazine he had received letters from various parts of the world informing him that it was an old Jewish story. The correspondence relating this incident appears in the A. P. Watts correspondence in the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library.

·     [Unlike Quartet (A68), all of Maugham’s introductions printed in this book are complete and unabridged on the screen. ''The Verger'' has no special introduction on its own but follows immediately after the general part. It is not clear, unfortunately, which of the three screenplays was written by Maugham, but according to some manuscript evidence the chances are that this was “Mr Know-All”; see Appendix I where Mr Stott does list the manuscript but does not make it clear whether it was filmed. Perhaps significantly, the movie version of Mr Know-All differs only slightly, much less so than “The Verger” for example, from the original story.]

·     [Maugham’s introductions, in spite of their pleasant near-completeness on the screen, remain hard-to-find rarities and, therefore, are quoted here in full:]

·     [“Well, ladies and gentlemen. If you see me facing you once again in this unaccustomed role for me, you have only yourselves to blame. If you hadn’t liked the four stories which we showed in Quartet, we shouldn’t have been encouraged to show you three more. Of course, we know it is a risk to try to repeat a success, and we have to leave it to you to judge if we’ve been well advised or not.”]

·     [“Mr Know-All, I believe, is a story of my own invention, but I shouldn’t like to have to go into the witness box in a court of law and take my oath on it. I think I might venture to make use of a phrase of Dr. Johnson’s, and say that if a story is good, it’s unlikely to be new, and if it’s new, it’s unlikely to be good. The fact is, we story tellers, like the hero of a celebrated poem, have too late into a world too old.”]

·     [“The Sanatorium is a story founded on my own experiences, and if you like to take the character of Ashenden as a flattering portrait of the old party who stands before you, you are at perfect liberty to do so.”]

·     [Cast. The Verger: James Hayter (Albert Forman), Kathleen Harrison (Emma Brown/Mrs Foreman), Michael Horden (The Vicar), Felyx Aylmer (Bank manager). Mr Know-All: Nigel Patrick (Kelada), Anne Crawford (Mrs Ramsay), Nauton Wayne (Mr Ramsay), Wilfred Hyde White (Gray). Sanatorium: Jean Simmons (Evie Bishop), Michael Rennie (Major Templeton), Roland Culver (Mr Ashenden), Raymond Huntley (Mr Chester), Betty Ann Davies (Mrs Chester), John Laurie (Mr Campbell), Finlay Currie (Mr McLeod), Andre Morell (Dr Lennox).]

      A72.   The Writer’s Point of View (1951) [pamphlet]

                      A72a.    First edition, Cambridge University Press, December 1951. “The Ninth Annual Lecture of the National Book League, delivered by W. Somerset Maugham, at the Kingsway Hall, W.C.2, on Wednesday October 24 1951, the Right Honourable Sir Norman Birkett in the Chair.” [See also D54.]

      A73.   Encore (1952) [short stories]

                      A73a.    First edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 7 January 1952. “Stories by W. Somerset Maugham / Screen adaptation by T. E. B. Clarke, Arthur McRae and Eric Ambler”. Illus. front. port., and 3 plates (stills from the film).

                      A73b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., June 1952. Lacks the illus.

·     Reprints also the three stories upon which the film is based. The Ant and the Grasshopper [A50] – Winter Cruise [A66] – and Gigolo and Gigolette [A58]. The author made a personal appearance in the film, introducing each story. These introductions are printed in the book.

·     [Unlike Quartet (A68), all of Maugham’s introductions printed in this book are complete and unabridged on the screen – except the one about “The Ant and the Grasshopper” which is omitted. However, even those that are not remain hard-to-find rarities; therefore, all are quoted here in full:]

·     [“Ladies and gentlemen, I am really quite ashamed to face you again. You will begin to think I fancy myself a film actor, but I assure you that I don’t. It is because I don’t that I am talking to you from my garden. I thought that if you were tired of looking at me you could look at the flowers. Today you’re going to see three more of my stories arranged for the screen by three very clever script writers. The stories are founded on fact, but of course they are fiction, and like every other author I have looked upon it as my right to arrange my facts to suit my purpose, which was to entertain.”]

·     [“The aim of “The Ant and the Grasshopper” is to amuse. You must not look in it for a moral because there isn’t one. My hero was a very lucky man; he is just the exception which proves the rule that, on the whole, honesty is the best policy and, in this hard world, if you want to eat you must work.” Not in the movie.]

·     [“Winter Cruise” was suggested to me by a woman I met on a journey in the South Seas. She had a heart of gold, but she was a crashing bore. I avoided her like the plague, but I couldn’t help liking her, and I hope you will too.”]

·     [“Gigolo and Gigolette” is a story about two people in the show business. In it you are going to see something of their lives from the inside. For my part I wish there were laws to prevent them from risking their life and limb night after night to give the public a morbid thrill, but there aren’t, and so to earn a hazardous living they will continue to break their backs and break their necks for your amusement”.]

·     [Cast. The Ant and the Grasshopper: Nigel Patrick (Tom Ramsay), Roland Culver (George Ramsay), Peter Graves (Philip Cronshaw), Dorothy Bramhall (Miss Farrow). Winter Cruise: Kay Walsh (Miss Reid), Noel Purcell (Captain), Ronald Squire (Doctor), John Laurie (Chief Engineer), Jacques Francois (Pierre), John Horsley (Mate). Gigolo and Gigolette: Glynis Johns (Stella), Terence Morgan (Syd), Mary Merrall (Flora Penezzi), Martin Miller (Carlo Penezzi), David Hutcheson (Sandy Westcott), Heather Thatcher (Eva Barrett).]

      A74.   The Vagrant Mood (1952) [8^th non-fiction]

                      A74a.    First and Limited edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 27 October 1952. Six Essays. “This Edition of “The Vagrant Mood” is limited to 500 copies and is signed by the Author.” Author’s note, p. [iv]. Price: £ 3 3s.

                      A74b.    First Trade edition, William Heinemann Ltd, 27 October 1952. Price: 12s.

·     Three of the essays appeared previously in The Cornhill [D174, D175, D176]. The essay Reflections on a Certain Book formed a lecture given by Mr. Maugham at the Philosophical Colloquium of Columbia University under the title Beauty and the Professor. It has, however, been re-written for book form. Part of the final essay appeared in Life and Letters (June 1931 [D92]).

                      A74c.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., December 1953.

·     [Contents: Augustus – Zurbaran – The Decline and Fall of the Detective Story –– After Reading Burke – Reflections on a Certain Book – Some Novelists I Have Known.]

·     [How do Mr Stott and other Maugham scholars know about the history of these essays? They have examined and compared manuscripts, periodicals and final versions? They have studied Maugham’s “career” as lecturer in detail? Almost but not quite. They mostly repeated what he wrote. The so-called “author’s note” is probably the same as this short message that appears in the Vintage Classics edition:]

·     [“Three of the essays in this volume appeared in The Cornhill. One was delivered as a lecture at the Philosophical Colloquium of the University of Columbia, but I have rewritten it in the hope of making it more easily readable. Part of the final essay appeared many years ago in Life and Letters. / W. S. M.”]

      A75.   The Noble Spaniard (1953) [play, translation/adaptation]

                      A75a.    First edition, Evans Brothers Limited, 1953. “A Comedy in Three Acts by W. Somerset Maugham, adapted from the French of Grenet-Dancourt”. Acting Edition. General Editor: Lionel Hale. A. B. Walkley’s criticism from Times as an introduction.

·     The Noble Spaniard was written in 1908. The play was first produced at the New Royalty Theatre, London, on 20 March 1909 with Charles Hawtrey and Kate Cutler in the cast.

·     [The first run was 55 performances and had Feed the Brute by George Paston as curtain-raiser. Also according to Mander and Mitchenson (F93), since the play was published and broadcast on 28 December 1953, “it has received numerous repertory productions up and down country.”]

      A76.   The Moon and Sixpence (1957) [opera]

                      A76a.    First edition, 1957. “Opera in Three Acts. Music by John Gardner. Libretto by Patrick Terry, after the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. This opera was commissioned by the Sadler’s Wells Trust Ltd. First performance, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 24^th May, 1957.” The booklet (44 pp.) was sold in the Theatre (5s.) during the run of the Opera.

·     The booklet was sold in the Theatre (5s.) during the run of the Opera.

·     [It remains a mystery why Mr Stott considered this booklet worth including among Maugham’s books, plays and pamphlets.]

·     When the project of making The Moon and Sixpence into an opera was first mooted, Maugham wrote to A. P. Watt: ‘I know of course there is no money to be made out of making an opera of The Moon and Sixpence, but if John Gardner has any talent it would be worth while giving him the rights if he wants them. I don’t know how you can find out if the rights are free. I don’t even know if Edith Ellis is still alive. I know that Warner Bros. sold the film rights, and the picture was eventually produced with success. I forget the name of the present owners, but I don’t think they would raise any objection to the story being made into an opera.’

·     When I next met Mr. Maugham soon after the opera had been produced (and so far as I know it was a success) he asked me what I thought of it, and I told him quite truthfully that though the music was written in such a way it sounded off-key, the cumulative effect was extremely impressive and when the curtain came down on the final scene, it left one strangely moved. Maugham listened with interest, but made no comment.

      A77.   Points of View (1958) [9^th non-fiction]

                      A77a.    First edition, Heinemann, 3 November 1958. “Contents and acknowledgements, p. [v]; publisher’s note, p. [vi].

·     Prior to publication Heinemann issued one of the essays, The Saint, in pamphlet form, presumably for the use of their travellers.

                      A77b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959. Author’s Note, p. [8]; acknowledgements, p. [7].

·     Mr. Maugham announced that this was the last book he would ever publish and the publisher’s note went on to say ‘and since he seems to have a way of doing what he says he is going to do, we may safely that with this volume of essays he will take his leave of the reading public and so put an end to a relationship that with “Liza of Lambeth” began just over sixty years ago.’

·     Contents: Three Novels of a Poet – The Saint – Prose and Dr. Tillotson – The Short Story – Three Journalists.

·     [Vintage Classics edition, “Acknowledgements”:]

·     [“The author wishes to thank Messrs Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd for permission to quote from Life and Works of Goethe by Professor J. G. Robertson and Mercure de France for permission to quote from Lettres à ma Mère by Paul Léutand, as well as Messrs Jonathan Cape Ltd for the quotation from Between Two Worlds by J. Middleton Murry.]

      A78.   Purely for My Pleasure (1962) [art album with short commentaries]

                      A78a.    First edition, Heinemann, 9 April 1962. “© W. S. Maugham 1962 / © S.P.A.D.E.M., Paris, 1962; plates of works by Bonnard, Laurencin, Leger, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Rouault, Utrillo, Vuillard.” Made and Printed in Great Britain. Col. front. and 37 plates. List of illus., pp. v-viii. Price: 3 pounds 3s.

                      A78b.    First American edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., December 1962. “Illustrations printed in Great Britain / Text printed in the United States of America”.

 

B.   COLLECTED EDITIONS

The Collected Works of W. Somerset Maugham

[Heinemann, 1931-69. B1 and B2]

·     The publication of the definitive edition of W. Somerset Maugham’s works commenced with the issue of the author’s selected 18 plays in six volumes in 1931[-34], and was followed at intervals by the novels, short stories and travel books. There is still one or two books to come. [Which?]

·     This was not intended to be a complete edition. As Mr. Maugham pointed out, he had chosen to put into it only those books and plays with which he was least dissatisfied. For the remarkable thing about this author is that he was not a born writer, perhaps not even a creative one in the D. H. Lawrence and Joseph Conrad sense. But like the famous short story writer that he so much admired, Guy de Maupassant, he was a very great craftsman and he acquired his skill by sheer dogged perseverance and hard work, and a determination to succeed. I cannot think of another writer who attained stardom after writing so many bad books. Mr. Maugham was fully aware of his deficiencies in this respect, and probably this accounted for his determination to include only those books which he wished to be remembered by; the others, as he stated in The Summing Up, he would have given much to suppress.

·     However, since his death a number of his early books have been added to the series, and presumably it is the intention of his publishers to include those have so far not been reprinted since their first appearance.

·     Mr. Maugham always took an active interest in the formation of the series. Each work is printed as it was written, subject to certain revisions and corrections which are referred to in the preface to each volume of the plays and to the early volumes of the non-dramatic works. These prefaces contain much new information of considerable biographical and bibliographical importance.  

·     The publishers list the volumes in the Collected Edition with a number, but since the numbering appears to vary and there are some duplications, it would seem preferable to list them chronologically. A number of the volumes, particularly the later ones, have no preface or introduction.

         B1.   Dramatic Works [virtually identical with B18]

·     Vol. I: Lady Frederick; Mrs. Dot; Jack Straw; 24 August 1931. Preface 7 pp.

·     Vol. II: Penelope; Smith; The Land of Promise; 24 August 1931. Preface 9 pp.

·     Vol. III: Our Betters; The Unattainable; Home and Beauty; 15 August 1932. Preface 7 pp.

·     Vol. IV: The Circle; The Constant Wife; The Breadwinner; 15 August 1932. Preface 7 pp.

·     Vol. V: Caesar’s Wife; East of Suez; The Sacred Flame; 19 March 1934. Preface 81/2 pp.

·     Vol. VI: The Unknown; For Services Rendered; Sheppey; 19 March 1934. Preface 9 pp.

         B2.   Non-Dramatic Works

·     Liza of Lambeth, 1934. Preface 21 pp. [A1g], expanded from The Traveller’s [sic] Library edition [A1e]. [See B21.]

·     Ashenden, 1934. Preface 6 pp. [A37d] [See A37b.]

·     The Painted Veil, 1934. Preface 5 pp. [A33e] This edition was reissued in 1949 when the author also re-wrote the last paragraph. [See B21.]

·     Cakes and Ale, 1934. Preface 6 pp. [A40f] [See A40c and B21.]

·     The Narrow Corner, 1934. Preface 5 pp. [A44c] [See B21]

·     The Moon and Sixpence, 1935. Preface 6 pp. [A22f] [See B21.]

·     On a Chinese Screen, 1935. Preface 4 pp. [A28c] [See B25.]

·     The Gentleman in the Parlour, 1935. Preface 4 pp. [A39c] [See B25.]

·     The Trembling of a Leaf, 1935. Preface 4 pp. [A25e]

·     The Casuarina Tree, 1935. New edition, 1953. [Apparently the only thing “new” in the later edition was the reduced number of pages, from 311 to 232.]

·     Ah King, 1936. Preface, 6 pp. [A46d]

·     First Person Singular, 1936. Preface, 5 pp. [A42c]

·     Mrs. Craddock, 1937. Preface, 3 pp. See A5d [and A5f].

·     Of Human Bondage, 1937. Preface, 4 pp. [Written in 1934, A21c. See A21d.]

·     Don Fernando, 1937. Preface, 3 pp. [A49e] See A49d [and B25].

·     Cosmopolitans, 1938. Preface, 7 pp. [This preface was not written for The Collected Edition. It is the original Preface from the First edition, A50a.]

·     Theatre, 1939. Preface, 7 pp. [A52c] [See B21.]

·     Christmas Holiday, 1941. [See B21.]

·     The Summing Up, 1948. [See B22.]

·     The Razor’s Edge, 1949. [See B21.]

·     Creatures of Circumstances, 1950.

·     Catalina, 1948. [Either the chronological order was interrupted here or this year is wrong.]

·     A Writer’s Notebook, 1950. [See B22]

·     The Magician, 1956. Preface, 7 pp. See 11e. [Mr Stott of course meant A11e.]

·     Then and Now, 1959.

·     Up at the Villa, ???? [Mr Stott gives no year.]

·     The Explorer, 1969.

·     The Merry-Go-Round, 1969.

         B3.   East and West (1934)

·     The Collected Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc, 8 August 1934. [See B4.]

·     Contents: Stories reprinted from The Trembling of a Leaf – The Casuarina Tree – Ashenden – First Person Singular – Ah King. [Maugham’s first five mature collections, in other words. All introductory pieces, original or written later, are omitted, but WSM wrote a new Preface, one of his most important discourses on the art of the short story.]

·     [The preface is greatly revealing. It contains, among other things such as extensive discussions on Maupassant and Chekov, the first appearance in print of the notes on which he based the stories “Rain” and “Before the Party” (15 years later they were reprinted in A70), a priceless glimpse into Maugham’s workshop. The preface has been reprinted, though often abridged, numerous times in periodicals (D101, D102) and books (B30, F180).]

         B4.   Altogether (1934)

·     Being the Collected Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, William Heinemann Ltd., 20 August 1934.

·     The English title of East and West. The book contains an important new 26 pp. preface on the art of the short story and Desmond MacCarthy’s Appreciation [G24].

·     [Except for Mr MacCarthy’s contribution, the contents are identical to the American edition, B3.]

         B5.   Tauchnitz Edition (1922–55)

·     (4585) The Trembling of a Leaf, 1922; (4690) The Painted Veil, 1925; (4841) Ashenden, or The British Agent, 1928; (4842) The Casuarina Tree, 1928; (4978) Cakes and Ale, 1931; (5026) The Moon and Sixpence, 1932; (5032) Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular, 1932; (5098) The Narrow Corner, 1933; (5138) Ah King, 1934; (5295) Don Fernando, 1936; (5295) Theatre, 1937; (5339) The Summing Up, 1938; (5253) Cosmopolitan [sic], 1940; PLAYS: (5124) Lady Frederick, Mrs. Dot, Jack Straw, 1933; (5132) Penelope, Smith, The Land of Promise, 1934; (5145) Our Betters, The Unattainable, Home and Beauty, 1934; (5152) The Circle, The Constant Wife, The Bread Winner, 1934; (5180) Caesar’s Wife, East of Suez, The Sacred Flame, 1935; (5187) The Unknown, For Services Rendered, Sheppey, 1935.

         B6.   The Collected Works (1936–38)

·     Pocket Edition, William Heinemann Ltd. Ashenden, 1936; Cakes and Ale, 1936; Liza of Lambeth, 1936; On a Chinese Screen, 1936; The Painted Veil, 1936; The Trembling of a Leaf, 1936; The Narrow Corner, 1936; The Gentleman in the Parlour, 1936; The Moon and Sixpence, 1936; First Person Singular, 1936; Ah King, 1936; Don Fernando, 1936; Cosmopolitans, 1938; Mrs. Craddock, 1938.

·     A beautiful little edition in green smooth cloth [with Maugham’s signature stamped in gold on the front cover], that has become very scarce. Only 16 titles appeared [but only 14 are listed here?], further volumes being help up owing to war conditions. The prefaces in this edition are identical to those in The Collected Edition.

         B7.   Penguin Books (1944–70)

·     Penguin Books in association with William Heinemann Ltd, Harmondsworth.

·     (468) The Moon and Sixpence, 1944 (also published by Harmondsworth, New York, with a portrait); (651) Cakes and Ale, 1948; (872) The Painted Veil, 1952; (1852) The Summing Up, 1963; (1859) The Narrow Corner, 1963; (1860) The Razor’s Edge, 1963; (1861) Of Human Bondage, 1963; (2643) Liza of Lambeth, 1967; (2644) A Writer’s Notebook, 1967; (2645) Mrs. Craddock, 1967; (2646) Christmas Holiday, 1967; (2647) Then and Now, 1967; (2668) The Magician, 1967; (2669) Theatre, 1967; (2670) Up at the Villa, 1967; (2671) Catalina, 1967; (2905) Ten Novels and Their Authors, 1969; (2906) The Explorer, 1969; (3373) The Merry-go-Round, 1972; (1871-74) Collected Short Stories, 1963, 4 vols.; (PL43) Selected Plays: Sheppey – The Sacred Flame – The Circle – The Constant Wife – Our Betters, 1963.

·     [This is the first known edition of Maugham’s Collected Short Stories in four volumes. It has through the years been reprinted and republished by many other publishers (for example, Pan, Mandarin, Folio Society, Vintage Classics). It contains the same 91 stories as the 1951 Heinemann edition in 3 vols. (B17) and the 1952 Doubleday edition in 2 vols. (B20), both titled The Complete Short Stories. The prefaces, save for a few very minor changes, are those from the Heinemann edition. The order of the stories is also slightly changed to accommodate one volume more. See this review.]

·     [To add to the confusion with different editions of the complete/collected short stories, note that a four-volume set of The Complete Short Stories was published by the Washington Square Press in 1967. Publishers are queer fish. Go figure!]

         B8.   Samuel French’s Acting Edition of Plays (1948–51)

·     (239) Sheppey, 1948; (268) The Circle, 1948; (273) The Breadwinner, 1948; (274) Lady Frederick, 1948; (307) The Letter, 1949; (316) The Constant Wife, 1949; (394) For Services Rendered, 1948; (396) The Sacred Flame, 1948; (1812) Home and Beauty, 1951.

         B9.   Heron Books (1967–69)

·     Well produced edition of the [not quite] complete works of this author. All the volumes are specially illustrated, with a frontispiece portrait of the author. The edition is a production of Edito-Service S.A. Geneva, and distributed in this country [England?] by Heron Books.

·     [Judging by The Trembling of a Leaf, the volumes in this series do contain the prefaces from The Collected Edition.]

·     Liza of Lambeth: On a Chinese Screen (1967). Original illustrations by Jeffrey Frith. 8 plates.

·     Of Human Bondage, 2 vols. (1967). Original illustrations by Charles Keeping.

·     Moon and Sixpence (1967). With a General Introduction by John Raymond. Original illustrations by Ralph Brown. 6 plates.

·     Cakes and Ale, or The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1967). Original illustrations by Peter Snow. 6 plates.

·     The Explorer: The Land of the Blessed Virgin (1968). Original illustrations by Sandra Archibald. 10 plates.

·     Cosmopolitans (1968). Original illustrations by Geoffrey Plant. 8 plates.

·     The Mixture as Before (1968). Original illustrations by Charles Keeping. 7 plates.

·     Theatre (1968). Original illustrations by Janina Ede. 7 plates.

·     Creatures of Circumstance (1968). Original illustrations by Pauline Ellison. 7 plates.

·     The Razor’s Edge (1968). Original illustrations by David Knight. 7 plates.

·     Ashenden (1968). Original illustrations by Robert Mickelwright. 7 plates.

·     The Painted Veil (1968). Original illustrations by A. C. S. Lazslo. 7 plates.

·     The Merry-go-round (1969). Original illustrations by Geoffrey Plant. 9 plates.

·     The Vagrant Mood: Ten Novels and Their Authors (1969). 5 plates. [By whom?]

·     Orientations (1969). Original illustrations by Frances Howes. 8 plates.

·     Ah King (1969). Original illustrations by Andre Nicholas Suter. 10 plates.

·     A Writer’s Notebook (1969). 7 plates. [By whom?]

·     The Narrow Corner: The Casuarina Tree (1968). Original illustrations by Graham Byfield. 10 plates.

·     First Person Singular (1968). Original illustrations by Desmond Knight. 6 plates.

·     Up at the Villa: Don Fernando (1968). Original illustrations by Jutta Ash.

·     Mrs. Craddock (1968). Original illustrations by C. A. M. Thole. 8 plates.

·     Christmas Holiday (1969). Original illustrations by Sydney Harpley. 7 plates.

·     The Magician: The Gentleman in the Parlour [????]. Original illustrations by Jane Darrington. 8 plates.

·     Catalina: Then and Now [????]. Original illustrations by Michael Charlton. 12 plates.

·     The Trembling of a Leaf [????]. Original illustrations by William Papas. 9 plates.

·     Plays, 3 vols. (1969). Vol. 1, original illustrations by John Ward, 7 plates. Vol. 2, original illustrations by Peter Whiteman, 10 plates. [Vol. 3 remains elusive. Most probably the edition is a reprint of The Collected Plays, 1952, B18]

     B10.   Six Comedies (1937)

·     Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., 1937.

·     Contains a new 6½ pp. preface by the author. The Unattainable [A31] and Home and Beauty [A30] are published here for the first time in America.

·     Contents: The Unattainable – Home and Beauty – The Circle – Our Betters – The Constant Wife – The Bread Winner.

     B11.   The Favorite Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (1937)

·     Doubleday, Doran, Garden City, New York, 1937. Reprinted in 1940 by the Book League of America.

·     Contents: Rain – The Letter – Before the Party – The Outstation – Round Dozen – The Hairless Mexican – Giulia Lazzari – Mr. Harrington’s Washing – The Human Element – The Alien Corn – The Vessel of Wrath – The Door of Opportunity – Neil McAdam.

     B12.   The Round Dozen (1939)

·     A Collection of his Stories Selected by W. Somerset Maugham. The Reprint Society, London, 1939.

·     Contents: Rain – The Outstation – The Round Dozen – The Letter – The Alien Corn – The Creative Impulse – Mr. Harrington’s Washing – The Door of Opportunity – Neil Macadam – The Vessel of Wrath – The Force of Circumstances.

     B13.   The Somerset Maugham Sampler (1943)

·     Garden City Publishing Co., 1943. Edited with an Introduction by Jerome Weidman.

·     Cakes and Ale – The Circle – Short Stories – Travel Sketches – Essays; all previously published. Reprinted under the title The Somerset Maugham Pocket Book.

     B14.   Here and There (1948)

·     William Heinemann, 20 September 1948. Simultaneously, The Reprint Society (London) issued the book as their monthly choice. Short stories.

·     All these stories appeared in Cosmopolitans [A50], The Mixture as Before [A58] and Creatures of Circumstance [A66].

·     [Contents: The Fat Women of Antibes – The Lotus Eater – Lord Mountdrago – Gigolo and Gigolette – An Official Position – The Facts of Life – Winter Cruise – Flotsam and Jetsam – Sanatorium – Episode – Appearance and Reality – The Unconquered – The Happy Man – In a Strange Land – The Luncheon – Salvatore – Home – The End of the Flight – The Ant and the Grasshopper – The Man with the Scar – Louise – A String of Beads – The Verger – The Social Sense.]

     B15.   East of Suez (1948)

·     Avon Publishing Co., 1948. Great Stories of the Tropics. Excerpts from On a Chinese Screen, and stories from The Casuarina Tree. 

     B16.   The Maugham Reader (1950)

·     Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1950. With an Introduction by Glenway Wescott [G69].

·     Contents: The Painted Veil – The Opium Addict – The Facts of Life – Rain –The Treasure – The Outstation – The French Governor – Our Betters – The Summing Up – The Constant Wife – Red – A String of Beads – The Door of Opportunity – September’s Bird – The Alien Corn – The Round Dozen – The Vessel of Wrath – Christmas Holiday – El Greco.

·     [Mr Stott carelessly neglects to mention that three of the short stories in this omnibus appear here under titles which, so far as can be presently ascertained, have never been used anywhere else before or since. The Opium Addict = Mirage; The French Governor = A Marriage of Convenience; September’s Bird = Princess September. For more information, see D34, D83 and D84.]

     B17.   The Complete Short Stories (1951)

·     William Heinemann, October-December 1951, 3 vols. Vol. 1, pp. viii+528, published on 8 October 1951. Vol. 2, pp. viii+529-1048, published on 3 December 1951. Vol. 3, pp. viii+1049-1576, published on 10 December 1951.

·     These three volumes are the definitive edition of Mr. Maugham’s short stories and include those published after the appearance of East and West [B3]. Each volume contains a new preface by the author and he has himself arranged the order in which the stories appear.

·     [The edition contains 91 stories: all 84 from the nine mature collections (A25, A34, A37, A42, A46, A50, A58, A66) and seven from the two mature travel books (A28, A39). Cf. B7 & B20. All three editions miss “The Buried Talent” (D99), Maugham’s only mature (post-WWI) short story never to have been published in book form during his lifetime.]

     B18.   The Collected Plays (1952)

·     William Heinemann, 1952, 3 vols. Vol. I, pp. xxi+310, published on 23 June 1952. Vol. II, pp. xix+296, published on 23 June 1952. Vol. III, pp. xxii+304, published on 25 June 1952. [This pagination seems totally wrong. My own experience is Vol. 1, xxiii+319+304 pp.; Vol. 2, xix+324+296 pp.; Vol. 3, xxi+271+310 pp. Apparently the pagination of the plays in the six earlier volumes was retained.]

·     The Collected Plays were originally published in 1931-34 in six volumes [B1]. In this new edition the same eighteen plays are contained in three volumes, with six plays in each. The prefaces written by Mr. Maugham for the first edition are contained in the new edition just as he originally wrote them, except that the new arrangement has necessitated slight adjustments and revisions. These volumes are of the same size and format as the collected edition of his short stories.

·     [In the end of the preface to vol. 3, Maugham also added the following footnote: “The prefaces to these volumes were written for the Collected Edition of my plays that was published in 1931[-34]. In a book I wrote later, The Summing Up, I repeated a certain amount of what I had already said in them. W.S.M.”]

     B19.   The World Over (1952)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1952. Stories of Manifold Places and People.

·     A collection of stories, all previously published, and which were not contained in East and West. The volume contains a new eight page preface [see B30] in which the author says ‘I have written my last story.’

·     Contents: The Mixture as Before – Creatures of Circumstance – Cosmopolitans – three [sic] stories from On a Chinese Screen and four [sic] from The Gentleman in the Parlour.

·     [Mr Stott got right the total of tales that came from the travel books, but he got wrong the distribution. The volume contains two stories from On a Chinese Screen, not three, and five from The Gentleman in the Parlour, not four. For more information, see A28 and A39]

     B20.   The Complete Short Stories (1952)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1952, 2 vols. (xx+955 and xv+681). Vol. I reprints East and West [B3], and Vol. 2 reprints The World Over [B19].

·     [This is the First American edition of Maugham’s Complete Short Stories. The prefaces to both volumes are reprinted, with minor omissions, in B30. Except for them, the same 91 stories as in the 1951 Heinemann (B17) and the 1963 Penguin (B7) editions.]

     B21.   The Selected Novels (1953)

·     William Heinemann, 30 November 1953, 3 vols. Each novel separately paginated. The new preface to each volume contains important material of biographical and bibliographical importance. Identical format with the Plays and Short Stories.

·     [Mr Stott should have made it clear that these prefaces are largely rehash of those written for The Collected Edition (B2) 15 to 20 years ago. The exceptions are the whole preface to vol. 3 and the part about The Narrow Corner in vol. 2. The former is the only place, to the best of my knowledge, where Maugham shares something about the origins of these three novels, and in the latter he discloses whom he used as a model for Dr Saunders, something he didn’t do in 1935. See A44d, A54c, A59c, A63d.]

·     [Contents: Vol. 1: Liza of Lambeth – Cakes and Ale – Theatre; Vol. 2: The Moon and Sixpence – The Painted Veil – The Narrow Corner; Vol. 3: Christmas Holiday – Up at the Villa – The Razor’s Edge.]

     B22.   The Partial View (1954)

·     William Heinemann, 1954. Contains the two autobiographical works, The Summing Up (A53) and A Writer’s Notebook (A70), with an extremely interesting new preface (5½pp.) presenting the author’s philosophical view-point at the end of his professional life.

·     [A substantial part of this preface was already 10 years old, having been written in 1944 as a postscript to A Writer’s Notebook (1949).]

     B23.   Mr. Maugham Himself (1954)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1954. Selected by John Beecroft. This volume (x+688) contains Of Human Bondage – four short pieces: Some Novelists I Have Known (from The Vagrant Mood), Mr. Harrington’s Washing (from Ashenden), The Book Bag (from Ah King), El Greco (from Don Fernando) – The Summing Up (from A Writer’s Notebook).

·     [The last entry from the contents is obviously nonsense. In fact, The Summing Up is reprinted complete, but with a special postscript (ca. 3 pp.) which has been found to be from the Preface to B22. Quite separately, A Writer’s Notebook is represented by some “extracts”, mostly from the last two parts of it, written in 1944 and 1949. Repetitions are skilfully avoided.]

     B24.   The Art of Fiction (1955)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1955. This is the First American edition of Ten Novels and Their Authors which in turn was a revision and enlargement of Great Novelists and Their Novels first published in Philadelphia by John C. Winston in 1948. [As already mentioned, this entry really should have been A69c.]

     B25.   The Travel Books (1955)

·     William Heinemann, 28 November 1955. Contains On a Chinese Screen, [The] Gentleman in the Parlour and Don Fernando with a new, long introduction (8½ pp.) Identical format with the Short Stories [B17], Plays [B18] and Novels [B21].

·     [Mr Stott again forgets to mention that this preface is mostly taken word for word from those written for The Collected Edition some two decades earlier. The part about Don Fernando presents a more difficult case: it is either unique in Maugham’s oeuvre, or was also taken from the same source; I have never seen the 1937 edition of the book (A49e) and I cannot say for sure. What I do know is that it has nothing to do with the “Author’s Note” written for the 1950 New and Revised Edition (A49d).]

     B26.   The Best Short Stories of Somerset Maugham (1957)

·     The Modern Library, New York, 1957. Selected, and with an Introduction, by John Beecroft. The Modern Library of the World’s Best Books, No. 14.

·     Contents: Alien Corn – The Book-Bag – Door of Opportunity – The Colonel’s Lady – Facts of Life – The Hairless Mexican – The Letter – Lord Mountdrago – Mr. Harrington’s Washing – Mr. Know-All – ‘P. & O.’ – Rain – Red – Round Dozen – The Treasure – The Verger – Vessel of Wrath – Voice of the Turtle.

     B27.   The Kite and Other Stories (1963)

·     William Heinemann, 1963. Introduced by Ian Serraillier. The New Windmill Series.

·     Contents: Home – A Man from Glasgow – The Man with a Scar – The Traitor – The Verger – A Friend in Need – The Kite – Salvatore – Mabel – A Marriage of Convenience.

     B28.   Husbands and Wives (1963)

·     Pyramid Publications, New York, 1963. Nine Stories. Selected, and with an Introduction by Richard A. Cordell.

·     Contents: Introduction – Mr. Know-All – The Kite – The Book-Bag – Jane – The Creative Impulse – The Colonel’s Lady – The Social Sense – The Happy Couple – A Woman of Fifty.

     B29.   The Sinners (1964)

·     Pyramid Books, New York, 1964. Six Stories. Selected, and with an Introduction by Richard A. Cordell.

·     Contents: Introduction: Murder Without Regret – Before the Party – A Man with a Conscience – A Point of Law – The Letter – The Hairless Mexican – Giulia Lazzari.

·     [First appearance of “A Point of Law” in book form. See B36 and C64.]

     B30.   Selected Prefaces and Introductions of W. Somerset Maugham (1963)

·     Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1963.

     B31.   Selected Prefaces and Introductions of W. Somerset Maugham (1964) [sic]

·     William Heinemann, [1963]. An indifferent selection from the many absorbing introductions and prefaces written by W. Somerset Maugham to his and other writer’s work over the last forty years. [If Mr Stott had looked at the contents, he might have noticed that the selection is not exactly “indifferent”.]

·     [Contents: “The Art of Fiction” from Ten Novels and Their Authors (1954, A69b) – Preface to A Writer’s Notebook (1949, A70) – Foreword (1936) to Of Human Bondage (A21d) – Excerpt from the Preface to vol. III of The Collected Plays (1934, B1) – Prefaces to East and West (1934) and The World Over (1952) (B20) – Introductions to Traveller’s Library (1933, C15), Tellers of Tales (1939, C26) and A Choice of Kipling’s Prose (1952, C51).]

·     [According to Rothschild, VI, 24, the correct year is 1963.]

     B32.   A Maugham Twelve (1966)

·     William Heinemann, 1966. Stories selected and with an Introduction by Angus Wilson. Contents: The Three Fat Women of Antibes – Mackintosh – The Lotus Eater – The Yellow Streak – Before the Party – Rain – Mr. Harrington’s Washing – The Force of Circumstance – Footprints in the Jungle – A Man with a Conscience – ‘P. & O.’ – Virtue.

     B33.   Cakes and Ale: And Twelve Short Stories (1967)

·     William Heinemann, 1967. Selected and with an Introduction by Angus Wilson. Contents the same as above, except for the addition for the novel Cakes and Ale.

     B34.   Essays on Literature (1967)

·     The New English Library Limited, 1967. N.E.L. Signet Modern Classics, 5027. Contents: The Three Novels of a Poet – After Reading Burke – The Short Story – Some Novelists I Have Known – The Detective [sic] and Fall of the Detective Story – from: Ten Novels and Their Authors. [All essays previously collected. Mr Stott either got wrong the-last-but-one title, or it was an odd alternative to the original “The Decline and Fall of the Detective Story”.]

     B35.   Maugham Malaysian Stories (1969)

·     Heinemann’s Educational Books (Asia), Singapore, 1967. Selected and with an Introduction by Anthony Burgess.

·     [Contents: A Casual Affair – P. & O. – The Door of Opportunity – The Force of Circumstance – The Four Dutchmen – The Vessel of Wrath.]

[B35a. 3 Comedies (1969)]

·     [Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York [1969]. Contents: The Circle, Our Betters, The Constant Wife.]

     B36.   Seventeen Lost Stories (1969)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1969. Compiled, and with an Introduction by Craig V. Showalter. According to a news item in The Times 19 April 1969 ‘Dr. Showalter spent about two years tracking down the early stories.’ If he had consulted this bibliography, originally published in 1956, he would have found all the so-called ‘lost’ seventeen stories without stirring from his chair. As for Mr. Ken McCormick’s remark, also quoted in The Times, that the discovery of the stories was ‘like hearing early Beethoven – you could see the writer emerging,’ Mr. Maugham told me he thought them all trivial and not worth republishing – hence why – with the exception of The Mother (C61) – they were never republished in his lifetime.

·     [A second exception has turned up since. “Told in the Inn at Algeciras”, a magazine story from 1905 (D8a), was later revised as “A Man from Glasgow” and included in Maugham’s last short story collection (A66), although in this case the revision is admittedly more extensive than that of “The Mother”.

·     [12 of the 17 stories previously published only in magazines between 1898 and 1908. The rest five come from Maugham’s first collection, Orientations (A3); only the first piece of this book also appeared in a magazine.]

·     Contents: [The] Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian [D1] – A Bad Example – De Amicitia – Faith – The Choice of Amyntas – Daisy – Cupid and Vicar of Swale [D2] – Lady Habart [D3] – Pro Patria [D5] – A Point of Law [D7] – An Irish Gentleman [D8] – Flirtation [D10] – The Fortunate Painter [D11] – A Marriage of Convenience [D12] – Good Manners [D14] – Cousin Amy [D15] – The Happy Couple [D16].

     B37.   A Baker’s Dozen (1970)

·     Heinemann, 1969. Thirteen Short Stories. Contents: ‘P. & O.’ – The Back of Beyond – A Casual Affair – The Letter – Before the Party – Louise – The Creative Impulse – A Woman of Fifty – The Three Fat Women of Antibes – Episode – The Fall of Edward Barnard – Lord Mountdrago – A Man with a Conscience.

     B38.   A Second Baker’s Dozen (1970)

·     Heinemann, 1970. Thirteen Short Stories. Contents: Footprints in the Jungle – The Book Bag – The Force of Circumstance – Jane – The Closed Shop – Rain – The Alien Corn – Flotsam-Jetsam [sic] – The Unconquered – Virtue – The Vessel of Wrath – The Human Element.

·     The above two books were published during the run of the television dramatisations of his short stories by the B.B.C.

     B39.   [Four Short Stories (1970)]

·     [Hallmark Editions, Kansas City, 1970. Dust jacket. Illustrated by Henry Matisse. Contents: The Verger – Mr. Know-All – The Ant and the Grasshopper – The Colonel’s Lady.]

     B40.   [Selected Plays (1976)]

·     [Pan Book, 1976. Contents: The Constant Wife – Our Betters – The Sacred Flame – The Circle – Sheppey.]

     B41.   [65 Short Stories (1976)]

·     [Heinemann/Octopus, 1976. Reprinted, 1988. Dust jacket.]

·     [Contents: Rain – The Fall of Edward Barnard – Honolulu – The Ant and the Grasshopper – The Pool – Mackintosh – The Three Fat Women of Antibes – The Facts of Life – Gigolo and Gigolette – The Voice of the Turtle – The Unconquered – The Escape – Mr Know-All – The Romantic Young Lady – A Man From Glasgow – Before the Party – The Vessel of Wrath – Louise – The Promise – The Yellow Streak – The Force of Circumstance – Flotsam and Jetsam – The Alien Corn – The Creative Impulse – Virtue – The Closed Shop – The Dream – The Colonel’s Lady – Miss King – The Hairless Mexican – The Traitor – His Excellency – Mr Harrington’s Washing – Lord Mountdrago – Sanatorium – The Social Sense – The Verger – The Taipan – The Consul – A Friend in Need – The Round Dozen – The Human Element – Jane – Footprints in the Jungle – The Door of Opportunity – The Book-Bag – French Joe – The Four Dutchmen – The Back of Beyond – P. & O. – Episode – The Kite – A Woman of Fifty – The Lotus Eater – The Wash-Tub – A Man with a Conscience – Winter Cruise – A Marriage of Convenience – Mirage – The Letter – The Portrait of a Gentleman – Raw Material – Straight Flush – A Casual Affair – Neil MacAdam.]

     B42.   [Six Novels (1979)]

·     [Heinemann, 1979. Contents: Cakes and Ale – The Painted Veil – Liza of Lambeth – The Razor’s Edge – Theatre – The Moon and Sixpence.]

     B43.   [A Traveller in Romance (1984)]

·     [Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., New York; Anthony Blond, London; 1984. Uncollected Writings, 1901-1964. Edited, with an Introduction by John Whitehead. Book of paramount importance. Collects 65 pieces spanning 63 years that have never before appeared in any of Maugham’s books – reviews, curtain-raisers, essays, articles, miscellaneous introductions, even four short stories – though all of them were published in periodicals, pamphlet form or books of others. An invaluable resource for the serious student of Maugham.]

·     [The omission of Looking Back (D186) is conspicuous, though. The only reason I can conceive is that Mr Whitehead was afraid of offending Lady Glendevon, Maugham’s daughter, who was still alive at the time of publication. His prediction that the memoirs would one day be published complete in book form has not been fulfilled in the last 30 years. Furthermore, the editor is not quite sure of his own criteria. If he includes A65, why does he omit A72? One possible reason is that Mr Whitehead reprints A65 from F87, apparently and amazingly unaware that the address was published as a pamphlet in 1946, but the latter anomaly is baffling.]

·     [Contents:]

·     [Curtain-Raisers

·     Marriages are made in Heaven, 1903 (D4)

·     A Rehearsal, 1905 (D9)]

·     [On Players and Playing

·     Introduction to The Truth at Last by Charles Hawtrey, 1924 (C4)

·     Preface to Our Puppet Show by Francis de Croisset, 1929 (C9)

·     Introduction to Bitter-Sweet and Other Plays by Noel Coward, 1929 (C10)

·     Foreword to Gallery Unreserved by A. Galleryite [F. T. Bason], 1931 (C11)

·     Tribute to Marie Tempest, Souvenir Programme, 1935 (C18)

·     Introduction to Without veils by Sewell Stokes, 1953 (C55)]

·     [On Painters and Painting

·     Gerald Kelly: A Student of Character, 1914 (D20)

·     Preface to An Exhibition of Paintings by Sir Gerald Kelly, 1950 (C48)

·     Preface to catalogue of Flower Paintings by Marie Laurencin, 1934 (C17)

·     Paintings I Have Liked, 1941 (D136)

·     Preface to Peter Arno's Cartoon Review, 1942 (C28)

·     The Lady from Poonah, 1951 (D177, condensed ver., News Chronicle)

·     Introduction to The Artist and the Theatre by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitcheson, 1955 (C57)

·     On Having My Portait Painted, 1959 (D183)

·     Preface to the Sotheby's Auction Catalogue, 1962 (C63).]

·     [On Writers and Writing

·     On Writing for the Films, 1921 (D24)

·     Novelist or Bond Salesman, 1925 (D54)

·     Preface to Two Made Their Bed by Louis Marlow, 1929 (C7)

·     Preface to The House with Green Shutters by George Douglas, 1938 (C23)

·     Introduction to Modern English and American Literature, 1943 (C30)

·     Write About What You Know, 1943 (D148)

·     Introduction to Dorothy Parker, Viking Portable Library, 1944 (C34).

·     A Plan to Encourage Young Writers, 1950 (G84)

·     On Story-Telling, 1950 (C50a, not in Stott; see F76.)

·     Preface to Letters from Madame de la Marquise de Sevigne, ed. Violet Hammersley, 1955 (C58)]

·     [Book Reviews

·     The Ionian Sea by George Gissing, 1901 (D3a, not in Stott)

·     Twenty-Five by Beverly Nichols, 1926 (D63a, not in Stott)

·     Books of the Year, 25 December 1955 (D182a, not in Stott)

·     [On His Own Work

·     How Novelists Draw Their Characters, 1922 (D31a, not in Stott)

·     Preface to A Bibliography of the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham by F. T. Bason, 1931 (C12)

·     Of Human Bondage: With Digression on the Art of Fiction, 1946 (A65)

·     Behind the Story, 1946 (D156)

·     Preface to A Comprehensive Exhibition of Writings of W. Somerset Maugham, 1958 (C60)]

·     [Short Stories

·     The Spanish Priest, 1906 (D11a, not in Stott)

·     The Making of Millionaire, 1906 (D13)

·     A Traveller in Romance, 1909 (D17)

·     The Buried Talent, 1934 (D99) [First publication in book form!]

·     [War Articles in America

·     Foreword to the Allied Relief Ball Souvenir Program, 1940 (C27)

·     Reading Under Bombing, 1940 (D124)

·     The Culture That is to Come, 1941 (D134)

·     The Noblest Act, 1942 (D137a)

·     Why D'You Dislike Us?, 1942 (D138)

·     To Know about England and the English, 1942 (D139)

·     Morale Made in American, 1942 (D140)

·     Virtue, 1943 (D142)

·     Reading and Writing and You, 1943 (D145)

·     We Have a Common Heritage, 1943 (D146)

·     What Reading Can Do For You, 1945 (D151)

·     ''Above all, love...'', 1952, (D179a, not in Stott)]

·     [On People and Places

·     My South Sea Island, 1922 (D27)

·     Preface to What a Life! by Doris Arthur-Jones, 1932 (C13)

·     The Terrorist: Boris Savinkov, 1943 (D147)

·     Spanish Journey, 1948 (D171)

·     From Nelson Doubleday 1889-1949, 1950 (C47)

·     Proof-Reading as an Avocation, 1939 (D117)

·     From Sketches for a composite literary portrait of Sir Edward Marsh, 1953, (C54).

·     Foreword to Memoirs of Aga Khan, 1954 (C56)]

·     [On Himself

·     On the Approach of Middle Age, 1923 (D38a, indirectly in Stott, see D185 & C62)

·     From Portraits and Self-Portraits by G. Schreiber, 1936 (C19)

·     Sixty-Five, 1939 (C25)

·     On Playing Bridge: Introduction to Standard Book of Bidding by C. H. Goren (C35) and “How I Like to Play Bridge” (D149), 1944.

·     Looking Back on Eighty Years, 1954 (D180)

·     On His Ninetieth Birthday, 1964 (D186).]

·     [In spite of his diligence, Mr Whitehead includes only seven pieces (C50a, D3a, D11a, D34a, D65a, D179a, D182a) not really listed by Mr Stott – and he omits another nine (D69, D125–7, D150, D154, D159, D178, D179), Maugham’s memoirs not included, which the bibliographer does list; maybe they contain mostly material available elsewhere, but the editor doesn’t make that clear. In addition, there is a host of uncollected pieces scattered through books and magazines (C27a–b, C35d–e, D110a, D116b, D176a, D177b, D182b) that escaped both Mr Whitehead and Mr Stott. One is left wishing for a Revised and Expanded edition of A Traveller in Romance, but this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.]

     B44.   [Short Stories (1990)]

·     [Reinhardt/The Nonesuch Press, 1990. Selected and with an Introduction by Anthony Curtis. Shrewd selection and absorbing introductory essay make this one of the finest one-volume introductions to Maugham’s short stories.]

·     [NB. The book has been reprinted at least twice by Vintage, in 1998 and 2010, but neither of these reprints contains the introduction by Mr Curtis. The omission is regrettable and remains to be explained. At the least the selection is intact.]

·     [Contents:]

·     [From The Trembling of a Leaf (1921) [A25]: The Pacific – Mackintosh – The Fall of Edward Barnard – Rain – Envoi]

·     [From The Casuarina Tree (1926) [A34]: The Casuarina Tree – Before the Party – P & O – The Letter]

·     [From Ashenden (1928) [A37]: Mr Harrington's Washing]

·     [From Creatures of Circumstance (1947) [A66]: Sanatorium]

·     [From The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930) [A39]: The Princess and the Nightingale]

·     [From Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular (1931) [A42]: The Round Dozen – Jane – The Alien Corn]

·     [From Ah King (1933) [A46]: The Door of Opportunity – The Vessel of Wrath – The Book-Bag]

·     [From Cosmopolitans (1936) [A50]: Salvatore – The Judgement Seat]

·     [From The Mixture as Before (1940) [A58]: Gigolo and Gigolette]

·     [From Creatures of Circumstance (1947) [A66]: The Colonel's Lady – The Kite]

·     [From Orientations (1899) [A3]: Daisy.]

     B45.   [Selected Plays (1991)]

·     [Mandarin, 1990. Reprinted, Methuen, 1997, as Plays: One, with a new introduction by Anthony Curtis. Contents: Sheppey – The Sacred Flame – The Circle – The Constant Wife – Our Betters.]

     B46.   [Far Eastern Tales (1993)]

·     [Mandarin, 1993. Reprinted, Vintage Classics, 2001. Selected by John Whitehead. Contents: Footprints in the Jungle – Mabel – P. & O. – The Door of Opportunity – The Buried Talent – Before the Party – Mr. Know-All – Neil MacAdam – The End of the Flight – The Force of Circumstance.]

·     [This is only the second appearance of “The Buried Talent” in book form, after B43.]

     B47.   [For Services Rendered and Other Plays (1997)]

·     [Mandarin, 1996. Reprinted, Methuen, 1996, as Plays: Two, with a new introduction by Anthony Curtis. Contents: For Services Rendered – The Letters [two endings] – Home and Beauty – Lady Frederick.]

     B48.   [More Far Eastern Tales (1998)]

·     [Mandarin, 1998. Vintage Classics, 2001. Selected by John Whitehead. Contents: The Outstation – The Letter – The Vessel of Wrath – The Yellow Streak – Flotsam and Jetsam – The Book-Bag – The Four Dutchmen – Masterson – Raw Material – The Back of Beyond.]

     B49.   [The Great Exotic Novels and Short Stories by Somerset Maugham (2001)]

·     [Carroll and Graf, 2001. An interesting omnibus that contains three novels (The Moon and Sixpence, The Painted Veil and, most amazingly, The Magician) as well as four short stories (“The Letter”, “The Pool”, “Rain” and “Mackintosh”).]

     B50.   [The Skeptical Romancer (2009)]

·     [Everyman’s Library, 2009. Vintage, 2012. Selected and with an Introduction by Pico Iyer. Handsomely bound and indifferently introduced mish-mash from Maugham’s travel (A8, A39, A49) and autobiographical (B22) books. B25 is a great deal better introduction to Maugham’s travel writing.]

 

C.   BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS EDITED, OR WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

         C1.   Queen Alexandra Sanatorium, Davos (1909)

·     Souvenir and Programme of Matinee. Edited by Arthur Croxton. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Tuesday, 11 May 1909. The First appearance in print of a scene from the Third Act of Lady Frederick [A12] by W. S. Maugham.

 [C1a. Georgian Stories of 1922 (1923)]

·     [Putnam’s, 1923. Reprints “Rain” from A25. Photo portrait of Maugham by E. O. Hoppe (Moore).]

         C2.   The Best Short Stories of 1924 (1925)

·     Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, (1925). 1. English. Edited by Edward J. O’Brien and John Cournos. Reprints In a Strange Land from Cosmopolitan. First appearance in book form. [See D42 & A50.]

·     [Rothschild (VII, 2) lists the First American edition, Small, Maynard & Company, Inc., [1924]. So does Moore, but his title is The Best British Short Stories of 1924.]

         C3.   The Queen’s Doll’s [sic] House Library (1924)

·     Methuen & Co., London (1924). Edited by E. V. Lucas.

·     An invitation was sent to many men of letters to contribute to the shelves of the Library and the request was accompanied by ‘a little blank book in which the author was to write, as small as he could, in his own hand.’ Most of these that contained new matter were printed in full in the above volume and among them was Somerset Maugham’s The Princess and the Nightingale [D34], pp. 242-49. A facsimile of one page of the MS. appears on p. 272. The Book of the Queen’s Doll’s House [sic] was published in a limited edition in two volumes. This is the second volume under the above title. There was also an ordinary trade edition, much abridged, in one volume.    

·     [Rothschild, VII, 3: “Stott describes Volume II only, and incorrectly…” The correct title is The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House, 2 vols. Vol. I, The Queen’s Dolls’ House, eds. A. C. Benson and Lawrence Weaver. Vol. II, The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House Library, ed. E. V. Lucas. Limited edition in dust jackets. The miniature manuscript measures 1½ X 1 inches.]

         C4.   The Truth at Last (1924)

·     Thornton Butterworth, London, 1924. By Sir Charles Hawtrey. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. With an introduction (4 pp.) by WSM [B43].

         C5.   World Best Short Stories of 1925 (1925)

·     George H. Doran Company, New York, 1925. Reprints The Letter [D46]. First appearance in book form.

·     [Another reprint of “The Letter” in book form. The Pocket Treasury, Pocket Books, New York, [1947]. Eds. Louis Untermeyer, Philip Van Doren Stern, Eric Swenson, Caryl Brooks. Other contributions by Dorothy Parker, Ring Lardner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Rothschild, VII, 14. It is not clear where it was reprinted from: the first magazine publication, the first appearance in book form, or The Casuarina Tree.]

         C6.   Georgian Stories of 1926 (1926)

·     G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; Chapman & Hall, London; 1926. Reprints Honest Woman [D62]. First appearance in book form. [The second one was 10 years later (A50)]

[C6a. My Favourite Story (1928)]

·     [International Magazine Co., 1928. Contains “Red” and a short introduction by the author why he chose this particular story. Photograph portrait by Sherril Schell (Moore).]

[C6b. The Black Cap: New Stories of Murder and Mystery (1928)]

·     [Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928. Ed. Cynthia Asquith. First appearance in book form of “Footprints in the Jungle” (D67). Rothschild, VIII, 5, does list the book but omits to mention the important detail about the first appearance in book form.]

         C7.   Two Made Their Bed (1929)

·     William Heinemann, 1929. By Louis Marlow. With a preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

         C8.   Shudders (1929)

·     Scribner’s, New York; Hutchinson, London; 1929. A Collection of Nightmare Tales. By Lady Cynthia Asquith (Ed.). Reprints End of the Flight [D62a]. First appearance in book form. [The second one was seven years later (A50).]

         C9.   Our Puppet Show (1929)

·     William Heinemann, 1929. By Frances Croisset. With a Preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C10.   Bitter Sweet and Other Plays (1929)

·     Doubleday, Doran and Co. Inc., New York, 1929. By Noel Coward. With a Comment on the Young Dramatists by W. Somerset Maugham [B43]. The Maugham preface appeared only in the American edition.

     C11.   Gallery Unreserved (1931)

·     Heritage, London, 1931. A Collection of Experiences, Opinions and Stories connected with the Gallery and Galleryites. By A Galleryrite. With a Foreword by W. Somerset Maugham [B43], and special Contributions by many famous Actors and Authors. The author of this book was Fred Bason. It contains a description of a visit by Somerset Maugham to the old South London Theatre in company with Bason, in search of material for a new novel about Cockney London, later abandoned.

     C12.   A Bibliography of the Writings of William Somerset Maugham (1931)

·     The Unicorn Press, London, 1931. Compiled by Frederick T. Bason. Limited to 950 copies, numbered, and 50 copies, numbered and signed by W. Somerset Maugham, with a preface by him [B43].

     C13.   What a Life! (1932)

·     Jarrolds, London, 1932. By Doris Arthur-Jones. With a Preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C14.   Favorite Stories by Famous Authors (1932)

·     International Magazine Company, New York, 1932. With an Introduction by Harry Payne Burton, Editor of Cosmopolitan. Reprints The Right Thing is the Kind Thing from Cosmopolitan [D93]. First publication in book form. Appeared later in Ah King as The Back of Beyond [A46]. The author made a number of small revisions in the text before that.

     C15.   The Travellers’ Library (1933)

·     Doubleday, Doran, Garden City, New York, 1933. Compiled and with Notes by W. Somerset Maugham. An anthology edited by W. Somerset Maugham, with an 11-page general introduction, and short commentaries to each section. These appear on pp. 143-45, 409-12, 547-49, 575-81, 1135-36, 1317-20, 1513-14. Reprinted as Fifty Modern English Writers. No English edition. [The General Introduction is reprinted, albeit with minor omissions, in B30.]

     C16.   Fifty Modern English Writers (1933)

·     Doubleday, Doran, Garden City, New York, 1933. Presented by W. Somerset Maugham. Contents identical with above. In Mr. Grenville Cook’s copy of The Traveller’s Library there is an inscription by Mr. Maugham to Desmond MacCarthy. ‘Here at last is the omnibus book but with a stupid title not of my invention and contents pages all anyhow.’

     C17.   Flower Paintings (1934)

·     The Mayor Gallery, London, 1934. Catalogue of an exhibition of Marie Laurencin’s work, with a preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C18.   Theatre Royal Drury Lane (1935)

·     Souvenir Programme of the Matinee organised by the Daily Telegraph as a tribute to Miss Marie Tempest on the occasion of her Jubilee. Tuesday, 28 May 1935. In the Presence of Her Majesty the Queen. Contains ‘First Rehearsal’ by Somerset Maugham [B43]. Other contributions by Sir James Barrie, Sir Edward German and Noel Coward. Coloured plates. A charming tribute.

     C19.   Portraits and Self-Portraits (1936)

·     Houghton, Mifflin, New York, 1936. By G. Schreiber (Ed.). Self-Portrait by W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 95-97 [B43].

     C20.   How Writers Write (1937)

·     Crowell, Toronto, Oxford, 1937. Essays by Contemporary Authors. Edited by N. S. Tillet. How I write Short Stories by W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 69-82. [Excerpt from the Preface to East and West [B3]. See D101 & C46.]

     C21.   The Harvest (1937)

·     Bernard Tauchnitz, Leipzig, MCMXXXVII. Being the Record of One Hundred Years of Publishing, 1837-1937. Offered in Gratitude to the Friends of the Firm by Bernard Tauchnitz. Contains a letter from W. Somerset Maugham.

     C22.   Wisdom of Life (1938)

·     Watts, London, 1938. An Anthology of Noble Thoughts. By J. F. Green (Ed.). New edition, with additions by W. Somerset Maugham and Others.

     C23.   The House with the Green Shutters (1938)

·     Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1938. By George Douglas (Brown). With a Preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43]. World Classics No. 46.

     C24.   A Number of People (1939)

·     Harper Bros., New York, 1939. By Sir Edward Marsh. With a Preface by W. Somerset Maugham. The Preface does not appear in the English edition. [Very likely this is the same piece as D117.]

     C25.   W. Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation (1939)

·     Doubleday, Doran, New York, 1939. By Richard Aldington. Sixty-Five by W. Somerset Maugham [B43]. A Bibliography, an Index of Short Stories and Appreciations.

     C26.   Tellers of Tales (1939)

·     Doubleday, Doran, New York, 1939. 100 Short Stories from the United States, England, France, Russia and Germany. Selected and with an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham. Contains an original 27-page introduction on the short story by the author. There is no English edition of his anthology, although one was advertised to appear shortly before the war broke out. Reprinted under the title The Greatest Stories of all Times: Tellers of Tales.

·     [See D115a. The Introduction is reprinted, albeit with minor omissions, in B30.]

     C27.   In the Bus (1940)

·     The Allied Relief Ball Souvenir Program, Hotel Astor, 1940. With a foreword by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

[C27a. I Believe in Union (1941)]

·     [Federal Union Inc., New York, [1941]. Pamphlet with speeches given at the Mecca Temple, New York City, on November 26, 1940, on the topic of an international of fifteen democracies. Speeches by Maugham, Henri Bernstein, Raymond Massey, Vernon Nash, Robert E. Sherwood, Ralph W. Stockman and Edmund L. Taylor. Rothschild, VII, 1. Uncollected.]

[C27b. Bundles for Britain, WWII exhibition catalogue, 1941. One page appeal by Maugham for charitable contributions to British hospitals damaged in the war, illustrated by James Montgomery Flagg (Moore). Uncollected.]

     C28.   Peter Arno’s Cartoon Revue (1942)

·     Robert Hale, London, 1942. By Peter Arno. With a foreword by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C29.   Modern English Readings (1942)

·     Farrar, New York, 1942. By R. S. Loomis and D. L. Clark (Eds.). Writing Prose by W. Somerset Maugham. [Extract from The Summing Up.]

     C30.   Great Modern Reading (1943)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1943. W. Somerset Maugham’s Introduction to Modern English and American Literature. The book has a 9-page introduction by W. Somerset Maugham and a short commentary by him to each section. Reprinted the same year from the publisher’s house in New York, and also in Philadelphia, in The New Home Library under the title Introductions [sic] to Modern English and American Literature.

     C31.   Introduction to Modern English and Modern [sic] Literature (1943)

·     Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, New York, 1943. A New Home Library Book. Contents identical with C30.

·     [Stupendous typo on word level. The second “Modern” is, of course, “American”.]

     C32.   The Greatest Stories of All Time (1943)

·     Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, New York, 1943. Contents identical with C26.

·     [Yet another two superfluous entries!]

     C33.   The English Spirit (1944)

·     George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London; Norton, New York; 1942. Edited and with an Introduction by Anthony Weymouth. The twenty talks in this book were broadcast in the Empire Service of the B.B.C. Twenty Days in a Ship by W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 40-45.

·     [Contents: Philip Guedalla, Mr. Churchill – J. B. Priestley, This Land of Ours – Sir Hugh Walpole, Love of the Arts and of England – H. E. Bates, The English Countryside – W. Somerset Maugham, Twenty Days in a Ship – The Rt. Hon. Isaac Foot, Drake's Drum – H. N. Brailsford, The Rebel in English Literature – Bernard Darwin, One Man's Life – E. V. Knox, Punch – Sir Philip Gibbs, War Correspondents Past and Present – Clemence Dane, Our Bible – Hector Bolitho, Slang – Lord Elton, British Education and British Character – Martin Armstrong, The Village Pub – William Holt, Selling a Book – Group-Captain M. G. Christie, Night Flying – Nesbitt Sellers, Environment – Sir Adrian Boult, A Village Choral Festival – L. A. G. Strong, ''The Call'' – Cicely Hamilton, The Detective in Fiction.]

·     [Maugham’s contribution describes his flight from France on a crowded ship in the beginning of WWII, but it is not a straightforward reprint of material from Strictly Personal (A60). It opens like this:]

·     [“On my return from France a fortnight ago today, I gave a short talk on my journey home in a collier with five hundred refugees. Since then, among many other letters I have received a number from persons who said that they had no sympathy with us, and if we had suffered danger, discomfort and hardship during our escape, we thoroughly deserved it, for we had gone to the Riviera to lead idle, pleasure-loving lives, while our country was fighting for its existence. Well, sympathy is a commodity that does not cost much, but the persons who are short of it are very wise to hoard it till they have occasion to expend it on themselves.”]

     C34.   Dorothy Parker (1944)

·     Viking, New York, 1944. Viking Post Library. With an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

[C34a. The Pocket Reader (1944)]

·     [Pocket Books Inc., New York. 1944. Ed. Philip Van Doren Stern. Pocket Book no. 8. Contains “A Friend in Need” (D56). Also includes The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and stories by James Steinbeck, James Thurber, P. G. Wodehouse and others. Rothschild, VII, 10.]

     C35.   The Standard Book of Bidding (1944)

·     Doubleday, Doran, New York; Walter Edwards, London; 1944. By C. H. Goren. With an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].  

[C35a. Great Short Stories for Young Reading Pleasure (1945)]

·     Royce Publishers, Chicago, 1945. Quick Readers no. 106. Illustrated. Contains “The Book Bag” (A43). Other stories by Fannie Hurst and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Rothschild, VII, 12.]

·     [Another reprint of “The Book Bag” in book form. Great English Short Stories, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1957. Ed. Christopher Isherwood. Introduction to the story by the editor (see F175). Other stories by D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Katherine Mansfield and others.]

[C35b. The Avon Annual 1945 (1945)]

·     [Avon Book Company, New York, 1945. 18 Great Short Stories. Contains “Lord Mountdrago” (D113). Other stories by Hemingway, Hammett, Faulkner, Bromfield, Benchley and others.]

[C35c. The Avon Annual 1946 (1946)]

·     [Avon Book Company, New York, 1946. 15 Great Stories of Today. Contains “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” (D98). Other stories by William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway and William Sawyer. Rothschild VII, 13.]

[C35d. The Magician (1946)]

·     [Viking Press, 1946. By Bruno Frank. With an Introduction by Maugham. Moore. Uncollected.]

[C35e. Paul Gauguin (1946)]

·     [Wildenstein & Co., April 1946. By Raymond Cogniat. Art catalogue. Introduction by Maugham (Moore). Uncollected.]

[C35f. Seven Masterpiece Stories (1948)]

·     [Fleet Publications, London, [1948]. With an introduction by Harold Herd. Contains “The Door of Opportunity” (D95). Other stories by Ambrose Bierce, Guy de Maupassant, V. S. Pritchett and Arnold Bennett. Rothschild, VII, 15.]

     C36.   The History of Tom Jones (1948)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1948. Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones. A Foundling. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. Illustrated by Harry Diamond.

     C37.   David Copperfield (1948)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1948. Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. Illustrated by Everett Shinn.

     C38.   Madame Bovary (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham, in a new translation by Joan Charles. Illustrated by Ben Stahl.

     C39.   Old Man Goriot (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Honoré de Balzac’s Old Man Goriot. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham, in a new translation by Joan Charles. Illustrated by Rafaello Busoni.

     C40.   Wuthering Heights (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. Illustrated by Michael Silver.

     C41.   The Brothers Karamazov (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brother Karamazov. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham in a new translation by Princess Alexandra Kropotkin. Illustrated by Franklin Whitman.  

     C42.   The Red and the Black (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham in a new translation by Joan Charles. Illustrated by Frede Vidar.

     C43.   Pride and Prejudice (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline.

     C44.   Moby Dick (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. Moby Dick or The Whale. Written by Herman Melville. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham. Illustrated by Anton Otto Fischer.

     C45.   War and Peace (1949)

·     John C. Winston & Co., Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Edited by W. Somerset Maugham in a translation revised by Princess Alexandra Kropotkin. Illustrated by Franklin Whitman.

·     [The above ten entries – C36–C45 – are the “Ten Best Novels” abridged and with introducitons by Maugham. See also D161–D169.]

     C46.   Writing for Love or Money (1949)

·     Longmans, Green, New York, 1949. By Norman Cousins (Ed.). 15. How I Write Short Stories, pp. 99-108. Reprinted from Saturday Review of Literature.

·     [Excerpt from the Preface to East and West [B3]. See D101 & C20.]

     C47.   Nelson Doubleday, 1889 – 1949 (1950)

·     Privately printed, New York, 1950. With a contribution by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C48.   An Exhibition of Paintings by Gerald Kelly, P.R.A. (1950)

·     The Leicester Galleries, London, 1950. With a preface by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C49.   Essays by Divers Hands (1950)

·     Oxford University Press, London, MCML. Being the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom. New Series. Vol. 25. With a foreword by Sir Edward Marsh. The Short Story by W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 120-134. Read before the Society, 12 November 1947. [See D102.]

     C50.   The Little Fellow (1951)

·     Paul Elek, London, 1951. The Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin. By Peter Cotes and Thelma Niklaus. Foreword by Somerset Maugham, taken from some passages on Charlie Chaplin in A Writer’s Notebook.

[C50a. On Story-Telling (1951)]

·     [Proceedings of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, second series, number 1, 1951. Maugham’s address from on 17 October 1951, given at the dinner of The National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, on his election as a Honorary Associate of the Institute (B43). See also F76.]

     C51.   A Choice of Kipling’s Prose (1952)

·     Macmillan, London, 1952. Selected and with an Introductory Essay by W. Somerset Maugham. [Contents obviously identical to C52. The Introduction is reprinted, albeit with minor omissions, in B30.]

     C52.   Maugham’s Choice of Kipling’s Best (1953)

·     Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1953. Sixteen Stories Selected and with an Introductory Essay.

·     In the conclusion to his introduction to Kipling’s prose Somerset Maugham wrote: “Rudyard Kipling is the only writer of short stories our country has produced who can stand comparison with Guy de Maupassant and Chekhov. He is our greatest story writer. I can’t believe he will ever be equaled. I am sure he can never be excelled.”

·     This was indeed high praise coming from a man of Somerset Maugham’s sensibilities for somehow one did not imagine that the two men had anything in common. Nevertheless despite temperamental differences Maugham did have a genuine admiration for Kipling as a short story writer and he had toyed for some time with the idea of making an anthology of his prose. He kept putting it off because of the pressure of other work, but it was always at the back of his mind. In March 1950, he wrote to his literary agent A. P. Watt: “With regard to the Kipling book. My intention of making an anthology and writing a preface has always been serious… I should hope to be able to gather the material during the early part of next year. As you will realise, it would necessitate my reading again all the Kipling stories and making notes in them as I read. I should not want my work scrapped as Freddie Birkenhead had to scrap his owing to Elsie Bambridge’s objection, and I couldn’t undertake the work unless I had the assurance that I should not be interfered with. Obviously, I would never have made the suggestion if I hadn’t a great admiration for Kipling’s short stories, but my idea would be not to write a fatuous eulogy but a serious criticism.” And then he adds a typical Maughamesque footnote: “NB. Some of the stories are awful.”

     C53.   Robert Ross: Friend of Friends (1952)

·     J. Cape, London, 1952. By Margery Ross. Letters to Robert Ross, pp. 157, 203.

[C53a. The Literature of Crime (1952)]

·     [Cassell & Company Ltd., London, 1952. Ed. Ellery Queen. An Omnibus of Mystery Stories By Twenty-six Famous Authors. Reprinted as Ellery Queen’s Book of Mystery Stories by 25 Famous Writers, Pan Books, 1957. Contains “Before the Party” (D35). Other stories by Dickens, Kipling, Galsworthy, Maupassant, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson and Aldous Huxley. In the reprint one Margery Sharp was dropped, so the number of authors became 25.]

     C54.   Eddie Marsh (1953)

·     Lund Humphries, London, 1953. Sketches for a composite literary portrait of Sir Edward Marsh. A contribution by Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C55.   Without Veils (1953)

·     Peter Davies, London, 1953. The Intimate Biography of Gladys Cooper by Sewell Stokes. With an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C56.   Memoirs of the Aga Khan (1954)

·     Cassell, London, 1954. With an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

 [C56a. The Rationalist Annual (1954)]

·     Watts & Co., 1954. Reprints “The Judgement Seat” (A48). Moore.]

     C57.   The Artist and the Theatre (1955)

·     William Heinemann, London, 1955. The Story of the paintings collected and presented to the National Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. With an Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C58.   Letters from Madame Sevigne (1955)

·     Secker & Wartburg, London, 1955. Letters from Madame La Marquise de Sevigné: selected, translated and introduced by Violet Hammersley with a preface by Somerset Maugham [B43].

     C59.   Speech by W. Somerset Maugham C.H. (1956)

·     Speech by W. Somerset Maugham on opening the exhibition of Authors as Artists at the Army & Navy Stories, 15 October 1956. A talk on “authors who have to a greater or lesser extent occupied themselves with the graphic arts” with reflections on Max Beerbohm, Gordon Craig, Lawrence Whistler, D. H. Lawrence and Noel Coward (2 pp.).

     C60.   A Comprehensive Exhibition of W. Somerset Maugham (1951) [sic: 1958]

·     Stanford University Press, California, an edition of 1000 copies, 1958. A Comprehensive Exhibition of W. Somerset Maugham drawn from Various Private Collections and Libraries with a preface by the Author [B43]. 25 May through 1 August, 1958. Albert M. Bender Room. One of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Maugham’s works with a most informative catalogue.

     C61.   The Cassell Miscellany (1958)

·     Cassell & Co. Ltd., London, 1958. [Selections from a Hundred Years of Publishing, 1848–1958. Edited and with an Introduction by Fred Urquhart.] Contains Maugham’s The Mother [early version]. Reprinted from Story Teller [1909]. See D18.

[C61a. Nude Croquet and Other Stories of the Joys and Terrors of Marriage (1958)]

·     [The Berkley Publishing Corporation, New York, [1958]. Berkley no. D2034. Contains “The Force of Circumstance” (D41). Rothschild, VII, 31.]

·     [Another reprint in book form of “The Force of Circumstance”. The Penguin Book of English Short Stories, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1967. Ed. Christopher Dolley. Penguin no. 2617. Rothschild, VII, 33. Other stories by Dickens, Hardy, Wells, Joyce, Lawrence and others.]

     C62.   Vanity Fair (1960)

·     The Viking Press, New York, 1960. Selections from America’s Most Memorable Magazine. A Cavalcade from the 1920’s and 1930’s. Edited by Cleveland Amory and Frederick Bradlee. Maugham’s On the Approach of Middle Age [1923, D38a].

     C63.   Sotheby’s Sale of Pictures (1962)

·     Sotheby & Co., London, 1962. Catalogue of the Collection of Impressionist and Modern Pictures formed by W. Somerset Maugham. With a preface by WSM [B43].

     C64.   [Detective Stories From The Strand Magazine (1991)]

·     [Oxford University Press, London/New York, 1991. Ed. Jack Adrian. Contains “A Point of Law” (D7). This is its third and so far last appearance in book form. See B29 and B36. Other stories by G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Aldous Huxley, Conan Doyle, Edgar Wallace and others.]

     C65.   [The Ash-Tree Press Annual Macabre, 1998 (1998)]

·     [Ash-Tree Press, Ashcroft, British Columbia, 1998. Ed. Jack Adrian. Contains “Told in the Inn at Algeciras” (D8a), an early version of “A Man from Glasgow” (A66).]

·     [In his biographical note, Mr Adrian amply demonstrates that the old school of Maugham criticism is still alive and well. Maugham was, he finely says, “brilliant storyteller” and “peerless describer of the human condition”, yet he also was a “cold fish, ever on the look-out for betrayal” and a “cruel raconteur” who “lacked humanity”.]

 

D.   CONTRIBUTIONS BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM TO PERIODICALS

Nearly all W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories and several of his novels were serialised in magazines before they appeared in book form. Nash’s Magazine (London) and the American Cosmopolitan and Hearst’s International Magazine and Good Housekeeping published most of the early and most famous short stories. These magazines have acquires considerable importance not only on account of their extreme scarcity but because a long period often elapsed (in some cases a decade) before the appearance of the stories in book form. Also, there are considerable textual differences in the early versions; occasionally the story was completely rewritten and the title changed, while nearly all the stories reveal the author’s careful pruning before book publication. In a letter to Charles H. Towne, his American literary agent, in March 1925, Maugham wrote: ‘I have posted to you today the typescript of six stories which I propose to publish as my next book… These stories as you will have noticed have all appeared in Cosmopolitan or the International but I have written a great deal of them anew and I think have improved them.’ The magazine stories were also illustrated, but none of these illustrations ever appeared in book form.

Usually the stories appeared first in America, but occasionally story had prior publication in England or appeared simultaneously in Nash’s and the Cosmopolitan or Hearst’s International. The dates of English and American publications are given. If only one of these is indicated the story or article concerned was not published in the other country. The numerals in parentheses after some entries denote the book (listed in the A section) in which the story later appeared; items lacking this key were mostly not reprinted. The Cosmopolitan amalgamated with Hearst’s International with the March 1925 issue.  

         D1.   Don Sebastian, Cosmopolis, October 1898 (A3) [B36].

·     Mr. Maugham wrote his first published short story in a magazine called Cosmopolis, which was printed ‘a third in English, a third in French, and a third in German… The idea was that it would thus find readers in three countries; unfortunately, it found readers in none. It came to a sudden end and I was never paid for my work.’ But the magazine was not quite the ‘flash in the pan’ that Maugham infers. It run for nearly three years and 35 issues. Maugham short story San Sebastian [sic] appeared in the October 1898 issue and the magazine ceased publication the following November. [The quote comes from the 1935 Preface to A25e.]

         D2.   Cupid and the Vicar of Swale, Punch, 7 February 1900 (B36).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 1: pp. 105-108.]

         D3.   Lady Habart, Punch, 25 April, 2, 9 May 1900 (B36).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 2, complete serialisation in three issues:]

                                                    i.     [Part 1, 25 April 1900, pp. 304-6.]

                                                   ii.     [Part 2, 2 May 1900, pp. 322-24.]

                                                 iii.     [Part 2, 9 May 1900, pp. 340-42.]

    [D3a. The Ionian Sea by George Gissing, Sunday Sun, 11 August 1901. Book review. (B43)]

    [D3b. A Really Nice Story, Black & White, Nov. 30, 1901, pp. 768-9.]

·     [Reprinted at least four times during 1902 in obscure magazines.]

·     [Never published in book form. See G262.]

    [D3c. The Image of the Virgin, Black & White, Dec. 14, 1901, pp. 840-842.]

·     [Never reprinted. Never published in book form. See G262.]

         D4.   Schiffbrüchig, The Venture, 1903.

·     Contains Somerset Maugham’s first published play Schiffbrüchig [Shipwrecked], a one-act play, translated into German with the help of an Anglo-Saxon friend. It was produced in Berlin on 3 January 1902. In this volume it is in English under the titled Marriages are Made in Heaven [B43]. The Venture, an annual, was edited by Laurence Housman and W. Somerset Maugham. Only two volumes appeared, in 1903 and 1905.

·     [Anthony Blond (Muller, Blonde & White Ltd.), London [1984]. Limited edition. A pamphlet published for booksellers as a prelude to B43.]

         D5.   Pro Patria, Pall Mall, February 1903 (B36). [Rothschild, VIII, 4: pp. 189-194.]

         D6.   A Man of Honour, Fortnightly Review (Supplement), March 1903. See A6.

    [D6a. The Criminal, Lloyd's Weekly News, July 31, 1904, p. 14.]

·     [Reprinted at least three times in obscure magazines, 1904-6.]

·     [Never published in book form. See G262.]

         D7.   A Point of Law, Strand Magazine, September 1904 [sic] (B36).

·     [Correct data: The Strand Magazine, October 1903, pp. 393-400. Wrong year (1904) and month (September) in both Rothschild (VIII, 5) and Stott (D7). Wrong month (September) in Moore.]

·     [Reprinted: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, v33 #2, No. 183, February 1959, pp. 24-?? See also B29 and C64.]

         D8.   An Irish Gentleman, Strand Magazine, September 1904 (B36).

    [D8a. Told in the Inn at Algeciras, The Woman At Home, February 1905. (C65)]

·     [This story was revised and included in A66 as “A Man from Glasgow”. The late version is not known to have appeared in a magazine. The early version had to wait more than 90 years to appear in book form.]

·     [For other cases of revised/rewritten early stories, see D12, D15, D16, D18.]

         D9.   A Rehearsal: A Novel in a Nutshell, The Sketch, 6 December 1905 [B43].

·     A Rehearsal is based on Mademoiselle Zampa, the sketch that was used as a curtain raiser to the public production of A Man of Honour at the Avenue Theatre [1904, A6a], but was taken off after twenty performances.

     D10.   Flirtation, Daily Mail, 3 February 1906 (B36).

     D11.   The Fortunate Painter and the Honest Jew, Bystander, 7 March 1906 (B36).

  [D11a. The Spanish Priest, Illustrated London News, 1906. Short story. (B43)]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 6; Whitehead, 1984, p. 140: Illustrated London News, 6 January, 1906, pp. 12-14.]

     D12.   A Marriage of Convenience, Illustrated London News, 23 June 1908 [sic: 1906].

·     This story was rewritten and reprinted in The Gentleman in the Parlour, pp. 194-204 [chap. XXXIV]. See D84 [late version].

·     [The early version is reprinted in B36. The late version is included in none of Maugham’s collections, but it does appear in all of the collected editions (B7, B17, B20). See also the beginning of the Preface to B25, where Maugham shares fascinating details about the wacky characters he met during a ship journey that apparently inspired the later version in which the shore-bound action was transferred aboard. This is perhaps the most fascinating case of revision among Maugham’s writings. The basic plot about the confirmed bachelor who married in a hurry just to get a lucrative job dates back at least until 1906. Yet, all those bizarre characters that populate the late version were apparently based on a journey during the 1920s. Which part and to what degree is true, Maugham’s “true narratives” claim notwithstanding, remains anybody’s guess.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 7: Illustrated London News, 23 June 1906, pp. 926-928.]

     D13.   The Making of a Millionaire, The Lady’s Realm (Lond.), July 1906 [B43].

·     This short story, never republished [dated], gives a glimpse of the later Maugham with its typical, cynical ending.

     D14.   Good Manners, Windsor Magazine, May 1907 [B36].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 8: pp. 715-22.]

     D15.   Cousin Amy, Pall Mall Magazine, March 1908 (A50) [sic: B36].

·     Rewritten and reprinted as The Luncheon.

·     [This is true, but Mr. Stott is hardly correct to link “Cousin Amy” with Cosmopolitans (A50); only “The Luncheon” appeared there. In the later version, Maugham exchanged the gluttonous cousin for a gluttonous admirer of the first person narrator (a writer, of course), and to a great comic effect. The basic theme is the same, but the treatment is so different that the pieces may well be considered as two different stories.]

     D16.   The Happy Couple, Cassell’s Magazine, May 1908 (A66) [sic: B36].

·     Karl G. Pfeiffer gives an interesting account of this story. [Where?] ‘Maugham told me that he wrote perhaps half a dozen short stories which he now has no record of. He thought they appeared in the ten years after Liza. I began a systematic search for them (which the war interrupted and I have never continued)… I found the one I refer to (The Happy Couple), sent Maugham a telegram (he was living in Hollywood then), told him what it was about and asked whether he wanted me to copy it and send it to him. He wrote back: “I can’t remember the story at all, am sure it’s lousy, why waste your time?” But some time after I had it photostatted and sent it to him, whereupon he wrote back that he was surprised it didn’t date more than it did and thought he would fashion a new story out of it. This he did, selling it Redbook and giving me the MSS.’ This second version of the story was reprinted in Creatures of Circumstance. The manuscript is in the University of Texas.

·     [Again, Mr Stott carelessly connects one of Maugham’s mature collections, in this case Creatures of Circumstance (A66), with one of his early stories that never actually appeared in it. Only the later and vastly improved version did – as Mr Stott rightly says in the end, but his cross-reference in the beginning is wrong. Note Maugham’s changes that add a whole new dimension to the original: he switched from a third person to a first person narrator, and he introduced an entirely new character (Judge Landon) who supplies much of the story plus various speculations. Serious students of Maugham’s development as a writer would do well to investigate in detail both versions of this story.]

     D17.   A Traveller in Romance, Printer’s Pie Annual, 1909 [B43].

     D18.   The Mother, Story Teller, April 1909 (A66) [sic: C61].

·     The early purple patches of this somewhat lurid tale were toned down when the author revised it for inclusion in Creatures of Circumstance, but he was sufficiently satisfied with it as a whole to let the greater part of it stand as it was written. It was reprinted from the original version in The Cassell Miscellany (C61).

·     [One of the versions also appeared in Liberty, 26 April 1947 (Moore). It is not clear, from Mr. Moore’s confusing description, which version this was. If it really was “reprinted from Storyteller Magazine”, then it was the early version which made it in book form in C61, not in A66 as Mr Moore claims. If it was the later version, not unlikely just a few months before Maugham’s last collection was to appear, then it couldn’t have been reprinted from the Storyteller. Both versions are remarkably close and, as already mentioned in D15–D16, Mr Stott is apt to be careless in this respect even with much more thoroughly rewritten stories. Minor but still unresolved issue.]

     D19.   Pygmalion at Home and Abroad, English Review, May 1914.

·     [Not by Maugham. A review comparing Maugham’s The Land of Promise with Shaw’s Pygmalion. See G7.]

     D20.   Gerald Festus Kelly: Student of Character, International Studio, January 1915 [B43].

·     [According to Mr Whitehead, this piece was published in December 1914.]

     D21.   Mackintosh, Cosmopolitan, November 1920 (A25).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 10: pp.14-19.]

     D22.   Miss Thompson, The Smart Set, April 1921 (A25).

·     Appeared in book form as Rain. The late Charles Hanson Towne, I am informed by Mr. Lynwood Giacomini, placed Miss Thompson with Smart Set after it had been rejected in America by all other major magazines.

·     [Reprinted as “Rain”: Argosy (UK), v13 #85, June 1933, pp. 119-??; The Golden Book Magazine, v19 #110, February 1934, pp. 129-56.]

·     [Also reprinted in pamphlet form, Rain: The Story of Sadie Thompson, Dell, 1951.]

     D23.   Red, Asia, April 1921 (A25).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 11: pp. 301-306, 369-371. Reprinted: Ainslee's Magazine, v58 #4, December 1926, pp. 91-??; The Argosy (UK), v15 #92, January 1934, pp. 88-??; Asia, March 1937; Redbook, v71 #3, July 1938, pp. 16-??; Short Story Magazine (Australia), No. 39, October 1947, pp. 129-?? The source(s) for these reprints remain(s) elusive. Moore.]

     D24.   On Writing for the Films, The North American Review, May 1921 [B43].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 12: pp. 670-75.]

     D25.   The Pool, Cosmopolitan, September 1921 (A25).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 13: pp. 58-64, 120-131. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v25 #155, April 1939, pp. 49-??]

     D26.   Honolulu, Everybody’s, October 1921 (A25).

·     [Reprinted: Master Thriller #6: Tales of the Uncanny, September 1934, pp. 40-??; Argosy (UK), v18 #114, November 1935, pp. 61-??]

     D27.   My South Sea Island, Daily Mail, 31 January 1922 (A51) [B43].

     D28.   Foreign Devils, Asia, February 1922 (A28).

·     Title changed to Dinner Parties in book form.

·     [According to Mr Benoit, however, “Foreign Devils” consisted of no fewer than five sketches, "The Dinner Party", "The Taipan", "Mirage", "The Old-Timer" and "The Consul", which must be substantially the same as “chapters” VI, XLIX, XXXIV, XLV and XXX, respectively, from the book. If so, this is the first-ever appearance of “The Taipan” and “The Consul”, the only sketches from this book that made it to the collected editions of the short stories (B7, B17, B20). See also D32 and D33.]

     D29.   Fear, Century, March 1922 (A28).

·     Reprinted: T. P. Cassell’s Weekly , 25 October 1924; Living Age, 18 April 1925.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 15: The Century Magazine, pp. 712-15.]

     D30.   A City Built on a Rock, Youth (Lond.), March 1922 (A28).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 16: pp. 34-35.]

     D31.   Philosopher, McClure’s Magazine, 18 April 1922 (A28).

[D31a. How Novelists Draw their Characters, Bookman, May 1922. (B43)]

     D32.   Two Studies: Mr. Pete; The Vice-Consul, Saturday Review, 8 July 1922 (A28).

·     [“Mr. Pete” became “The Consul” in book form as well as in magazine (D64).]

     D33.   Taipan, Pearson’s Magazine, October 1922 (A28).

     D34.   The Princess and the Nightingale, Pearson’s Magazine and Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), December 1922 (A39).

·     This story was later included The Gentleman from the Parlour [chap. XXXII]. In a caption to the story the Editor of Pearson’s stated that ‘this delightful story was written by Mr. Maugham for a very special purpose, the nature of which we are not, at the moment, permitted to disclose.’ The special purpose was for inclusion in the miniature manuscript library of the Queen’s Doll’s House [sic]. Permission to publish in Pearson’s Magazine was given on condition that the purpose was not disclosed. [See C3.]

·     [This is among the most popular and often reprinted among Maugham’s stories. As “Princess September”, it appears in all collected editions (B7, B17, B20), though in none of Maugham’s collections. As “September’s Bird”, it appears in B16. At least three times under three different titles, it has appeared as an illustrated pamphlet as well (A55).]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 17: N.Y., pp. [4], 33. Pearson's Magazine, No. 324, pp. 505-??]

     D35.   Before the Party, Nash’s Magazine, December 1922. Reprinted International Magazine, January 1923. (A34)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 18: Int. Mag., pp. 13-19, 140-143. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v18 #115, December 1935, pp. 23-?? See also C53a.]

     D36.   ‘P. & O.’, International Magazine, February 1923, as Bewitched. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1923. (A34)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 19: Int. Mag., pp. 28-33, 112-114. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v17 #104, January 1935, pp. 89-??]

     D37.   Jane, International Magazine, April 1923. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, August 1923. (A50) [sic: A42].

·     [Moore gives Hearst’s International for the April 1923 reprint and then states that it was done from Nash’s. If Stott is correct, this clearly could not have happened.]

·     [Reprinted: The Golden Book Magazine, v21 #124, April 1935, pp. 361-77; Argosy (UK), v8 #8, August 1947, pp. 99-??]

     D38.   The Imposters, Cosmopolitan, November 1923. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, December 1923. Appeared in book form as Raw Material (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 20 & 21: Cosmopolitan, pp. 34-35; Nash's, pp. 64-65. Reprinted Argosy (UK), v7 #12, December 1946, pp. 99-??]

[D38a. On the Approach of Middle Age, Vanity Fair, December 1923. (B43) See C62 & D185.]

     D39.   Mayhew, Cosmopolitan, December 1923. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, January 1924. (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 22: Cosmopolitan, pp. 44-45.]

     D40.   German Harry, Cosmopolitan, January 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1924. (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 23: Cosmopolitan, pp. 56-57.]

     D41.   The Force of Circumstance, International Magazine, January 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, February 1924. (A34) [See C61a.]

     D42.   In a Strange Land, Cosmopolitan, February 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1924. (A50) [See also C2.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 26: Nash's, pp. 44-45. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v7 #9, September 1946, pp. 3-??; Argosy (UK), v19 #7, July 1958, pp. 103-??, as “In an Alien Land” (sic?)]

     D43.   The Luncheon, Cosmopolitan, March 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, June 1924. (A50). A re-written version of Cousin Amy (D15).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 24 & 29: Cosmopolitan, pp. 70-1; Nash’s, pp. 48-9. Reprinted: Short Story Magazine (Australia), Green cover, 194?; Picture Post, 7 August 1954, p. 37 (Rothschild, VIII, 203); Argosy (UK), v33 #6, June 1972, pp. 17-??. The source(s) of these reprintes remain(s) elusive.]

     D44.   The Round Dozen, Good Housekeeping (Lond.), March 1924. Reprinted International Magazine, July 1924, as The Ardent Bigamist. (A42)

·     [See Moore who gives the first reprint “Hearst’s International, July 1924”. Reprinted Argosy (UK), v12 #77, October 1932, pp. 25-??]

     D45.   The Woman Who Wouldn’t Take a Hint, Cosmopolitan, April 1924 [pp. 56-57, Rothschild, VIII, 25].

·     [By omitting any cross-reference here, Mr Stott created a good deal of mischief for the amateur bibliographers of the future. This story is much better known as “Mabel”. It first appeared in book form as chap. VI of A39. It is included in none of Maugham’s collections, but it does appear in all of the collected editions (B7, B17, B20).]

     D46.   The Letter, International Magazine, April 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, May 1924. (A34)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 27: Cosmopolitan, pp. 14-21, 102-110. Reprinted Argosy (UK), v22 #135, August 1937, pp. 3-??]

     D47.   A Dream [sic], Cosmopolitan, May 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, July 1924. Appeared in book from as The Dream (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 28 & 33: Cosmopolitan, pp. 100-101, as “The Dream”, Stott gives a wrong title; Nash's, pp. 20-21, as ''A Dream'', this time Stott is correct. Reprinted Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, v7 #26, January 1946, pp. 97-??]

     D48.   The Outstation, International Magazine, June 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, August 1924. (A34)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 30 & 34: Cosmopolitan, pp. 60-65, 106-108, 110-112; Nash's, pp. 8-13, 68-78. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v12 #74, July 1932, pp. 17-??; Christmas Pie [Printers’ Pie], December 1937, pp. 60-??]

     D49.   The Happy Man, Cosmopolitan, June 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1924. (A50)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 31 & 37: Cosmopolitan, pp. 86-87; Nash's, pp. 14-15.]

     D50.   Salvatore the Fisherman, Cosmopolitan, July 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1925 [sic]. Appeared in book form as Salvatore (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 32: September 1925, pp. 84-85. See next entry. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v11 # 9, September 1950, pp. 133-?? as “Salvatore”.]

     D51.   Home from the Sea, Cosmopolitan, September 1924. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1925. Appeared in book form as Home (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 38: Nash's, pp. 10-11.]

     D52.   The Ant and the Grasshopper, Cosmopolitan, October 1924 (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 36: Cosmopolitan, pp. 88-89. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v13 #2, February 1952, pp. 17-??; Argosy (UK), v33 #7, July 1972, pp. 59-??]

[D52a. The Painted Veil: International Magazine, November 1924 – March 1925; Nash’s Magazine, 24 December 1924 – 25 July 1925. (A33c)]

·     Book collectors do not, as a rule, trouble to collect serial publications of their favourite authors even though these almost invariably have publication priority. Nevertheless the serialisation of The Painted Veil should not be overlooked, particularly in view of the important changes that occurred during its run through Nash’s Magazine which, in the February issue, changed the names of the chief characters from Walter and Kitty Lane to Walter and Molly Forr. They were again changed in the final published form to Walter and Kitty Fane. The text of the serialisation – with the above exceptions and a few minor differences – is the same as the American text (which was never altered, i.e. Kitty and Walter Lane) and the first issue of the English book text.

·     [Mr Stott mentioned these serialisations on pp. 90-91, from where the above text was extracted, but he didn’t include them in Section D.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 39, two of five parts from the Hearst’s serialisation:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, November 1924, pp. 10-17, 132-37.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, December 1924, pp.48-55, 152-58.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 40, complete Nash’s serialisaion in eight parts:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, December 1924, pp. 10-16, 76-87.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, January 1925, pp. 14-21, 68-78.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, February 1925, pp. 20-25, 94-100.]

                                                 iv.     [Part IV, March 1925, pp. 38-41, 110-119.]

                                                  v.     [Part V, April 1925, pp. 26-29, 98-108.]

                                                 vi.     [Part VI, May 1925, pp. 52-55, 133-44.]

                                               vii.     [Part VII, June 1925, pp. 48-51, 132-40.]

                                              viii.     [Part VIII, July 1925, pp. 56-60, 62-72.]

     D53.   Mr. Know-All, Cosmopolitan, January 1925. Reprinted Good Housekeeping (Lond.), September 1925. (A50)

·     [Reprinted (sources unknown): Argosy (UK), v33 #5, May 1972, pp. 80-??; Fiction Parade and Golden Book, December 1936.]

     D54.   Novelist or Bond Salesman: Letter [sic] to an Anxious Mother, The American Bookman, February 1925 (A72) [B43].

·     Most of the material in this article was incorporated in the lecture given by Mr. Maugham at the Kingsway Hall in 1951, under the title The Writer’s Point of View (A72).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 41: “Letters to an Anxious Mother”, The Bookman, pp. 683-86. Rothschild’s statement “This essay first appeared in book form in The Writer’s Point of View (1951) and was the basis for a 1951 lecture of the same title.” is puzzling. The Writer’s Point of View (1951) is the lecture. See A72.]

     D55.   A Widow’s Might, Cosmopolitan, February 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, September 1925. The story was reprinted as The Escape (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 43: Cosmopolitan, pp. 30-31. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v13 #80, January 1933, pp. 117-?? as “The Escape”. The source of this reprint is unknown, but note – despite the title – that it precedes the first publication in book form.]

     D56.   The Man Who Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly, International Magazine, April 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, August 1925. Appeared in book form as A Friend in Need (A50). [See also C34a.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 46: Nash's, pp. 24-25. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v33 #10, October 1972, pp. 27-??, as “A Friend in Need”. The source of this reprint is unknown.]

     D57.   The Code of a Gentleman, International Magazine, June 1925. Appeared in book form as Portrait of a Gentleman (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 43: Cosmopolitan, pp. 82-83.]

     D58.   The Yellow Streak, International Magazine, August 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, October 1925. (A34)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 45: Cosmopolitan, pp. 106-109, 215-220.]

     D59.   The Most Selfish Woman I Knew, International Magazine, September 1925. Reprinted Good Housekeeping, December 1925, as Louise. Appeared in book form under the same title (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 47: Cosmopolitan, pp. 90-91. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v6 #6, June 1945, pp. 63-??, as “Louise”.]

     D60.   The Man with a [sic] Scar, International Magazine, October 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, December 1925; Grand Magazine, May 1933. (A50)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 48: “The Man with the Scar”, Cosmopolitan, pp. 94-95. The same title was also used in book form. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v4 #5 (New Series), June 1943; Picture Post, 14 August 1954, p. 31, as “The Man with a Scar” (Rothschild, VIII, 204).]

     D61.   The Great Man, International Magazine, November 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, January 1926. Appeared in book form as The Poet (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 49 & 51: Cosmopolitan, pp. 88-89; Nash’s, pp. 50-51.]

     D62.   An Honest Woman, International Magazine, December 1925. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, February 1926. Appeared in book from as The Promise (A50). [See C6.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 50 & 53: Cosmopolitan, pp. 88-89; Nash's, pp. 38-39, 116-117.]

D62a. The End of the Flight, Harper’s Bazaar, January 1926. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, May 1926. (A50)

·        [Rothschild, VIII, 56: Nash’s-Pall Mall, pp. 10-11, 72. The catalogue wrongly states that this reprint is “not noted by Stott”. See also C8.]

     D63.    Another Man Without a Country, International Magazine, January 1926. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1926. Appeared in book form as French Joe (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 52 & 54: Cosmopolitan, pp. 54-55; pp. 24-25, 112-114.]

[D63a. Twenty-Five by Beverly Nichols, Sunday Times, 7 February 1926. Book review. (B43)]

     D64.   Consul [sic], Golden Book, April 1926. First appeared in book from in 1922 (A28).

·     [Unnecessary entry. See D32 where it belongs as a footnote.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 55: “The Consul”, pp. 537-539. Same title in book form.]

     D65.   The Creative Impulse, Harper’s Bazaar, August 1926. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1926. (A42)

·     [Reprinted: Redbook Magazine, v72 #1, November 1938, pp.36-??; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, v19 #109, December 1952, pp. 101-???]

     D66.   The Closed Shop, Harper’s Bazaar, September 1926. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1926. (A50)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 57: Harper’s, pp. 103-103, 132. Reprinted: Playboy, September 1955.]

     D67.   Footprints in the Jungle, International Magazine, January 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1927. (A46) [See also C6b.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 58 & 60: Cosmopolitan, pp. 28-31, 166-172; Nash’s, pp. 16-19, 60-74. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v21 #129, February 1937, pp. 25-??; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, v5 #15, March 1944, pp. 5-??]

     D68.   Pearls, International Magazine, February 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1927. Appeared in book form as A String of Beads (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 59: Cosmopolitan, pp. 88-89.]

     D69.   Advice to a Young Author, New York Times, 2 March 1927. [Uncollected.]

     D70.   The Traitor, International Magazine, September 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1927. (A37)

·     [Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v26 #160, September 1939, pp. 26-?? It is not clear whether this is only the chapter “The Traitor” from Ashenden or the whole story as it appears in the collected editions, though the former seems more likely. See A37, contents.]

     D71.   One of Those Women, International Magazine, October 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, December 1927. Appeared in book form as The Dark Woman (A37).

·     [Part of the short story “The Hairless Mexican”. See D73.]

     D72.   His Excellency, International Magazine, November 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, January 1928. (A37)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 63 & 66: Cosmopolitan, pp. 88-91, 122-132; Nash’s,pp. 10-13, 69-82. It is not clear whether this is only the chapter “His Excellency” from Ashenden or the whole story as it appears in the collected editions, though the former seems more likely. See A37, contents.]

[D72a. The Letter (play), Theatre Magazine, November 1927. Illustrated with photographs from the American production starring Katharine Cornell. Moore.]

     D73.   The Hairless Mexican, International Magazine, December 1927. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, February 1928. (A37)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 65 & 68: Cosmopolitan, pp. 66-69, 100-110; Nash’s, pp. 22-28, 86. It is not clear whether this is only the chapter “The Hairless Mexican” from Ashenden or the whole story as it appears in the collected editions. See A37, contents.]

·     [Part of this story, “The Dark Woman” but under the title “One of Those Women”, appeared earlier: Cosmopolitan, October 1927, pp. 58-61, 126-136, Rothschild, VIII, 62; Nash's, December 1927, pp. 42-45, 116-130, Rothschild, VIII, 64. See D71.]

·     [Reprinted from Cosmopolitan, The Golden Book, January-February 1931, Moore. Another reprint, of unknown origin, may be the strangely titled “The Secret Agent and the Dancing Spy”, Master Thriller #22: Tales of the Grand Express, October 1938. Cover.]

     D74.   Mr. Harrington’s Washing, International Magazine, January 1928. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1928. (A37)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 67 & 70: Cosmopolitan, pp. 86-89; Nash's, pp. 6-9, 66-80.]

·     [There is a two-part serial in The Golden Book Magazine – v12 #73, January 1931; v13 #74, February 1931 – but it is not clear what was serialised under the highly unhelpful title “Ashenden, the British Agent”. This may legitimitely refer to any of the Ashenden stories – with the obvious exception of “Sanatorium” and, perhaps, “His Excellency”.]

     D75.   The British Agent, International Magazine, February 1928. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1928. Appeared in book from as Miss King (A37).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 69: Cosmopolitan, pp. 76-79, 102-110. It is not clear whether this is only the chapter “Miss King” from Ashenden or the whole story as it appears in the collected editions. See A37, contents.]

     D76.   The Four Dutchmen, International Magazine, December 1928. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, February 1929. (A50)

     D77.   In Hiding, International Magazine, January 1929. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, May 1929. Appeared in book form as The Wash Tub (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 72 & 77: Cosmopolitan, pp. 86-87, 133; Nash’s, pp. 60-62. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v13 #82, March 1933, pp. 63-?? The source of this reprint is unknown, but note that it predates the first publication in book form.]

     D78.   A Derelict, International Magazine, February 1929. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1929. Appeared in book form as The Bum (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 73 & 75: Cosmopolitan, pp. 84-84 [sic, 84-85 probably]; Nash’s, pp. 30-32.]

     D79.   The Extraordinary Sex, International Magazine, March 1929. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, June 1929. Appeared in book form as The Social Sense (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 74 & 78: Cosmopolitan, pp. 42-43, 102; Nash’s, pp. 58-60.]

     D80.   Straight Flush, International Magazine, June 1929 [sic]. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, July 1929. (A50)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 76 & 80: Cosmopolitan, April 1929, pp. 68-69; Nash’s, pp. 26-27.]

     D81.   The Man Who Made His Mark, International Magazine, June 1929. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, August 1929. Appeared in book form as The Verger (A50).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 79: Cosmopolitan, pp. 62-63, 140-141.]

     D82.   Through the Jungle, Britannia and Eve, July-August 1929. The photographs which illustrate the articles were taken by Mr. Maugham’s late secretary, Frederick Gerald Haxton, to whom A Writer’s Notebook was dedicated.

     D83.   Mirage, International Magazine, October 1929. Reprinted Strand Magazine, November 1929. (A39)

·     [The story appears as chap. XLIII in A39. It is included in none of Maugham’s collections, but it does appear in all of the collected editions (B7, B17, B20). At least in one place (B16) it was reprinted as “The Opium Addict”.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 81 & 82: Cosmopolitan, pp. 46-47, 151-160; Strand, pp. 431-443.]

     D84.   A Marriage of Convenience, Strand Magazine, December 1929. Reprinted International Magazine, January 1930. A rewritten version of the story which first appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1906. Appeared in book form in The Gentleman in the Parlour [A39, chap. XXXIV]. See D12 [early version]. [See also B16.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 83 & 84: Strand, pp. 926-928; Cosmopolitan, pp. 60-61, 154-156. Reprinted: Yorkshire Evening News, Christmas 1936, pp. 5-??, under the strange title “A Bride from Geneva”. This is alleged to be a reprint based on the title. The source for it is unknown.]

     D85.   On the Road to Mandalay, International Magazine, December 1929 [pp. 48-51, 108-110, Rothschild, VIII, 85].

·     This story was offered to the Editor of The Strand under the title of Masterson, prior to its appearance in The Gentleman in the Parlour [A39, chap. X]. It was turned down. It was not reprinted separately till 1951 when Maugham included it in The Complete Short Stories (B17), reverting to the original title.

     D86.   Cakes and Ale, Harper’s Bazaar, March-July, 1930 [sic]. The book was published in September 1930 [A40].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 86: February-June 1930. Five issues as follows:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, February 1930, pp. 64-66, 138-46, 150.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, March 1930, pp. 67-69, 129-30, 136-42, 150.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, April 1930, pp. 72-73, 130-36.]

                                                 iv.     [Part IV, May 1930, pp. 82-83, 132-44, 166-68.]

                                                  v.     [Part V, June 1930, pp. 106, 113-20.]

     D87.   Maltreat the Dead in Fiction, Literary Digest, November 1930.

·     [Not by Maugham. See Moore. He lists the piece as “Mistreating the Dead in Fiction”, published on 8 November 1930, and says that it “is not actually a piece by Maugham, but a critique of his portrayal of Thomas Hardy in Cakes and Ale (A40) and therefore actually belongs in section G.”]

     D88.   The Human Element, International Magazine, December 1930. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, January 1931. (A42).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 87: Cosmopolitan, pp. 26-29, 148-161. Reprinted: Master Thriller #13: Tales of the Levant, July 1936; Argosy (UK), v3 #9 (New Series), October 1942, pp. 11-??]

     D89.   Virtue, International Magazine, February 1931. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1931. (A42).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 88 & 89: Cosmopolitan, pp. 34-37, 123-132; Nash's, pp. 18-21, 108-116.]

     D90.   The Vessel of Wrath, International Magazine, April 1931. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, May 1931. (A46)

·     [Also published as a pamphlet under the title The Beachcomber, Dell, 1951.]

     D91.   Maugham Discusses Drama, The Living Age, May 1931. [An interview. See G21.]

     D92.   Arnold Bennett, Life and Letters, June 1931. Reprinted in The Traveller’s Library (C15)

·     [Also reprinted as Living in the Grand Hotel in Saturday Review of Literature, 20 May 1933, and some 20 years later (revised and expanded) in A74 as part of the essay “Some Novelists I Have Known”. See also D177a.]

     D93.   The Right Thing is the Kind Thing, International Magazine, June 1931. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, September 1931. [See also C14.]

·     Appeared in book form as The Back of Beyond (A46). From this story comes the famous Maugham axiom “If to look truth in the face and not resent it when it’s unpalatable, and take human nature as you find it…’ Reprinted in The Grand Magazine, 1934.

·     [See also the short story “Virtue” (D89) where the first person narrator, accused of being “an odious cynic”, replies: “‘If it’s cynical to look truth in the face and exercise common sense in the affairs of life, then certainly I’m a cynic and odious if you like.’ Mr Stott might also have finished the quote: ‘…and take human nature as you find it, smiling when it’s absurd and grieved without exaggeration when it’s pitiful, is to be cynical, then I suppose I’m a cynic. Mostly human nature is both absurd and pitiful, but if life has taught you tolerance you find in it more to smile at than to weep.’” This is not a first person narrator, but Maugham nevertheless put a good deal of himself into George Moon.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 95 & 98: Cosmopolitan, pp. 54-57, 147-156; Nash’s, pp. 16-19, 82-90.]

     D94.   The Alien Corn, International Magazine, August 1931. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, October 1941 [sic]. (A42)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 96 & 99: Cosmopolitan, pp. 48-51; Nash’s, October 1931, pp. 20-23, 86-93. Reprinted: The Argosy (UK), v23 #140, January 1938, pp. 56-?? The source of this reprint is unknown.]

     D95.   The Door of Opportunity, International Magazine, October 1931. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, December 1931. (A46) [See also C36f.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 100 & 102: Cosmopolitan, pp. 50-53, 104-12; Nash’s, pp. 22-25, 101-108. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v21 #128, January 1937, pp. 5-?? The source of this reprint is unknown.]

     D96.   The Temptation of Neil Macadam, International Magazine, February 1932. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, April 1932. Appeared in book form as Neil MacAdam (A46).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 103 & 105: Cosmopolitan, pp. 44-47, 96-108; Nash’s, pp. 6-9, 73-82.]

[D96a. Luck Brought Me Success, Pearson’s Weekly, 21 October 1933 [sic? 1932?], p. 17.

·     Rothschild, VIII, 106. The year is probably a misprint, otherwise it makes no sense to list both serialisations of The Narrow Corner after this article.]

     D97.   The Narrow Corner, International Magazine, October 1932 – December 1932. The novel was published in November 1932 [A44].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 107: International Magazine, three consecutive issues:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, October 1932, pp. 20-25, 112-26.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, November 1932, pp. 46-49, 155-60.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, December 1932, pp. 72-84.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 108: Nash’s Magazine, November 1932 – February 1933:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, November 1932, pp. 6-9, 68-77.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, December 1932, pp. 22-24, 84-91.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, January 1933, pp. 46-49, 101-107.]

                                                 iv.     [Part IV, February 1933, pp. 56-57, 101-102.]

D97a. For Services Rendered, Sunday Express (Lond.), 13 November – 18 December 1932. [“]Today the Sunday Express begins publication of “For Services Rendered” by W. Somerset Maugham, a play that is drawing the whole of London. The Play is being acclaimed as a masterpiece, the “Journey’s End” of the peace days.[”] [Presumably Mr Stott quotes from the first issue of Sunday Express.]

     D98.   The Three Fat Women of Antibes, International Magazine, October 1933. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, November 1933. (A58) [See also C35c.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 109 & 110: Cosmopolitan, pp. 32-35, 152-54; Nash’s, pp. 10-13, 119-24. Reprinted:     Argosy (UK), v33 #12, December 1972, pp. 20-?? The source of this reprint is not known.]

     D99.   The Buried Talent, International Magazine, February 1934. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, March 1934.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 111 & 112: Cosmopolitan, pp. 34-37, 128-32; Nash’s Magazine, pp. 14-17, 89-94.]

·     [This is the greatest mystery among Maugham’s works. “The Buried Talent” is the only one among his mature short stories (written after 1920) that was published in magazine but not in book form during his lifetime. It had to wait exactly 40 years for that. The reasons for this striking fact remain a mystery. The story is reprinted in B43 and B46.]

  D100.   The Best Ever, International Magazine and Nash’s Magazine, May 1934. Appeared in book form as The Treasure (A58).  

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 113 & 114: Nash’s, pp. 14-17, 77-80; Cosmopolitan, pp. 44-47, 129-32. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v2 #23 (New Series), December 1941, pp. 15-?? The source of this reprint is unknown.]

  D101.   How I Write Short Stories, Saturday Review of Literature, 28 July 1934 [pp. 1-2, Rothschild, VIII, 115].

·     [This is a substantial extract from the Preface to East and West (B3), first published just a few days later. See also C20 & C46.]

  D102.   The Short Story, Nash’s Magazine, October 1934 [pp. 10-11, 93-96, Rothschild, VIII. 116].

·     This article was the Introduction to East and West [B3]. [See also C49.]

  D103.   A Casual Affair, Nash’s Magazine, November 1934. Reprinted International Magazine, April 1935. (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 117 & 122: Nash’s, pp. 14-17, 122-26; International, pp. 46-49, 88.]

  D104.   Appearance and Reality, International Magazine, November 1934. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, December 1934. (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 118 & 119: Cosmopolitan, pp. 22-25, 90-92; Nash’s, pp. 14-17, 116-20. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v8 #11, November 1947, pp. 15-26; Playboy, October 1954. The source(s) of these reprints remain(s) elusive.]

  D105.   The Voice of the Turtle, Nash’s Magazine, January 1935. Reprinted International Magazine, November 1936. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 120 & 127: Nash’s, pp. 8-11, 104-106; International, pp. 24-27, 76-78.]

  D106.   Gigolo and Gigolette, Nash’s Magazine, March 1935. Reprinted International Magazine, July 1935. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 121 & 124: Nash’s, pp. 12-15, 102-106; International, pp. 32-35, 112-14. See also A.]

  D107.   The Lotus Eater, Nash’s Magazine, October 1935. Reprinted International Magazine, April 1936. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII: International, pp. 30-33, 158-60. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v6 #3, March 1945, pp. 51-?? The source for this reprint is unknown.]

  D108.   An Official Position, International Magazine, July 1937. Reprinted Nash’s Magazine, August 1937. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 128 & 1930: International, pp. 32-35; Nash’s, pp. 14-21. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v11 #8, August 1950, pp. 29-??; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, v32 #1, No. 176, July 1958, pp. 56-??; Argosy (UK), v33 #9, September 1972, pp. 35-?? Cover. The source(s) of these reprints remain(s) elusive.]

  D109.   The Professional Writer, Sat. Rev. of Lit., 29 January 1939 [sic: 1938].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 132, pp. 3-4, 16. This piece is an extract from The Summing Up and appeared on 29 January 1938, probably with promotional purpose as the book was published just a few weeks earlier (A53a).]

  D110.   The Lion’s Skin, International Magazine, November 1937. Reprinted Good Housekeeping (Lond.), February 1938. This story was not reprinted in book form.

·     [Probably Mr Stott’s most stupendous mistake in the whole book. “The Lion’s Skin” was reprinted in one of Maugham’s collections (A58) less than three years after its first publication in magazine form. It also appeared, of course, in all of his collected editions (B7, B17, B20). That said, it is notably one of Maugham’s least reprinted stories. Rothschild, VIII, 131: pp. 36-39, 146-51.]

[D110a. W. Somerset Maugham Discusses Cinema, Film Weekly, 19 November 1938 (Moore). Uncollected. This may be an interview, therefore more suitable to Section G.]

  D111.   The Sanatorium, International Magazine, December 1938. (A66)

  D112.   Books and You, Sat. Eve. Post, 4 February 1939. (A57)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 134: pp. 23, 43-45.]

  D113.   Doctor and Patient, International Magazine, February 1939. Appeared in book form as Lord Mountdrago (A58).

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 135: pp. 28-31, 120-23. See also C35b.]

  D114.   You and Some More Books, Sat. Eve. Post, 11 March 1939. (A57)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 136: pp. 25, 77-81.]

  D115.   The Facts of Life, International Magazine, April 1939. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 137: pp. 32-35, 70-72. Reprinted: Picture Post, 18 December (pp. 27, 30, 47, 54) & 25 December (pp. 27-29), 1954, illus. with stills from the movie Quartet (Rothschild, VIII, 205); Argosy (UK), v22 #1, January 1961, pp. 95-??; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, v47 #5, May 2002, pp. 123-?? The source(s) of these reprints remain(s) elusive.]

[D115a. Tellers of Tales, Sat. Rev. Lit., 17 June 1939, first appearance of the introduction to C26, which was published one week later (Moore). A short extract from it, to be exact.]

  D116.   A Man with a Conscience, International Magazine, June 1939. (A58)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 138: pp. 34-37, 148-52. Reprinted: The Saint, October 1955, pp. 32-50 (Rothschild, VIII, 206); The Saint (UK), v2 #5, March 1956. The source(s) of these reprints remain(s) elusive.]

 D116a. Christmas Holiday, Redbook, August-November 1939. The novel was published in February 1939 in England, in October 1939 in America [A54].

[D116b. W. Somerset Maugham as Seen by Himself, Redbook, August 1939, p. 15. Rothschild, VIII, 140. Uncollected.]

  D117.   Proof Reading as an Avocation (Sir Edward Marsh), Publisher’s Weekly, 14 October 1939. [B43, see also C24.]

  D118.   Classic Books of America, Sat. Eve. Post, 6 January 1940. (A57)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 142: pp. 26, 64-66.]

  D119.   The Villa on the Hill, Redbook, February-April 1940. The novel was published in April 1941 as Up at the Villa [A59].

[D119a. Strasbourg: City of Death, People, Topics, Opinions, April 1940. Reprinted from The News of the World (Lond.). Material incorporated into France at War (A56). Moore.]

  D120.   Britain Views the French Navy [sic], Living Age, July 1940.

·     [Mr Stott evidently heard the title wrong on the phone. The piece is titled “A Briton Views the French Navy” and contains material from France at War (A56) which was published a few months earlier. See also Rothschild, VIII, 143: pp. 419-22.]

[D120a. Flotsam and Jetsam, Cosmopolitan, July 1940. Moore. (A66).]

  D121.   The Refugee Ship, Redbook, September 1940.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 144: pp. 13, 82-85.]

  D122.   The Inside Story of the Collapse of France [sic], Redbook, October 1940.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 145: “The Inside Story of the French Collapse”, pp. 30-33, 125.]

·     [Cf. A60c. Mr. Stott only had to look at his own book to correct this silly error. The article presumably contains material from Strictly Personal.]

  D123.   The Lion at Bay, Redbook, November 1940.

·     The above three articles were written after the author’s escape from France in a cargo boat, and contain material which he incorporated in Strictly Personal (A60).

  D124.   Reading Under Bombing, Living Age, November 1940. [B43]

  D125.   Give Me a Murder, Sat. Eve. Post, 28 December 1940. [Uncollected.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 148: pp. 27, 46-49.]

[D125a. Winter Cruise, Nash’s Annual, December 1940, pp. 3-13. Rothschild, VIII, 147. First appearance in any form. See D144 and A66.]

  D126.   What Tomorrow Holds, Redbook, January 1941. [Uncollected.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 149: pp. 30-31, 87-89.]

  D127.   They are Strange People, [the Germans,] Redbook, February 1941. [Uncollected.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 1950: pp. 20-21, 68-70.]

  D128.   Novelist’s Flight from France, Sat. Eve. Post, 22 March 1941. (A60)

  D129.   Little Things of No Consequence, Sat. Eve. Post, 29 March 1941. (A60)

  D130.   We Have Been Betrayed, Sat. Eve. Post., 5 April 1941. (A60)

  D131.   Escape to America, Sat. Eve. Post., 12 April 1941. (A60)

·     The above four articles represent the serialization of Strictly Personal.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 151-54: pp. 9-11, 125-28; 27, 60-67; no pp. given; 29, 41-47. Gives the title of D128 as “Strictly Personal”.]

  D132.   Theatre, Redbook, May 1941. [Uncollected?]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 155: pp. 121-152. Excerpt from the novel? Something else?]

  D133.   Mr. Tomkin’s [sic] Sitter, New Yorker, 7 June 1941, [p. 9].

·     [See Norman Moore’s Collection. He gives the title as “Mr Tompkin’s Sitter” and says: “An interview with Maugham at the studio of Laurence Tompkins, where Maugham was sitting for a portrait bust. This was not a piece written by Maugham, so should really be in section C [sic] Check-list of Periodicals concerning W. Somerset Maugham.” Mr Moore is, of course, both right and wrong about the proper section. It is the Check-list of Periodicals, but it isn’t “C”. It is “G”.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 156: pp. 11-12, repeats Stott’s misspelling and wrong inclusion.]

  D134.   The Culture that is to Come, Redbook, August 1941. [B43]

  D135.   An Exciting Prospect, Readers’ Digest, October 1941. Condensed from Redbook, August 1941.

·     [Are we to assume this is a shortened version of the previous article? If so, why does it have a separate entry?]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 157-8, pp. 51 and 99-100 respectively, confirms the condensed version theory.]

  D136.   Paintings I Have Liked, Life, 1 December 1941. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 159: pp. 76-85.]

  D137.   The Hour Before the Dawn, Redbook, December 1941 – April 1942. The novel was published in book form in June 1942 [A61a].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 160, The Hour Before Dawn, five issues as follows:]

·     [Part I, December 1941, pp. 16-17, 65-72.]

·     [Part II, January 1942, pp. 18-21, 76-84.]

·     [Part III, February 1942, pp. 30-34, 62-66.]

·     [Part IV, March 1942, pp. 34-37, 63-68.]

·     [Part V, April 1942, pp. 42-45, 62-69.]

[D137a. The Noblest Act, This Week, 4 January 1942. (B43)]

  D138.   Why Do You Dislike Us?, Sat. Eve. Post, 11 April 1942. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 161: pp. 31, 56-60.]

  D139.   To Know about England and the English, American Publishers’ Weekly, 13 June 1942. [B43]

  D140.   Morale Made in America, Redbook, July 1942. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 162: pp. 53, 66.]

  D141.   The Happy Couple, Redbook, February 1943 [late version]. See D16 [and A66].

  D142.   Virtue, Redbook, April 1943. Article on the war. [B43]

·     [Not to be mistaken with the short story of the same name (D89). This is what the Rothschild Catalogue apparently does (VIII, 165, pp. 36-37). It gives a cross-reference without any explanation, as if both pieces are the same. It is not clear how even an abridged version of the story could have been packed in two magazine pages…]

  D143.   [The] Unconquered, Colliers’ Magazine [sic], 10 April 1943. (A62) (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 166: pp. 11, 74-81. Repeats the mistake. Collier’s is correct.]

  D144.   The Captain and Miss Reid, International Magazine, June 1943. Appeared in book form as Winter Cruise (A66). [See D125a.]

·     [Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v5 #8, September 1944, pp. 95-111, as “The Captain and Miss Reid”. This version was presumably reprinted from the Nash’s Annual as the title suggests. Note that it precedes the first appearance in book form.]

  D145.   Reading and Writing and You, Redbook, August 1943 [sic]. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 167: June 1943, pp. 54-55, 82-83.]

  D146.   We Have a Common Heritage, Redbook, August 1943. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 169: pp. 26-39.]

  D147.   The Terrorist, Redbook, October 1943.

·     This short story was based on Savenkoff, Grand Duke Sergius. [It is hardly a short story and Savenkoff is not, of course, Grand Duke Sergius but his assassin. (B43) Rothschild, VIII, 170: pp. 30-31, 60.]

  D148.   Write about What You Know, Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), November 1943. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 171: p. 47.]

D148a. The Razor’s Edge, Redbook, December 1943 – May 1944.

·     The novel was published in book form in April 1944 [A63].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 172, complete serialisation in six issues:]

                                                    i.     [Part 1, December 1943, pp. 16-21, 72-91.]

                                                   ii.     [Part 2, January 1944, pp. 20-33, 65-72.]

                                                 iii.     [Part 3, February 1944, pp. 24-27, 107-15.]

                                                 iv.     [Part IV, March 1944, pp. 24-27, 100-110.]

                                                  v.     [Part V, April 1944, pp. 28-31, 76-90.]

                                                 vi.     [Part VI, May 1944, pp. 33-39, 77-86.]

  D149.   How I Like to Play Bridge, Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), December 1944. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 173: pp. 28, 129-31.]

  D150.   In Defence of Who-done-its, Scholastic, 25 May 1945. [Uncollected.]

  D151.   What Reading Can Do for You, Life Story, August 1945. [B43]

  D152.   The Colonel’s Lady, Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), March 1946. Reprinted Good Housekeeping (Lond.), August 1946. (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 174 & 177: N.Y., pp. 34-35, 126-40; London, pp. 2-3, 90-105. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v15 #2, February 1954, pp. 35-??; includes a letter by Maugham, p. 34. The source of this reprint is unknown.]

  D153.   A Woman of Fifty, Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), May 1946. (A68 [sic: A66])

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 175: pp. 36, 162-74.]

  D154.   Function of the Writer, Writer, 25 May 1946. [Uncollected.]

  D155.   Then and Now, International Magazine, May-June 1946. (A64)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 176: Part I, pp. 23-25; 151-72; Part II, pp. 48-49; 77-92.]

  D156.   Behind the Story, Wings, June 1946. [B43]

·     Then and Now was The Literary Guild’s book of choice for June. Mr. Maugham wrote about the novel in their house organ.

[D156a. The World’s Best Novels in the Opinion of W. Somerset Maugham, Redbook, August 1946, p. 59. The original list that led to the series of ten novels abridged and introduced by Maugham. Rothschild, VIII, 178. See C36–C45.]

  D157.   Episode, Good Housekeeping (Lond.), March 1947. (A66)

  D158.   The Point of Honour [sic], Good Housekeeping (N.Y.), March 1947. (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 179: pp. 22, 306-14, as “Point of Honor”. Reprinted: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, v18 #96, November 1951, as “The Point of Honor”, pp. 30-??; Argosy (UK), v14 #2, February 1953, pp. 21-??, as “Point of Honour”. The source(s) of these reprints remain(s) elusive.]

  D159.   What Should a Novel Do?, Scholastic, 3 March 1947. [Uncollected.]

  D160.   The Romantic Young Lady, New Yorker, 21 June 1947. (A66)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 180: pp. 25-29. Reprinted: Argosy (UK), v13 #7, July 1952, pp. 29-??]

  D161.   Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary, Atlantic Monthly, November 1947. [A69a]

  D162.   Henry Fielding and Tom Jones, Atlantic Monthly, December 1947. [A69a]

  D163.   Honore de Balzac and Old Man Goriot, Atlantic Monthly, January 1948. [A69a]

  D164.   Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights, Atlantic Monthly, February 1948. [A69a]

  D165.   Fyodor Dostoevsky and The Brothers Karamazov, Atlantic Monthly, March 1948. [A69a])

  D166.   Stendhal and The Red and the Black, Atlantic Monthly, April 1948. [A69a]

  D167.   Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, Atlantic Monthly, May 1948. [A69a]

  D168.   Herman Melville and Moby Dick, Atlantic Monthly, June 1948. [A69a]

  D169.   Charles Dickens and David Copperfield, Atlantic Monthly, July 1948. [A69a]

·     The above nine articles [D161–D169] were published under the general title The Ten Best Novels of the World and were collected in book form under the title Great Novelists and their Novels. The tenth best novel was War and Peace but as there had already been an article on Tolstoy in a recent issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Maugham’s essay on the Russian author did not appear in the magazine series.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 181-84, 186-88, gives the general title as “The Ten Best Novels”. Mr Stott gives all cross-references (except one), but he gives them as A69. This is correct but inaccurate. In a special case like this, when the First American and British editions differ considerably from one another, the exact edition must be given. Therefore, the accurate cross-reference is A69a.]

D169a. Catalina, The Windmill, Nos. 9-12, March-December 1948. The first two numbers preceded book publication. (A67)

·     [I confess I am mystified by all those “DXXXa”s. I can’t think of one that seems justified. Were they last-moment additions for which the whole order couldn’t be disturbed? This is certainly my justification. I have strived to keep Mr Stott’s codes intact.]

  D170.   Catalina, Harper’s Bazaar, June, July and August 1948. The novel was published in book form in America in October in 1948 [A67].

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 189, Harper’s Magazine, three consecutive issues:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, June 1948, pp. 490-510.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, July 1948, pp. 72-97.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, August 1948, pp. 76-88.]

  D171.   Spanish Journey, Continental Daily Mail, 11 August 1948. [B43]

  D172.   Ten Best Sellers, Good Housekeeping, October 1948. [Excerpts from A69?]

  D173.   A Writer’s Notebook, International Magazine, June-August 1949. (A70) The book was published in America in October 1949.

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 194, complete serialisation:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, June 1949, pp. 36-37, 162-69.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, July 1949, pp. 44-45, 124-29.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, August 1949, pp. 50-31, 113-18.]

  D174.   Augustus, Cornhill Magazine, Winter 1949/50. (A74)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 195: pp. 167-99.]

[D174a. For Maugham It’s ‘Cakes and Ale’, New York Times Book Review, 19 March 1950, pp. 1, 138. Advance publication of the new Introduction to the Modern Library edition of Cakes and Ale. Rothschild, VIII, 196. See A40c.]

  D175.   Zurbaran, Cornhill Magazine, Summer 1950. (A74) [Rothschild, VIII, 197: pp. 396-420.]

[D175a. A Plan to Encourage Young Writers, New York Herald Tribune, 1 November 1950 (B43). The major part of Maugham’s address at the Book and Author luncheon at the Hotel Astor, New York, on 30 September 1950. Cf. G84.]

  D176.   After Reading Burke, Corhnill Magazine, Winter 1950/51. (A74)

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 198: pp. 28-49.]

[D176a. I’m Glad to be Old, English Digest (Int. Ed.), April 1951. Reprinted from Sunday Express (Moore). Uncollected.]

  D177.   Somerset Maugham Tells the Story of the Lady from Poona [sic], News Chronicle (Lond.), 3 May 1951. Mr. Maugham’s speech at the Royal Academy Banquet reported verbatim. [B43, full version from the typescript.]

[D177a. Arnold Bennett, Life and Letters, June 1951. In book form as part of “Some Novelists I Have Known” from A74 (Moore). See also D92.]

[D177b. Kind Words for Pay, Woman’s Day, February 1952 [sic?], pp. 60, 136-7. Rothschild, VIII, 202. For some reason listed after D180. Uncollected.]

  D178.   The Bidding Started Slowly, The Connoisseur, June 1952. [Uncollected.]

  D179.   A letter to the Editor of John O’London’s Weekly from Somerset Maugham of the revival of the weekly under date 8 October 1952. [Uncollected.]

[D179a. ‘Above All, Love…’, Rotarian, November 1952 (B43).]

[D179b. Remembrances of H. G. Wells, Saturday Review, 11 April 1953. Extract from “Some Novelists I Have Known” (A74).]

  D180.   Looking Back on Eighty Years, The Listener, 28 January 1954. Mr. Maugham’s famous broadcast talk on his eightieth birthday. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 201: pp. 173-74.]

  D181.   Somerset Maugham and the Greatest Novels, Sunday Times, June-October 1954.

·     The English serialisation of Great Novelists and their Novels, considerably revised and augmented, with a new preface and epitaph, later reprinted by Heinemann under the title Ten Novels and their Authors [A69b]. It was originally intended to run the series for from four to six articles for which Maugham was to receive 3 000 but it was so phenomenally successful that he allowed the serialization to be extended to fifteen weeks – an unprecedented span. The full story is told and Ian Fleming’s role in the negotiations in John Pearson’s The Life of Ian Fleming (1966).

  D182.   The Perfect Gentleman, Theatre Arts, November 1955. Adapted from Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by W. Somerset Maugham. Photographs by Roderick MacArthur.

·     This play was produced in London in 1915, with Beerbohm Tree in the part of Jourdain. It was published in Theatre Arts to celebrate the debut in New York of the Comédie Française Company in their opening performance of Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. It had not been published before and Mr. Maugham makes no reference to it in any of his biographical writings. [See F97 and Theatre Companion (F93), pp. 105-8.]

[D182a. Books of the Year, Sunday Times, 25 December 1955. Book review. (B43)]

[D182b. The Writer’s Life, Wisdom Magazine, January 1956, pp. 16-17. Rothschild, VIII, 208. Uncollected.]

  D183.   On Having My Portrait Painted, Horizon, January 1959. [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 209: pp. 106-7.]

  D184.   Credo of a Story Teller, Sat. Eve. Post, 21 March 1959. Excerpts from Points of View [A77]. [Rothschild, VIII, 210, no pp. given.]

  D185.   On the Approach of Middle Age, Vogue, 15 November 1960 [B43]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 211: p. 10. Most probably reprinted from D38a. See also C62.]

  D186.   Looking Back, Show (N.Y.) June, July and August 1962. The first appearance of the now notorious autobiography, later serialised in part in the Sunday Express from 9 September till 28 October 1962. [The serialisations presumably consisted of the same material, but that is not quite clear from Mr Stott’s note.]

·     [Rothschild, VIII, 212, three consecutive issues of Show:]

                                                    i.     [Part I, June 1962, pp. 60-67, 110-11.]

                                                   ii.     [Part II, July 1962, pp. 41-49, 95-100.]

                                                 iii.     [Part III, August 1962, pp. 70-73, 98-100.]

[D187. On His Nineteenth Birthday, Sunday Express, 1964. (B43) Interview with Maugham with Ewan MacNaughton. The journalist found the writer feeble and with poor memory. He finally compiled a patchwork of quotes from books and the old man’s carefully guided thoughts. The piece was not really written by Maugham; only approved by him.]

[D188. The Wisdom of Somerset Maugham, Playboy, January 1966. Doubtful! Ludicrous piece of self-adulation that smacks of trying to capitalise on Maugham’s recent death. Either Maugham didn’t write it at all, or he was insane when he did. John Whitehead refused to include the piece in his collection of uncollected writings; see the introduction to B43.]

 

E.   PLAYS NOVELISED OR BOOKS DRAMATISED BY OTHERS

         E1.   Smith (1911)

·     A novel based on the play by W. Somerset Maugham. By David Gray. New York, Duffield & Company, 1911.

         E2.   The Land of Promise (1914)

·       A Novelization of W. Somerset Maugham’s Play by D. Torbett. Illustrated from Photographs of the Play. New York, Edward J. Clode (1914).

         E3.   The Land of Promise (1915)

·       A Novelization of W. Somerset Maugham’s Play by D. Torbett. Illustrated from Photographs of Scenes from the Play. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.

         E4.   The Canadian (1927)

·       Photoplay title of The Land of Promise. A Novelization of W. Somerset Maugham’s Play by D. Torbett. Illustrated with Scenes from the Photoplay. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.

         E5.   Rain (1923)

·       A Play in Three Acts, founded on W. Somerset Maugham’s story “Miss Thompson” by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. New York, Boni and Liveright (1923).

·       The book has an introduction by Ludwig Lewisohn. The play was originally produced at the Garrick Theatre on 12 May 1925, with Olga Lindo in the Sadie role.

·       [Mr Stott is in error. He refers to the second production. The first also was in the Garrick Theatre – but the one in Philadelphia, not in London. The play opened on 9 October 1922 with Jeanne Eagles as Sadie, was later transferred to the Maxine Elliott Theatre in New York, and altogether run for the smashing 648 performances. The 1925 London revival with Olga Lindo managed only 150 shows. Another London revival in 1942, with Wanda Rotha as Sadie, closed after 94 performances. See Mander & Mitchenson (F93), p. 252.]

         E6.   Rain (1948)

·       A Play in Three Acts by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. London, New York, Samuel French (1948). Samuel French’s Acting Editions of Plays.

         E7.   The Tenth Man (c. 1937)

·       From the play by W. Somerset Maugham. Story re-told and edited by C. M. Martin, with illustrations from the film. (London, Wardour Films? c. 1937.) A novelisation of the play, probably issued by the film distributors for publicity purposes.

         E8.   Theatre (1942)

·       A Comedy in 3 Acts by Guy Bolton and W. Somerset Maugham. New York, London, Samuel French (1942). The dramatisation was by Guy Bolton, not “Guy Bolton and W. Somerset Maugham” as stated on the wrappers.

         E9.   Larger than Life (1951)

·       A Comedy in Three Acts by Guy Bolton. Based on the novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. London, New York, Samuel French (1951).

      E10.   Before the Party (1950)

·       A Play in Four Acts by Rodney Ackland, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. London, New York, Samuel French (1950). Samuel French’s Acting Editions of Plays, 1097.

      E11.   Jane (1952)

·       A Comedy, based upon an original story by W. Somerset Maugham, by Samuel Nathaniel Behrman. New York, Random House, 1952. Also published in Samuel French’s Acting Editions of Plays (1953).

 

F.    CHECK-LIST OF WORKS CONCERNING W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

          F1.   Findlater, Jane Helen. Stories from a Glass House. (1904)

·     James Nisbet & Co., London, 1904. Slum Movement in Fiction (Liza of Lambeth), pp.65-88.

[F1a. Frank, Harry. A Vagabond Journey Around the World. (1910)]

·     [Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, New York, 1910. Maugham used material from chap. 5, “A Beachcomber in Marseilles”, for his own chap. 46 in The Moon and Sixpence. He was attacked and accused of plagiarising. In the 1935 Preface to the novel (A22f), he freely admitted his debt to Harry Frank and explained that books of facts are just as legitimate a mine for the novelist to explore as are conversations in hotels and bars. Comparison between the chapters is revealing. Maugham did take a number of details, such as places, people and even whole incidents, straight from Mr Frank’s travel book. But he did add something from himself (for instance, the haunting description of Rue Bouterie, with its “sinister charm”, “hideous lust” and “somber reality”) and he skilfully integrated the rest in Strickland’s personal history.]

          F2.   Dreiser, Theodore. W. Somerset Maugham’s Great Realistic Novel Of Human Bondage. (1916)

·     George H. Doran Company, New York, n.d. (1916). The famous review in The New Republic which first drew attention to Of Human Bondage in America. Few are aware that it was reprinted in pamphlet form and it is now very scarce. [See G9.]

          F3.   Marcosson, Isaac F., and Frohman, Daniel. Charles Frohman: Manager and Man. (1916)

·     John Lane, The Bodley Head, London, 1916. Charles Frohman, whom everybody liked and never had a contract with anyone – his word was always good enough – sponsored several of Maugham’s plays, and gave him the idea for The Land of Promise. He was drowned when Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915.

          F4.   Williams, Harold. Modern English Writers. (1918)

·     Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1918. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 267-69, 387.

          F5.   Collins, Joseph. Idling in Italy: Studies of Literature and Life. (1920)

·     Scribner’s, New York, 1920. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 148-58.

          F6.   Overton, Grant M. When Winter Comes to Main Street. (1922)

·     George H. Doran, New York, 1922. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 270-92. Grant Overton was with Doran for some years and handled the promotion side of many of Maugham’s books, and was well liked by him.  

          F7.   Lewinsohn, Ludwig. The Drama and the State. (1922)

·     Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1922. Somerset Maugham Himself, pp. 184-87 [F87].

          F8.   Adcock, A. St. J. Gods of Modern Grub Street. (1923)

·     Sampson, Low, Marston, London, 1923. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 213-19.

          F9.   Mais, S. P. B. Some Modern Authors. (1923)

·     Grant Richards, London, 1923. Somerset Maugham, pp. 115-28.

      F10.   Tyler, George C. Whatever Goes Up. (1924)

·     The Bobbs-Merrill Co., New York, 1924. The Hazards and Fortunes of a Born Gambler. A long, fascinating account of how Lady Frederick nearly came to be produced first in America.

      F11.   Ward, Richard Heron. Aspects of the Short Story. (1924)

·     London University Press, London, 1924. Many references to Somerset Maugham.

      F12.   Overton, Grant M. Authors of the Day. (1924)

·     George H. Doran, New York, 1924. Studies in Contemporary Literature. Heterogeneous Magic of Maugham, pp. 344-65.

      F13.   Dutton, Graham. Some Contemporary Dramatists. (1925)

·     George H. Doran, New York, 1925. V. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 168-207.

      F14.   Clark, Barrett Harper. A Study of the Modern Drama. (1925)

·     D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1925. A Handbook for the Study and Appreciation of the Best Plays… of the last Half Century. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 123, 143, 242, 248, 265, 320-27. Contains an admirable analysis of the technique of The Circle.

      F15.   Swinnerton, Frank. Georgian Scene. (1925)

·     William Heinemann, London, 1925. Black and White, pp. 168-207.

      F16.   Towne, Charles Hanson (and others). W. Somerset Maugham: Novelist, Essayist, Dramatist. (1925)

·     (George H. Doran, New York, 1925.) John Farrar, ‘W. Somerset Maugham: Novelist and So Forth’; Charles Hanson Towne, ‘Mr. Somerset Maugham at Home’; Carl and Mark Van Doren, ‘W. Somerset Maugham’; Dorothea Lawrence Mann, ‘Somerset Maugham in his Mantle of Mystery’; M. Aurelius Goodrich, ‘After Ten Years of Of Human Bondage’ [G15a].

      F17.   Nichols, Beverly. Twenty-Five. (1926)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1926. In which William Somerset Maugham makes a Delicate Grimace, pp. 232-39.

      F18.   Drew, Elisabeth A. The Modern Novel: Some Aspects of Contemporary Fiction. (1926)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1926. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 93, 96, 98-100, 252.

      F19.   Nichols, Beverly. Are They the Same at Home? (1927)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1927. W. Somerset Maugham, or Dark and Difficult, pp. 240-44.

      F20.   Morgan, Louise. Writers at Work. (1927)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1927. An unusually interesting and revealing article on Somerset Maugham’s working methods, gleaned in an interview by a very observant journalist.

      F21.   Dottin, Paul. W. Somerset Maugham et ses Romans. (1928)

·     Perrin et Cie., 1928. [See F104 where part of this is translated into English.]

      F22.   Balmforth, Ramsden. The Problem and Its Influence on Modern Thought and Life. (1928)

·     Allen & Unwin, London, 1928. Somerset Maugham’s The Unknown. The Problem of Agnosticism, pp. 108-121.

      F23.   Marble, Annie Russell. A Study of the Modern Novel. (1926)

·     D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1926. Dramatic Novelists: W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 148-52.

      F24.   Rascoe, Burton. A Bookman’s Daybook. (1929)

·     Horace Liveright, New York, 1929. A Chat with Somerset Maugham, pp. 148-51.

      F25.   Mansfield, Katherine. Novels and Novelists. (1930)

·     Constable, London, 1930. W. Somerset Maugham (The Moon and Sixpence), pp. 17-20 [F175].

      F26.   Mannin, Ethel. Confessions and Impressions. (1930)

·     Jarrolds, London, 1930. Somerset Maugham: Portrait of a Dramatist, pp. 333-37.

      F27.   Brewster, Dorothy, and Birrell [sic], Angus. Adventure or Experience. (1930)

·     Columbia University, New York, 1930. Four Essays on Certain Writers and Readers of Novels. A sensitive and enlightened essay on Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, pp. 42-53. [The name’s probably “Burrell”. See the preface to A50, endnote.]

F27a. Anon. I Hope They Won’t Mind. (1930)

·     Eveleigh Nash & Grayson Ltd. (1930) W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 91, 151, 166.

      F28.   Jones, Doris Arthur. The Life and Letters of Henry Arthur Jones. (1930)

·     Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1930. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 93, 347.

      F29.   Eppinger, Dora. W. Somerset Maugham: Regeny es Short Story. (1930)

·     Kiralyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, Budapest, 1930. [Evidently in Hungarian.]

      F30.   Riposte, A. Gin and Bitters / Mordaunt, Elinor. Full Circle. (1931)

·     Riposte, A. Gin and Bitters. Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1931.

·     Mordaunt, Elinor. Full Circle. Martin Secker, London, 1931.

·     The American edition appeared anonymously and contains a foreword that is lacking in the English edition. Full Circle is a vicious and scarcely veiled attack on Somerset Maugham and according to Hart-Davis gossips were quick to whisper that Hugh Walpole had written it in revenge for Cakes and Ale and Walpole had sent off an immediate disclaimer to Maugham, who had answered reassuringly. Heinemann persuaded Maugham – reluctantly because he felt it would be better to treat it with the contempt it deserved – to issue a writ for libel and the book was withdrawn, but only after a number of copies had been distributed. I was under the impression that Elinor Mordaunt was a friend of Hugh Walpole’s and had written the book as a reprisal for Maugham’s portrayal of Walpole in Cakes and Ale. Elinor Mordaunt’s title Gin and Bitters suggested this, but Mr. Hart-Davis told me that she had never known Walpole. Equally cryptically, Martin Secker told me that Elinor Mordaunt had once told him that she had never met Maugham, but had once passed him on the doorstep of her London hotel as he was leaving it. So one is thrown back upon the other principal character in Cakes and Ale upon whom the public attention was first focused, at least in America, namely Edward Driffield, whose career bore a remarkable resemblance to that of Thomas Hardy’s. The novelist had died only two years previously and because he was venerated as the Grand Old Man of literature it was felt unseemly to portray him as not being averse to dropping in at the local and singing ribald comic songs and making a moonlight flight to avoid accumulated debts. But there were few grounds really for censuring Maugham for “libelling the dead” for he never detracted from the accepted belief that Driffield was a distinguished writer.

·     It is still necessary, however, to find a motive for the loathing that manifests itself on almost every page of Full Circle. Looking around for a clue one’s attention is drawn to another character in Cakes and Ale whose portrait was delineated in none too flattering terms, and that was the second Mrs. Driffield. Nothing was ever said to suggest that she was anyone but of unblemished reputation but a hint that she might have lacked some of the warmer feminine qualities was subtly inferred. The second Mrs Hardy of course was still alive and though there is no record to indicate what were her feelings when she read the book, for she never revealed them at least in public, she would not have been human not to have felt aggrieved. Among her friends she numbered Elinor Mordaunt, and the theory that here lies the explanation would seem to be born out by a copy of Gin and Bitters used by the novelist for preparing the English version, now in the Grenville Cook Collection. She had tried to tone down the portrait of Maugham, cutting out such passages as “He had a good play out of China, apart from several short stories,” but there was enough truth remaining in the book to make it a libellous portrait. The opening paragraphs of Chapter XII have been entirely re-written on a separate blank sheet hinged in. In addition to the extensive revisions the title has been changed to Full Circle (she first thought of calling it ‘Travellers Tales’) and the author has replaced the nom-de-plume ‘A Riposte’ with her own name.

·     Possibly the key to the mystery is to be found in a marked passage towards the end of the book. It reads “The widow of the man who he had most grievously lampooned spoke of his great work [Cakes and Ale] as ‘That silly book’, and in the margin Elinor Mordaunt has written ‘Thomas Hardy really said this.’”

·     I doubt if Hardy who was then an old man could have been greatly concerned – “that silly book” probably summed up a momentarily irritation that soon passed and if he had been younger he would perhaps have been more amused than angry. But it was a different matter for the second Mrs. Hardy who had no public reputation to sustain her. She had been a nurse when she married Hardy and now kept his house and worked as his amanuensis and business manager. The slight upon her was real and formidable.

·     [Much Ado about Nothing. I wish Mr Stott had shown the same flair for detective investigation in regard to the contents of Maugham’s own works. And I find the last two paragraphs very confusing. Which book did Hardy as an “old man” call “silly?]

      F31.   Sawyer, Newell W. The Comedy of Manners from Sheridan to Maugham. (1931)

·     University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia; Oxford University Press, London; 1931. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 152, 197-8, 204, 217, 224-8, 238.

      F32.   Bennett, Arnold. Journal 1929. (1930)

·     Cassell & Co., 1930. On pp. 20-24 Bennett describes a picnic Maugham took him on when he was staying with him in the South of France, and it is illumination to compare this description with Maugham’s in The Vagrant Mood [A74, “Some Novelists I Have Known”].

F32a. Bennett, Arnold. The Journals of. Newman Flower (Ed.).

·     Cassell & Co., 1932-33, 3 vols. W. Somerset Maugham: Vol. 1, pp. 208, 220-1, 288; Vol. 3, pp. 86, 134-5, 158, 200, 215-6, 240. Maugham once said [where, Raymond?] that he and Bennett were not intimate friends but intimate acquaintances, but in later years he grew to like him and got on well together. In 1905 before Bennett had written The Old Wives’ Tales one gets the impression that Maugham was inclined to look down on Bennett and had very much the pose of a suave man about the world. [See D92.]

      F33.   Edgar, Pelham. The Art of the Novel: From 1700 to the Present Time. (1933)

·     Macmillan, New York, 1933. The Way of Irony and Satire: Maugham, Douglas, Huxley, Lewis, pp. 268-76.

      F34.   Caricatures by Low: Twelve Biographies. (1933)

·     New Statesmen and Nation, London, (December) 1933. Limited edition of One Hundred Copies. W. Somerset Maugham, with a biography.

      F35.   Guery, Suzanne. La Philosophie de Somerset Maugham. (1933)

·     Editions de France, Paris, 1933.

      F36.   Ervine, St. John. The Theatre in My Time. (1933)

·     Rich & Cowan, London, 1933. W. Somerset Maugham, 118-9, 169.

      F37.   MacCarthy, Desmond. William Somerset Maugham: “The English Maupassant”. (1934)

·     William Heinemann, London, 1934. With a bibliography. One of the best critical studies of Mr. Maugham and his work. First published in Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine [G24], then in the above pamphlet form. It was again reprinted in Altogether [B4] and finally in MacCarthy’s autobiographical Memories [F85].

      F38.   Leggett, H. W. The Idea in Fiction. (1934)

·     George Allen & Unwin, London, 1934. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 45, 65, 111-2, 120, 142.

      F39.   MacCarthy, Desmond. Experience. (1935)

·     Putnam, London, 1935. With the Red Cross in France, 1914-15. Though Maugham is not mentioned by name he served in MacCarthy’s unit in France and had his share in some of the incidents described.

      F40.   Millett, F. B. Contemporary American Authors. (1935)

·     Harrap & Sons, London, 1935. Check-list of Maugham’s works and some biographical contributions.

      F41.   Chronicles of Barabas, 1884–1934. (1935)

·     George H. Doran, New York; Methuen, London; 1935. By George H. Doran. Somerset Maugham, pp. 143-48, 165, 264, 349. The book was republished in by Rinehart & Co. in 1952 with additional matter.

      F42.   Bennett, Arnold. Letters to his Nephew. (1935)

·     Harper Bros., New York, 1935. With a Preface by Frank Swinnerton. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 125, 138, 145, 148, 198, 219, 267, 275, 279, 290, 316.

      F43.   Dreiser, Theodore. The New Republic Anthology, 1915–1935. (1936)

·     Dodge Publishing Co., New York, 1936. As a Realist Sees Of Human Bondage, pp. 24-30. See G9.

F43a. Buchanan, Donald. James Wilson Morrice: A Biography. (1936)

·     The Ryerson Press, Toronto (1936). W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 50-2, 57, 59-60, 62-3, 67-73; The Magician, pp. 51, 57, 59, 67, 72; Of Human Bondage, pp. 67-71. An important source of Maugham’s early life in Paris, and the group of artists and writers who used to congregated at the Chat Blanc. Maugham used Morrice for the portrait of Warren in The Magician and later of the painter Cronshaw in Of Human Bondage. See also F144.

      F44.   Schreiber, Georges. Portraits and Self-Portraits. (1936)

·     Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1936. William Somerset Maugham, pp. 95-105.

      F45.   McIver, Claude Searcy. William Somerset Maugham. (1936)

·     Upper Darby, Pa., The Author. 6 S. Brighton Ave., 1936. A Study of Technique and Literary Sources.

      F46.   Cordell, R. A. William Somerset Maugham. (1937)

·     Nelson, Toronto, New York, Edinburgh, 1937. Revised edition: Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Ind.; William Heinemann, London; 1961. [Reprinted, 1962.]

·     [Substantial parts from this study are reprinted in F87, among them discussions of The Narrow Corner, The Trembling of a Leaf, The Gentleman in the Parlour, Our Betters, The Constant Wife and Maugham’s short stories in general.]

      F47.   Dottin, Paul. Le Théâtre de W. Somerset Maugham. (1937)

·     Perrin et Cie, Paris, 1937. Dottin was the first critic to attempt a serious appraisal of Somerset Maugham’s work.

      F48.   Ward, Richard Heron. William Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation. (1937)

·     Bles, London, 1937.

      F49.   Muller, H. J. Modern Fiction: Studies of Values. (1937)

·     Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1937. Realism of the Center: Bennett, Galsworthy, Maugham.

      F50.   Connolly, Cyril. Enemies of Promise. (1938)

·     George Routledge & Sons., 1938. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 37-8, 76-7, 85-8, 92-3, 117-9, 151, 155, 158.

      F51.   Brown, John Mason. Two on the Aisle. (1938)

·     W. Norton, New York, 1938. Ten Years of American Theater in Performance. W. Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward Compared, pp. 108-13.

      F52.   Knoblock, Edward. Round the Room: An Autobiography. (1939)

·     Chapman and Hall, 1939. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 208, 265, 196-8, 341-2, 443. Although they were great friends and collaborated together on several projects, Knoblock is not very forthcoming about Maugham. [See Appendix II, “The Mayfair Murder”.]

      F53.   Savini, Gertrud. Das Weltbild in William Somerset Maughams Dramen. (1939)

·     Junge & Sohn, Erlangen, 1939. University Thesis.

      F54.   Doren, Carl Van and Mark Van. American and British Literature since 1890. (1939)

·     D. Appleton-Century, New York, 1939. Revised and enlarged edition. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 226-31, 271-3, 377.

      F55.   Bates, H. E. The Modern Short Story. (1941)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1941. Somerset Maugham, pp. 7, 15, 74, 105, 141-6, 222. [See F175 where an extract from Chapter VI is reprinted. It is curiously sourced from “London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1941, 142-6.”]

      F56.   Moses, Montrose J. Dramas of Modernism and their Forerunners. (1941)

·     Little Brown, Boston, 1941. Edited, with Introduction and Bibliographies. Revised, and supplemented, by Oscar J. Campbell. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 413-7, 922-3. Also reprints The Circle [A24].

F56a. Voska, Emanuel Victor and Will Irwin. Spy and Counter Spy. (1941)

·     George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London (1941). Voska, who was mixed up with Maugham in the espionage business in Russia, tells the tale of American businessman whom Maugham used as his model for the Ashenden story Mr Harrington’s Washing.

      F57.   Carbuccia, Horace. Adieu à mon ami anglais. (1942)

·     Editions de France, Paris, 1942.

      F58.   Kunitz, Stanley J. 20^th Century Authors. (1942)

·     New York, 1942. William Somerset Maugham, pp. 934-7.

      F59.   Church, Richard. British Authors. (1945)

·     Longmans, Green, London, 1945. W. Somerset Maugham (with a portrait), pp. 69-72.

      F60.   Goldring, Douglas. South Lodge. (1943) [Typo – F90 – corrected.]

·     Constable & Co., London, 1943. Reminiscences of Violet Hunt, Ford Madox Ford and the English Review Circle. Violet Hunt, popularly supposed to be the original Rose Waterford in The Moon and Sixpence, was a great friend of Somerset Maugham and she used to correct his proofs. A collection of his letters to her are preserved in the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library.

      F61.   Scully, F. Rogues Gallery: Profiles of My Eminent Contemporaries. (1943)

·     (Murray & Gee, Hollywood, 1943.) W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 15-36.

      F62.   Connolly, Cyril. Condemned Playground: Essays, 1927–44. (1945)

·     Routledge & Sons, London, 1945; Macmillan, New York, 1946. The Art of Being Good, pp. 250-9.

      F63.   The Saturday Book. Fifth Year. (1945)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1945. Mr. Somerset Maugham, by Fred Bason.

·     An article of some significance for future biographers. In the early thirties Maugham made a return visit to Bermondsey and got Fred Bason, a genuine Cockney bookseller, to accompany him round his old haunts. Although nothing came of the visit, he did not drop the idea of writing a sequel to Liza of Lambeth and after World War II he again revisited the district but when he saw what the war had done to it he was disenchanted. He describes his feelings in A Writer’s Notebook: “I entered upon a world that was strange to me. I have no doubt that it still offers ample material for a novel, but that which I had in mind was a pictures of conditions that have ceased to exist, and I see no point in writing it.”

·     He remained friends with Bason for some years and as the correspondence* between the two men reveals Bason undertook various tasks for him, one of the last – the attempted disposal of his manuscripts in 1936 – culminating in a break. But although a Cockney with little education, Fred Bason is a shrewd looker-on and occasionally comes out with some striking observations when writing about Maugham.

·     [*In a footnote Mr Stott informs us that the Maugham-Bason correspondence is part from the Grenville Cook collection. He should have used the phrase “another slum novel” instead of (the quite incorrect) “a sequel to Liza of Lambeth”.]

      F64.   Wilson, A. E. Playwrights in Aspic. (1946)

·     Hume & Van Thal, London, 1946. The Inconstant Wife by Somerset Maugham, pp. 56-61. A parody.

      F65.   Van Gelder, Robert. Writers and Writing. (1946)

·     Charles Scribner’s, New York, 1946. Mr. Maugham on the Essentials of Writing, pp. 139-41 [F87].

      F66.   Hitchens, Robert. Yesterday: The Autobiography of Robert Hitchens. (1947)

·     Cassell, London, 1947. Some very important references to Maugham, pp. 169, 225, 253-5, 272, 387, 422.

      F67.   The Penguin New Writing. (1947)

·     Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1947. Men of the World by V. S. Pritchettt, pp. 135-44.

F67a. Wescott, Glenway. Somerset Maugham and Posterity. (1948)

·     The Windmill (Lond.), December 1948.

·     [Reprinted in B16 and F104 (abridged). This appears to be a contribution to periodical concerning Maugham, so it belongs to Section G. See G69.]

      F68.   Swan, Michael. Ilex and Olive. (1949)

·     Hume & Van Thal., London (1949). An account of a journey through France and Italy. Conversations with Maugham, pp. 73-6.

      F69.   Allen, Walter. The English Novel: a short critical history. (1949)

·     Phoenix House, London, 1949. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 271, 287, 312-4.

      F70.   Burke, Billie. With a Feather on My Nose. (1948)

·     Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1948. Peter Davies, London, 1950. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 31, 74, 86, 91-2, 104, 125, 171.

      F71.   Bason, Fred. Fred Bason’s Diary. (1950)

·     Wingate, London, 1950. Edited, and with an Introduction by Nicholas Bentley. Many references to Somerset Maugham.

      F72.   Toole Stott, R. Maughamiana: The Writings of W. Somerset Maugham. (1950)

·     William Heinemann, London; Doubleday, New York; 1950. Being a Handlist of Works by William Somerset Maugham and his contributions to certain selected periodicals. [A review.]

      F73.   Jonas, K. W. Bibliography of the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham. (1950)

·     (South Hadley, Mass.), 1950. The check list is almost wholly based on F72.

      F74.   Maugham, The Rt. Hon. Viscount. At the End of the Day. (1950)

·     William Heinemann, London, 1950.

·     Robin Maugham writes [where, Raymond?] a very amusing account of an interview with his father when he was writing his autobiography. “I have already written nearly a quarter of a million words,” his father said, “and so I’m afraid I can’t spare the family very much space. I must therefore ask you to write out for me a brief description of your three sisters and of yourself and of my brother Willie – in that order.”

“How brief?” his son asked.

“Four lines,” his father replied.

In fact Lord Maugham relented and gave his brother Willie three brief mentions by name in all the 587 pages of the book.

      F75.   Wilson, Edmund. Classics and Commercials. (1950)

·     Farrar, Strauss, New York, 1950. W. H. Allen, London, 1951. A Literary Chronicle of the Forties. The Apotheosis of Somerset Maugham, pp. 319-26. The notorious attack on Somerset Maugham, which probably harmed the author more than it did the victim.

·     [This essay is the source of the unfortunately often quoted description of Maugham as a “...half-trashy novelist, who writes badly, but is patronized by half-serious readers, who do not care much about writing.” This passage, however, is not to be found in the original version (1946) of the essay, “Somerset Maugham and an Antidote” (G64b), which was basically a review of A64 but used the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack on Maugham’s writing style and literary stature.]

      F76.   Edman, Irwin. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. (1951)

·     (New York), 1951. Second Series, No. 1. The Philosopher as Man of Letters, pp. 59-62 [F87]. An address given at the dinner of the National Institute of Arts and Letters on the 17^th October 1950 when Maugham addressed the meeting on the occasion of his being made an Honorary Associate of the Institute.

·     [Mr Stott omits the important fact that Maugham’s own address was also printed in the same issue of the Proceedings. It is reprinted in B43. See also C50a.]

      F77.   Trewin, J. C. The Theatre since 1900. (1951)

·     Andrew Dakers, London, 1951. Illustrated. Many references to Maugham, including the tribute that Our Betters and The Circle are “two classic plays, fit to stand by Congreve’s patterned flourish like frost flowers in glass.” [See also F93.]

      F78.   Hudson, Lynton. The English Stage, 1850–1950. (1951)

·     George Harrap, London, 1951. Maugham’s early career in the theatre discussed, pp. 125-7.

      F79.   Brophy, John. Somerset Maugham. (1952)

·     Longmans, Green, London (for the British Council and the National Book League), 1952. An excellent study of the novelist.

·     [I disagree; and Mr Stott misses quite a few details. Writers and Their Work, No. 22. Revised Edition, 1958. Reprinted with additional bibliography, 1964. The last edition contains a fine etching of Maugham by H. Andrew Freeth as a frontispiece and several ridiculous mistakes in the bibliography.]

      F80.   Papajewski, Helmut. Die Welt-, Lebens- und Kunstanschauung William Somerset Maughams. (1952)

·     Kölner Universitäts-Verlag, Köln, 1952. This is the complete work of a study of the novelist, part of which first appeared in the Anglia Zeitschrift für englische Philologie (1944). I sent Mr. Maugham a copy of the revised edition of Papajewski’s book and he replied: “I am trying to make up my mind to read it again. I thought there was nothing to complain about in the earlier book, except perhaps that he was inclined (in his German way) to reproach because I had not contrived to raise myself by my boot-straps.”

      F81.   Bankhead, Tallulah. Tallulah: My Autobiography. (1952)

·     Harper & Bros., New York, 1952. Maugham wrote to his agent in New York in September 1925¹ “When I think of the possibility of Tallulah Bankhead playing the part [of Sadie] my blood runs cold and I am resigned to almost any alternative”, but according to Rowland Leigh, the playwright, Somerset Maugham later admitted that the biggest professional mistake he had made in his life was “not letting Tallulah Bankhead play Rain”. 10 years later she played Sadie Thompson in a revival of Rain at the Music Box in New York.

·     ¹ In the Charles H. Towne Collection at the Yale University Library.

      F82.   Kronenberger, Louis. The Thread of Laughter. (1952)

·     Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1952. Chapters of English Stage Comedy from Jonson to Maugham. “Maugham”, pp. 289-98.

      F83.   Hart-Davis, Rupert. Hugh Walpole: A Biography. (1952)

·     Macmillan & Co., London, 1952. Cakes and Ale, 316; his letter of denial, 316-7; his later admission, 317 n.; his reflections, 318-20; and Gin and Bitters, 323-4, 326.

·     [These are presumably the references to Maugham.]

      F84.   Pound, Reginald. Arnold Bennett: A Biography. (1952)

·     William Heinemann, London (1952). W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 6, 23, 31, 129-40, 292, 294, 315, 345, 353, 362. A useful reference work for the picture it gives of the early days in Paris at the Chat Blanc.

[F84a. Smith, William F. Fiction Techniques in the Short Stories and Novels of William Somerset Maugham. Master Thesis, 1952.]

      F85.   MacCarthy, Desmond. Memories. (1953)

·     MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1953. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 61-68 [F37].

F85a. Kuner, Mildred C. The Development of William Somerset Maugham. (1953)

·     Columbia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1953. Doctoral dissertation. See F104.

      F86.   Marlow, Louis. Seven Friends. (1953)

·     Richards Press, London, 1953. William Somerset Maugham, pp. 142-70. A rewrite of the article he wrote for Writers of Today, ed. by Denys Val Baker.

      F87.   Jonas, K. W. (Ed.). The Maugham Enigma: An Anthology. (1954)

·     Peter Owen Ltd., London, 1954. A scrap book of articles, reviews etc., all previously published.

·     [For the contents, see: A65, F7, F46, F65, F76, G3, G9, G11a, G14f, G17, G22d, G23, G30, G34, G42, G44a, G47, G50, G51a, G53b, G61, G66, G69a, G71b, G72, G76a. See a review here.]

      F88.   MacCarthy, Desmond. Theatre. (1954)

·     MacGibbons & Kee, London, 1954. Somerset Maugham, pp. 119-39.

      F89.   William Somerset Maugham. (1954)

·     William Heinemann, London (1954). Aetat 80. A pamphlet on Maugham to celebrate his 80^th birthday.

      F90.   William Somerset Maugham: An Exhibition (1945 [sic? 1954?])

·     The Times Bookshop, London (1945?). An exhibition of manuscripts, first editions, and associated items in honour of his eightieth birthday. Most of the exhibits came from the Toole Stott Collection, now preserved in The University of California Library, Santa Barbara.

      F91.   Bason, Fred. Fred Bason’s 3^rd Diary. (1955)

·     Andre Deutsch (London), 1955. Edited, and with an Introduction by Michael Sadleir. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 48-9, 81, 117-9, 167.

      F92.   Green, Julian. Journal, 1950–1954. (1955)

·     Librairie Plon., Paris, 1955. A visit made by Julian Green to Somerset Maugham in 1952, p. 154.

      F93.   Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe. Theatrical Companion to Maugham. (1955)

·     Rockliff, London (1955). A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the plays of W. Somerset Maugham. With an Appreciation of Maugham’s Dramatic Works by J. C. Trewin.

·     [Dedication: “To / W. Somerset Maugham / in sincere admiration of his creations, and to / the Actors and Actresses who interpret them, / we offer this tribute”]

·     [On p. [iv] there is a letter of thanks by Maugham. It is dated “Villa Mauresque, / St. Jean Cap Ferrat, A.M. / 15 September, 1955.” and runs like this: “Dear Mander and Mitchenson, / I received yesterday your proofs of the Theatrical Companion to Maugham. I am amazed at the amount of work you have obviously put into it. Your industry is as staggering as your accuracy is impressive. I can only thank you for all the pains you have taken. / Yours sincerely, / (signed) W. S. Maugham”. See contents here.]

      F94.   Swinnerton, Frank. Background with Chorus. (1956)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1956. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 27. 102, 124, 139, 162, 176.

      F95.   Bell, Clive. Old Friends: Personal Recollections of Clive Bell. (1956)

·     Chatto & Windus, London, 1956. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 151-3. Reminiscences of Maugham in Paris in the early part of the century.

      F96.   Jonas, K. W. The Gentleman from Cap Ferrat. (1956)

·     Center for Maugham Studies, New Haven, Conn., 1956. With a preface by W. Somerset Maugham. A rehash of biographical material garnered from Maugham’s writings. The booklet has a letter of Maugham’s inserted as a preface. The photographs, taken by a photographer in Nice, are excellent.

·     [Klaus Jonas so loved this letter-preface that he used it in two other books, F104 and F189. It is a charming trifle which Maugham concludes with these unforgettable words: “I am well aware that I have lost any talent I may have had. There was only one thing for me to do – to turn critic.” The letter is dated “14th May, 1956” and was apparently written especially for the occasion. See review here.]

      F97.   Pearson, Hesketh. Beerbohm Tree: His Life and Laughter. (1956)

·     Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1956.          

·     p. 163: In 1913 Strauss’s Ariadne in Naxos was sandwiched between The Perfect Gentleman, an English version of Molière’s Les Bourgeois Gentilhomme by W. S. Maugham who writes: “Tree asked me to put it into modern English which I did, and both he and I were rather violently attacked in consequence. If Tree hadn’t wanted this, he could have used the very good 18^th century translation. Mine aws never published, and has long been lost sight of.”

[F97a. Toole Stott, Raymond. The Writings of William Somerset Maugham. Bertram Rota, 1956. A Supplement was published in 1964 by Straker Bros. Both this and F72 are completely superseded by the 1973 Revised and Extended edition. See a review here.]

      F98.   Jensen, Sven Arnold. William Somerset Maugham. (1957)

·     University Press, Oslo, 1957. Some Aspects of the Man and his Work. A University thesis.

      F99.   Bishop. George W. My Betters. (1957)

·     W. Heinemann, London, 1957. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 96-9, 180-1. The author was literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph for 20 years.

  F100.   [Isherwood, Christopher (Ed.). Great English Short Stories. (1957)]

·     [Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1957. An appreciative, touching introduction to “The Book Bag”, pp. 294-6 (F175). See C35a.]

[Stott = FXXX–1 from here on!]

  F101.   Hassall, Christopher. Edward Marsh: Patron of the Arts. (1959)

·     Longmans (London, 1959). This definitive biography contains a great deal of interesting information on Maugham including a number of unpublished letters, and reproduces some of the proofs of The Summing Up with Marsh’s critical notes. These proofs were auctioned at Sotheby’s in the Sir Gerald Kelly sale and are now in the Library of the University of Texas.

·     [The proofs are compelling. They are separated into “Appendix III: Diabolization”, pp. 691-703, and well worth the time of the curious student of Maugham. The rest, however, is disappointing. Most of the references to Maugham are perfectly pedestrian, brief mentions of his name, book titles and the like. Mr Stott’s “a number of unpublished letters” are imaginary. They consist of exactly two short notes and two quotations from Maugham’s generous tributes to Eddie, one from “Proof Reading as an Avocation” (D117) and one from the letter that appears in the English edition of Strictly Personal [A60d]. These delightful bits can be found on pp. 615, 639-40 – and that’s all. The biography on the whole is an exercise in exquisite tediousness.]

  F102.   Davis, H. Pilgrims not Strangers. (1959)

·     Oxford University Press, London, 1959. A Mirror of the Ministry of Modern Novels, pp. 113-36.

  F103.   Pfeiffer, Karl G. William Somerset Maugham: A Candid Portrait. (1959)

·     W. W. Norton, New York (1959). Gollancz, London, 1959. Introduction by Jerome Weidman. In a full-page splash interview in The Sunday Express (London) under date 19 April 1959, Mr. Maugham dissociated himself from his biographer and stated that he had not ‘set eyes on him for 10 years’ and in all his life ‘I suppose I have been in his company for 10 days.’ [See also F189 and a review here.]

  F104.   Jonas, K. W. (Ed.). The World of Somerset Maugham: An Anthology. (1959)

·     British Book Center, New York (1959). Described on the title page as anthology this is a collection of 5 essays all previously published. The book has a letter of Maugham’s inserted as a foreword which was also used as a preface to The Gentleman to Cap Ferrat.

·     [The same letter-preface was used again 50 years later (F189). Contents: Frank Swinnerton, “Somerset Maugham as a Writer” (see G99); Klaus W. Jonas, “The Gentleman from Cap Ferrat” (F96); M. C. Kuner, “Maugham and the West: The Human Condition: Bondage” (see F85a); Klaus W. Jonas, “Maugham and the East: Human Condition: Freedom”; St. John Ervine, “Maugham the Playwright”; Glenway Wescott, “Maugham and Posterity” (G69). See review here.]

  F105.   Saturday Review Gallery: Selected from the Complete Files (1959)

·     Simon & Schuster, New York, 1959. Introduction by John Winterich. Somerset Maugham by Frank Swinnerton, pp. 362-9.

  F106.   Bason, Fred. The Last Bassoon: from the diaries of Fred Bason. (1960)

·     Max Parrish, London (1960). Edited, and introduced by Noel Coward. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 8, 34-6, 88, 102, 132.

  F107.   Cooper, Douglas. The Work of Graham Sutherland. (1961)

·     Lund Humphries, London, 1961. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 39, 50, 52 n., 56-7. Interesting account of the genesis of the portrait now in the National Gallery and the Cakes and Ale drawings.

  F108.   Simoes, Joao Gaspar. Quatro Estudios. (1961)

·     Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Brasil (1961). III. Somerset Maugham, Dramaturgo.

F108a. Young, Jessica Brett. Francis Brett Young: A Biography. (1962)

·     Heinemann, London, 1962. With a preface by C. P. Snow. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 13, 128, 172, 179, 247, 249, 289; Walpole and, pp. 172, 176.

  F109.   Lawrence, D. H. The Collected Letters of. (1962)

·     Heinemann, Lonodn, 1962, 2 vols. Edited, with an introduction by Harry T. Moore. Vol. 2, W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 815-6, 817 n., 908, 1230 n.

·     Maugham understandably was not Lawrence’s ‘cup of tea’. He and Wells were “rolling their incomes round Nice”, while poor Lawrence “coughed in his little ‘square box’ of a villa.” Lawrence unkindly referred to Maugham as “a narrow-gutted ‘artist’ with a stutter”.

·     [See Mr Lawrence’s inexplicably famous review of Ashenden, reprinted in F175, for further evidence of his envy and malice towards Maugham. Like Katherine Mansfield’s ranting about The Moon and Sixpence, it is quoted far more often than it deserves, many folks apparently being under the impression that famous writers must necessarily be fine critics: as Maugham argued, the opposite is more likely to be true. History seems to agree with Willie on this point. This is not the place to discuss the matter, but consider how very few writers, composers, performers, any artists, have attained eminence as both creative and critical forces. I can’t think of many myself.]

  F110.   Boothby, Lord. My Yesteryear, Your Tomorrow. (1962)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1962. The Maugham Legend, pp. 224-8.

 F110a. Russell, Leonard (Ed.). The Sunday Times Book Encore. (1963)

·     Michael Joseph (London, 1963). Somerset Maugham reviles University Scum, pp. 294-5.

  F111.   Land, Myrick. The Fine Art of Literary Mayhem. (1962)

·     Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1962. Hamish Hamilton, London (1963). A Lively Account of Famous Writers and their Feuds. The ‘Ridiculous’ Mr. Walpole Endures Agonies at the Hands of Mr. Maugham, pp. 161-79.

  F112.   Brander, Laurence. Somerset Maugham: A Guide. (1963)

·     Oliver & Boyd, London, Edinburgh; Barnes & Noble, New York; 1963. A not uninteresting study of Maugham’s work, with some occasional shrewd comments.

 F112a. Stewart, J. I. M. Eight Modern Writers. (1963)

·     The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 13, 245, 263.

  F113.   Fleming, Ian. Thrilling Cities. (1963)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1963. An afternoon spent with Maugham in Tokyo, pp. 53-4.

  F114.   Wyndham, Violet. The Sphinx and Her Circle. (1963)

·     Andre Deutsch, London, 1963. A Memoir of Ada Leverson by her Daughter. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 38, 76-7.

·     Ada Leverson, the friend of Oscar Wilde, and many literary people of her day, kept up an acquaintance with Maugham for some years, and he wrote her many letters in his early days which are in Yale University Library. Ada Leverson also wrote a novel in 1911 The Limit in which one of the characters was Hereford Vaughan, a recognisable portrait of Somerset Maugham.

·     [Miss Leverson’s description is worth quoting: “Hereford Vaughan, who was an object of considerable curiosity to several of the guests on account of his phenomenal success in having eleven plays at the same time being performed in London, New York, Berlin, Paris, and every other European city, was, to those who did not know him before, an agreeable surprise. Heaven knows what exactly people expected of him; perhaps the men feared 'side' and the women that he would be overpowering after so many triumphs, but he was merely a rather pale, dark, and rather handsome young man. He behaved like anybody else, except that perhaps his manner was a little quieter than the average. Unless one was very observant (which one isn't), or unless one listened to what he said, he did not at first appear too alarmingly clever. He had one or two characteristics which must have at times led to misunderstandings. One was that whatever or whoever he looked at, his dark opaque eyes were so full of vivid expression that women often mistook for admiration what was often merely observation. For instance, when he glanced at Lady Walmer she at once became quite confused, and intensely flattered, nearly blushed and asked him to dinner. While, if she had but known, behind that dark glance was merely the thought, "So that's the woman that Royalty... What extraordinary taste!"”]

  F115.   Swinnerton, Frank. Figures in the Foreground: Literary Reminiscences, 1917-40. (1963)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1963. Sophisticated Cavemen, pp. 31-26 [sic]; Maugham and Walpole, pp. 89-94.

  F116.   McKinney, John F. Review Notes and Study Guide to Maugham’s Of Human Bondage. (1964)

·     Distributed by Monarch Press, New York (1964). Edited by Ralph Ronald. Monarch Review Notes and Study Guides, 622.

  F117.   Weintraub, Stanley. Reggie: A Portrait of Reginald Turner. (1965)

·     George Braziller, New York, 1965. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 3, 153, 168-60, 163, 167, 185, 192-3, 212, 223, 224-5, 231-3, 244. Reginald Turner knew everyone in the literary world of his day, and was a friend of Maugham. See App. II.

·     [See “Some Novelists I Have Known” from A.A74, where Maugham paid him this handsome and hilarious tribute: “Reggie Turner was on the whole the most amusing man I have known. [...] He was by way of being a novelist, but somehow, when he took up his pen his gaiety, his extravagant invention, his lightness deserted him, and his novels were dull. They were unsuccessful. He said of them: 'With most novelists it's their first edition that is valuable, but with mine it's the second. It doesn't exist.'”]

  F118.   Maclaren-Ross, J. Memories of the Forties. (1965)

·     Alan Ross, London, 1965. How W. S. Maugham’s The Decline and Fall of the Detective Story came to be rejected by Cyril Connolly, editor of Horizon, pp. 77-8. In the March 1940 issue of Horizon the Editor announces that he will publish Somerset Maugham on the Thriller next month, but did not. Not next month or ever!

  F119.   Mackenzie, Compton. My Life and Times: Octave Four, 1907–1914. (1965)

·     Chatto & Windus, London, 1965. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 111, 233.

·     The island of Capri was a favourite resort of the English literary celebrities before the First World War and Maugham shared a villa with E. F. Benson and John Ellingham Brooks, who was the prototype for Cross in The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey and later far more prominently as Hayward in Of Human Bondage. Compton Mackenzie provides much valuable information about the Island and the colourful literary folk who made it so notorious at the time.

  F120.   Purcell, Victor. The Memoirs of a Malayan Official. (1965)

·     Cassell, London, 1965. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 109, 248-9, 253, 256-7, 271.

·     This book throws quite a lot of light [my emphasis] not only on the scandals which undoubtedly gave Maugham the idea for many of his plots (i.e. pp. 249-50) but also on the charge that [“]he abused hospitality by ferreting out the family skeletons and putting them into his books[”], The Letter, which was based on a local cause célèbre, being the most notorious.

·     [Much of this simply is not true. The book is a fascinating first-hand historical account of the British Empire at the time when Maugham fictionalised it in his short stories. But it throws hardly any light on Maugham’s sources or working methods. About the real foundations of “The Letter”, which already were more than a decade old when Maugham picked up and transformed them into something far greater, Mr Purcell tells nothing except that they existed; nor is it clear, in this particular case, how Maugham abused the hospitality of people he never met. In fact, references to him are scarce, superficial and show an essential lack of understanding what a creative writer tries to do in his works. While reading Mr Purcell one is often tempted to exclaim: “It’s fiction, stupid!” His final verdict is a by-product of his warped colonial point of view: “The Maugham chiaroscuro always seemed to me to consist of sharp contrasts exclusively, with no nuance or shading”. It never occurred to Mr Purcell that “sharp contrasts” were exactly the point and that Maugham’s aim was the exploration of human nature, not a journalistic reportage from the colonies. Nevertheless, I repeat, this is a compelling book, well-written, beautifully illustrated (14 black-and-white photos), and very much worth reading, if not especially insightful about Maugham.]

  F121.   Menard, Wilmon. The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham. (1965)

·     Sherbourne Press Inc., Los Angeles, California (1965).

·     [A book of questionable quality by a fellow globetrotter. Mr Menard did a lot of research on Maugham’s works based in the South Seas. He spoke with the real model of Ethel from “The Pool”, met Gauguin’s son, and found out that Maugham had the audacity to use Miss Thompson’s real name. However, Mr Menard’s research is very shaky indeed. During his travels he seems to have relied mostly on gossip and his quoting of long conversations with Maugham must be taken cum grano salis. It’s not clear whether the author recorded them in situ or later reconstructed them from memory, nor when he quotes from these interviews and when from Maugham’s published writings. See a review here – skip it and start with the “Afterthoughts”.]

  F122.   Stanley, Louis T. People, Places and Pleasures. (1965)

·     MacDonald, London, 1965. Somerset Maugham, pp. 126-9.

  F123.   W. Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation. (1965)

·     Doubleday, Garden City, New York (1965). An appreciation with biographical sketches and a bibliography. Mr Maugham in America by Ellen Doubleday.

  F124.   Allsop, Kenneth. Scan. (1965)

·     Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1965. Grand Old Maugham, pp. 93-7.

  F125.   Nakano, Yoshio. Sansetto Momu Kenkyu. (1966)

·     (Tokyo, 1966. Trans: William Somerset Maugham)

  F126.   Mackenzie, Compton. My Life and Times: Octave Five, 1915–1923. (1966)

·     Chatto & Windus, London, 1966. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 71, 150, 166, 231, 247.

  F127.   Naik, M. K. W. Somerset Maugham. (1966)

·     University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1966. [See reviews here and here.]

  F128.   Bennett, Arnold. Letters of. (1966)

·     Oxford University Press, London, 1966, 2 vols. Edited by James Hepburn. Vol. 1, Letters to J. B. Pinker, pp. 3, 63, 78, 80, 108.

  F129.   Hewetson, Cecil (Ed.). Wit and Wisdom of Somerset Maugham. (1966)

·     Duckworth (London, 1966). Collected by Cecil Hewetson. A very superficial selection, which omits many of the most noteworthy passages which are to be found only in the author’s fiction.

  F130.   Nicolson, Harold. Diaries and Letters, 1930–1939. (1966)

·     Collins, London, 1966. Edited by Nigel Nicolson. W. S. Maugham, p. 58; his stories about Lily Langtry, p. 167; his demon chauffer, pp. 273-4, 276; Virginia Woolf’s praise for The Summing Up [pp. ?]; Nicolson at the Villa Mauresque, p. 351; the Windsors come to dinner, pp. 351-2.

  F131.   The Saturday Book: 26^th Year. (1966)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1966. Postscript to Maugham, by Fred Bason. A sad postscript indeed!

  F132.   Pearson, John. The Life of Ian Fleming. (1966)

·     Jonathan Cape, London, 1966. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 223-4, 234-5, 242-5, 329.

  F133.   Nichols, Beverly. A Case of Human Bondage. (1966)

·     Secker & Wartburg, London (1966). [See reviews here and here.]

  F134.   Preview of A Case of Human Bondage. (1966)

·     By Beverley Nichols. Coming from Secker & Wartburg on Thursday May 19^th at 21s. – “The Most Controversial Book of 1966… could sell 100 000 copies.”

·     An advertising blurb for Beverley Nichols’ book, containing extracts picked at random. Whether it sold 100 000 copies is doubtful, but the publishers came in for some caustic criticism for publishing this attack on one of their own authors.

  F135.   Maugham, Robin. Somerset Maugham and All the Maughams. (1966)

·     Longmans-Heinemann, London, 1966. New American Library (New York, 1966).

·     There has been some criticism of Robin Maugham’s book, but apart from the passages that deal with his Uncle, it is a fascinating and absorbing study in familial history, particularly the Appendices which add a sad and final note to Robin Maugham’s researches in the past. Although there is some truth in what the ‘blurb’ to the book claims that as a contribution to the understanding of Somerset Maugham it is of incomparable value and interest, it should not be overlooked that his nephew arrived late on the scene and that many of his deductions are second-hand or are based on the recollections and sensibilities of a very old man.

·     Mr. Robin Maugham sold the film rights of his book to Mr. Joseph F. Levine’s Embassy Picture Corporation, and he wrote the screen play of the film. Much of the shooting of “Willie” – if it has not been shelved – will take place in the grounds of the Villa Mauresque. But because it has changed so much with the building of luxury chalets in the ground and alterations to the Villa itself, a replica will have to be built in the studio. Mr. Alan Searle told me that when he visited the Villa shortly after the developers had moved in, he just “stood there and cried!”

·     [What a lovely bit of trivia! Unfortunately, “Willie” seems to have been shelved without a trace. See reviews here and here.]   

 [F135a. Kanin, Garson. Remembering Mr. Maugham. Atheneum, 1966.]

·     [Important book. After Maugham’s own books, this may be the most important volume about him. Mr Kanin recorded verbatim many conversations and anecdotes with Maugham. Most of them are trivial and unimportant, but some do contain insights into Maugham’s inner world or details about his life not obtainable elsewhere. The anecdotes are organised in no special order and there are no titles or any other indication about their contents. Fortunately, there is an index of names and titles. See also G166 and F155a. See review here – skip it and start with the “Afterthoughts”.]

  F136.   Coward, Noël. A Song at Twilight: A Comedy in Two Acts. (1967)

·     Samuel French, London (1967). It was generally assumed by the critics at the first night of the play that the character of Sir Hugo Latymer was based on Somerset Maugham, but this was denied by the author. The play was originally published by Heinemann (1966) as one of three plays by Noël Coward. [See F160.]

  F137.   Winn, Godfrey. The Infirm Glory. (1967)

·     Michael Joseph, London, 1967. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 92, 128, 177, 180, 202, 245-76, 279-88, 317, 337, 339.

  F138.   Taylor, John Russell. The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play. (1967)

·     Methuen, London; Hill and Wang, New York; 1967. Many references to Maugham’s dramatic work.

  F139.   Henry, William H. Jr. A French Bibliography of W. Somerset Maugham. (1967)

·     The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1967. [A list of his works published in France, his contributions to French periodicals, the Swiss, Belgian, and French criticism of his books, plays and films.”]

  F140.   Waugh, Alec. My Brother Evelyn and Other Profiles. (1967)

·     Cassell, London, 1967. 10. The Nail in the Coffin, Hugh Walpole, pp. 128-40. 18. W.S.M.: R.I.P., pp. 271-94. A kind, sympathetic portrait that warms the cockles of the heart.

  F141.   Channon, Sir Henry “Chips”. The Diaries of. (1967)

·     Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 1967. Edited by Robert Rhodes James. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 32, 392, 417-9, 435-6, 448, 450.

  F142.   Sotheby’s Catalogue (1967)

·     Sotheby & Co. (1967). Sotheby’s Catalogue of the Contents of the Villa Mauresque, the property of the late W. Somerset Maugham. Day of the Sale Monday 20^th November 1967 at 10.30 precisely.

·     The Villa Mauresque was left to Mr. Maugham’s daughter Lady Glendevon, the contents of the Villa and the income from the copyright of his works for life to Mr. Alan Searle, his secretary and companion for more than 30 years. The income will then go to the Royal Literary Fund which helped aged authors in difficulties and of which Mr. Maugham was Vice-President.

  F143.   Beachcroft, T. O. The Modest Art: A Survey of the Short Story in English. (1968)

·     Oxford University Press, London, 1968. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 4-5, 8, 12, 25-6, 66, 84, 125, 127, 195-204, 216-7, 228; comparison with Kipling, 137; with Maupassant, 201; his influence on post-war writers, 214; writing on Chekhov, 5, 128, 196-7, 214, 233; on development of short story form, pp. 1, 64, 197-200, 233-4.

  F144.   Morrice, James Wilson. Catalogue of an exhibition of his paintings. (1968)

·     Wildenstein’s Gallery, London, London, July 4 – August 2, 1968. Morrice was one of the group of painters Maugham met at the Chat Blanc in 1905, and the author used him as a model for Cronshaw in Of Human Bondage.

  F145.   Barnes, Ronald F. The Dramatic Comedy of William Somerset Maugham. (1968)

·     Mouton, Paris, The Hague, 1968. Studies in English Literature, Vol. XXXII.

  F146.   Greene, Graham. Collected Essays. (1969)

·     Bodley Head, London, 1969. Notes on Somerset Maugham, pp. 197-205.

·     [Combines in one essay the reviews of Don Fernando, the collected short stories, and The Summing Up. Bassett.]

 F146a. Fowler, W. B. British-American Relations, 1917–1918. (1969)

·     Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1969. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 114-18. Important official account of Maugham’s role in allied espionage in Russia in 1917. Fowler also reveals the location of Maugham’s reports to Sir William Wiseman, head of the British intelligence operations in the United States. A number of these important documents are published for the first time in Robert L. Calder’s W. Somerset Maugham (1972) [F160].

  F147.   House and Garden. (1969)

·     Condé Nast Publications Ltd., London, 1969. Weekend Book. Ann Fleming writes about her visit to Somerset Maugham in his home in the South of France a decade ago.

 F146a. Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autobiography. (1969)

·     Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1969. Edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 348-9, 570-2, 931 n. Crowley’s first wife was Sir Gerald Kelly’s eldest sister.

  F148.   Sanders, Charles (Ed.). W. Somerset Maugham: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him. (1970)

·     Northern Illinois University Press, De Kalb, Illinois, 1970.

·     This work lists criticisms, reviews and what has been said in books and articles about Maugham (much of it ephemera) over three quarters of a century. What the Editor means by the statement “except for solving certain bibliographical problems and correcting some inaccuracies, the Editor has refrained from rendering personal judgments” is not clear, since none are propounded. But the work will not doubt be of interest to students and scholars seeking to ascertain the reaction of critics to Maugham at different periods of his literary career. [See also Bassett, F175.]

  F149.   Dean, Basil. Seven Ages: An Autobiography, 1886–1927. (1970)

·     Hutchinson, London, 1970. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 175-8, 233-4, 250-1, 255, 304-6, 312, 322.

  F150.   Aldington, Richard. Selected Critical Writings, 1928–1960. (1970)

·     Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Ill., 1970. Edited by Alister Kershaw. With a preface by Harry T. Moore. Somerset Maugham, pp. 32-39 [G45].

  F151.   Sterling, Nora B. Who Wrote the Modern Classics? (1970)

·     The John Day Co., New York (1970). W. Somerset Maugham (with portrait), pp. 9-41.

  F152.   Brown, Ivor. W. Somerset Maugham. (1970)

·     International Profiles, London, 1970. The text is indifferent, but the photographs illustrating the book are a delight! [See reviews here.]

  F153.   Acton, Harold. More Memoirs of an Aesthete. (1970)

·     Methuen, London, 1970. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 16, 62, 214, 253, 323, 325-8, 334-7, 365.

  F154.   Brown, Ivor. Old and Young. (1971)

·     The Bodley Head, London, 1971. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 15, 60-1, 65, 145, 165.

  F155.   Daubeny, Peter. My World of Theatre. (1971)

·     Jonathan Cape, London (1971). A severely critical account of a visit to Somerset Maugham at the Villa Mauresque and in London, pp. 67-9, 97-101.

 F155a. Gordon, Ruth. Myself Among Others. (1971)

·     Atheneum Publications, New York (1971). Ruth Gordon, the American actress, was a friend of Maugham’s for many years. [And Garson Kanin’s wife. See F135a.]

  F156.   King’s School, Canterbury, England. Books given by W. Somerset Maugham. (n.d.)

·     Canterbury, Kent, King’s School. England, n.d. Folio.

·     Catalogue of the Maugham Library of 5 000 books bequeathed to King’s School, classified according to subjects. The best part of the books were his working library and many are annotated by him. The remainder are mostly books sent to him by their authors and inscribed by them. There is for instance a charming double inscription in a book of poems by Edith Sitwell in which she has written “For W. Somerset Maugham with homage from Edith Sitwell and for Willie with love from Edith.” There is also a set of the works of H. G. Wells Vol. 1 of which is inscribed “To Willie. God bless him. H. G. Xmas. 1934,” with a comic sketch of himself in the nude. There are one or two which belonged to his wife Syrie and a number of Gerald Haxton’s.

·     The ashes of W. S. M. are buried in a mahogany casket in the wall of the Library and a plaque marks the spot. Mr. Alan Searle    told me that Mr. Maugham wanted to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral but the Dean and Chapter would not consent because he was an agnostic “which he was not”, said Mr. Searle, “at least towards the end.”

·     [Probably this is where the rumour that Maugham wanted to be buried in the Canterbury Cathedral comes from. It may or may not be true. As for Maugham not being agnostic “toward the end”, this is Mr Searle’s invention or a side-effect of Maugham’s dementia; either way, it is of no consequence.]

·     [This list became the basis of W. Somerset Maugham’s Legacy Library.]

  F157.   Behrman, S. N. People in a Diary: A Memoir. (1972)

·     Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Toronto, 1972. XXI. W. Somerset Maugham.

  F158.   Behrman, S. N. Tribulations and Laughter: A Memoir. (1972)

·     Hamilton, London, 1972. XXI. W. Somerset Maugham. A somewhat barbed portrait.

·     [Presumably F157 is the same book as F158. Why it needs two entries is not quite clear.]

  F159.   Maugham, Robin. Escape from the Shadows. (1972)

·     Hodder & Stoughton, London (1972). Robin Maugham: His Autobiography. One of the shadows being his Uncle William Somerset Maugham.

  F160.   Calder, Robert L. William Somerset Maugham and the Quest for Freedom. (1972)

·     Heinemann, London, 1972.

·     [Wonderful appendices on the real-life model of Rosie from Cakes and Ale, five fictional portraits of Maugham in books by others (Leverson, Mordaunt, Walpole, Behrman, Coward), and his spy activities during WWI; see also F146a. Otherwise there is little to admire in Calder’s dry and contrived analyses. In his general chapters, “Biographical Introduction” and “Conclusion”, he launches many ill-advised attacks on Maugham’s works. See a review here.]

  F161.   Roberts, Cecil. Sunshine and Shadow. (1972)

·     Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1972. Being the Fourth Book of an Autobiography, 1930–1946. W. Somerset Maugham, pp. 40, 91, 98, 201, 274-5, 293-6, 328, 330, 332, 351, 353, 364, 367, 376, 410. A fascinating autobiography, which contains much of interest on Maugham.

·     [Balls! This is neither a ''fascinating autobiography'', nor does it contain ''much of interest on Maugham''. This is an autobiography of the dullest possible kind, listing tons of events with minimum reflection in between, and the only really interesting moment on Maugham is when Mr Roberts met the grief-stricken author shortly after Haxton's death; you can find those few lines in most of Maugham's biographies.]

  F162.   [Roberts, Cecil. The Pleasant Years. (1974)]

·     [Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1974. Being the Fifth Book of an Autobiography, 1947–1972. Bassett: “Recounts his friendship with Maugham and his visits to the Villa Mauresque.”]

  F163.   [Curtis, Anthony. The Pattern of Maugham: A Critical Portrait. (1974)]

·     [Hamish Hamilton, London, 1974. Preface by the author. Bibliography, Notes, Index. Colour reproduction of Maugham's portrait by Edward MacAvoy on the dust jacket and as a frontispiece. US edition: Taplinger, New York, 1974.]

·     [The finest study of Maugham's complete oeuvre, exquisitely written and with a great deal of common sense not usually found in critics. Despite his obvious affection for Maugham, the writing of Mr Curtis never degenerates into affectation; his praise is always qualified, his criticism sensible, to the point and only occasionally superficial. Not everybody thinks so, of course. See G179–G182, G187 and G189. Selections from the book may be consulted here.]

  F164.   [Maugham, Robin. Search for Nirvana. (1975)]

·     [Allen, London, 1975. Bassett 79: “Offered as a sequel in some ways to his [F159], chronicles Robin Maugham's search for happiness that parallels with his uncle Maugham's similar search. Posits the hypnotist Dr. Leahy as a source for Larry's similar abilities in The Razor's Edge, and recounts visits to the Villa Mauresque, including one with Dorothy Parker.”]

  F165.   [Dobrinsky, Joseph. La Jeunesse de Somerset Maugham, 1874–1903. (1976)]

·     [Didier, Montpellier, 1976. Bassett 86: “This biographical and critical study covers the first thirty years of Maugham's life and works and uses a psychoanalytical approach in discussing both. Gives a thorough discussion of Maugham's various influences – British literature, French literature, and philosophy – and his earliest writings, such as Liza of Lambeth, The Land of the Blessed Virgin, and Mrs. Craddock, as well as the more autobiographical works, Of Human Bondage and The Summing Up.”]

  F166.   [Raphael, Frederick. Somerset Maugham and His World. (1976)]

·     [Macmillan Pub. Co.; Thames & Hudson; Charles Scribner’s Sons; Book Club Associates; 1976. Dust jacket.]

·     [Cardinal Books, London, 1987. Bassett 281: “Expanded and revised version that incorporates parts of two earlier articles on Maugham, "The Case for Somerset Maugham" [G178] and "Fiction and the Medical Mode" [G191].”]

·     [Not as superbly illustrated as F167, greatly inferior text-wise. Mr Raphael writes a turgid and pretentious prose, but he has the audacity to blame Maugham for lack of clarity, dubiously explained by some imaginary French influence over his sentence structure. Moreover, his text is just about to burst under the weight of all clichés – homosexuality, tortured marriage, second-class, etc., etc. – that have become the stuff Maugham legends are made on. The Mixture as Before – and After.]

  F167.   [Curtis, Anthony. Somerset Maugham. (1977)]

·     [Macmillan, New York; Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London; 1977. Dust jacket.]

·     [The finest illustrated biography of Maugham. Brief, lucid, balanced and sensible account of his life and work. The more than 100 black-and-white illustrations are magnificent. See reviews here.]

  F168.   [Maugham, Robin. Conversations with Willie. (1978)]

·     [Simon & Schuster, New York; W. H. Allen, London; 1978. Paperback: Pan Books; Macmillan; 1980.]

·     [Bassett 119: “Recounts conversations with his uncle, Gerald Haxton, and Alan Searle held on his visits to the Villa Mauresque. Gives a frank discussion of Maugham's homosexuality, and focuses especially on the final ten years of Maugham's life, chronicling his mental deterioration and depression.”]

  F169.   [Morgan, Ted (Ed.). Letter from Singapore by W. Somerset Maugham. (1979)]

·     Associates of the Stanford U Libraries, Stanford, 1979. Introduction by the editor. Bassett 134: “Reprints a 1921 letter from Maugham to Bertram Alanson that relates the real-life inspiration for "The Yellow Streak". Morgan's introduction gives a history of the two men's friendship.”]

  F170.   [Morgan, Ted. Maugham. (1980)]

·     [Simon & Schuster, New York; Jonathan Cape Ltd, London, 1980. Paperback: Simon & Schuster, New York; Triad/Granada, London; Touchstone, New York, 1981.]

·     [The first full-scale biography of Maugham. Today of historical interest only, mostly for the negative conditioning it might have exercised on later critical studies (F172, F177). Mr Morgan’s chatty and gossipy style is eminently readable. Strong on facts and figures, very short on insight, rather condescending at some places, particularly lurid towards the end. Fairly well-researched but not without blanks.]

  F171.   [Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe, Guide to the Maugham Collection of Theatrical Paintings (1981)]

·     [National Theatre and Heinemann, London, 1981. Bassett 177: “Catalogues the collection of theatrical paintings donated by Maugham to the National Theatre, giving illustrations and historical background.”]

  F172.   [Curtis, Anthony. Somerset Maugham. (1982)]

·     [Northcote House, 1982. Writers and their Work, No. 279. Contains the same bibliography with the same silly mistakes as F79.]

·     [Indifferent pamphlet that oscillates uncertainly between a small part of Maugham’s works and a few selected events from his life, both examined with remarkable superficiality. Anthony Curtis at his worst. He is still better than most other critics, but elsewhere he has discussed Maugham’s life (F167) and works (F163) in greater detail and much more perceptively.]

  F173.   [Rothschild, Loren R., (Ed.). The Letters of William Somerset Maugham to Lady Juliet Duff. (1982)]

·     [Rasselas P, Pacific Palisades, CA, 1982. xx+81 pp. Bassett 193: “Reprints the correspondence of Maugham to his friend Lady Duff which consists of 92 letters and 14 postcards written between October 1935 and the early 1960s. The introduction includes a brief biography of Lady Duff and her friendship with Maugham.”]

  F174.   [Burt, Forrest D. W. Somerset Maugham. (1985)]

·     [Twayne, Boston, 1985. Twayne's English Authors Series. See a review here.]

  F175.   [Curtis, Anthony & Whitehead, John (Eds.). W. Somerset Maugham: The Critical Heritage. (1987)]

·     [Routedge & Kegan Paul, London and New York, 1987.]

·     [Comprehensive selection of book reviews plus several general studies, altogether 150 pieces spanning 68 years, from Maugham’s first novel in 1897 to his death in 1965. Includes the splenetic outbursts of Edmund Wilson, D. H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield, but also a good deal of appreciative criticism by Desmond MacCarthy, J. T. Grein, Raymond Mortimer, Richard Cordell, Cyril Connolly and W. H. Auden. Also contains some historically important pieces like, for example, the unsigned review of Cosmopolitans (G37b) from which Maugham took the title of his next short story collection and Aleister Crowley’s recognising himself as “The Magician” and accusing Maugham of plagiarizing some musty volumes on black magic (G3a). Entertaining though forgettable read. Admirable introduction by the editors on the critical response to Maugham during his life. The perfect book for those interested in this subject. See a review here.]

  F176.   [Whitehead, John. Maugham: A Reappraisal. (1987)]

·     [Vision Press, London; Barnes and Noble, New York; 1987.]

·     [Decent study of Maugham’s complete output, but compromised by Mr Whitehead’s prudish and priggish preconceptions, and to an even larger extent by his overtly descriptive approach and passion for misguided analysis of novels as non-fiction; whole appendices are dedicated to the “chronology” of The Razor’s Edge and Cakes and Ale. Worth reading for an occasional insight, but a good deal of it is worth skipping, too. Mr Whitehead is generous in his assessment of Maugham’s works that are likely to survive, but it remains unclear what his “reappraisal” finally amounts to. See a review here.]

  F177.   [Loss, Archie. W. Somerset Maugham. (1987)]

·     [Impossible junk! Not worth the paper it is printed on. Full of praise (?!) for Morgan's biography (F170) and amazing amount of the usual nonsense about Maugham: homosexuality, misogyny, cliché-ridden style, etc., etc. It is unbelievable what critics can get away with in print. See a review here.]

  F178.   [Calder, Robert L. Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham. (1989)]

·     [Heinemann, London, 1989. Paperback: Mandarin, 1990; St Martins Pr, 1992.]

·     [Second full-scale biography, partly conceived as a response to Morgan’s hatchet job (F170). Full of facts and figures, but of questionable value otherwise. Mr Calder’s accomplished writing and impressive research are heavily marred by his obsession with homosexuality in Maugham’s works. He writes some fantastic nonsense on the subject, mightily supported by the fantasies of an eminent psychiatrist. Towards the end he slips into a Morgan-like delight in Maugham’s senility. He is generally prone to excessive detail. Nevertheless, Mr Calder makes a genuine – if unsuccessful – attempt to analyse the writer and understand the man.]

·     [This biography remains the only one written by an author who has also made a thorough study of Maugham’s works (F160). The other three attempts (F170, F187, F188) were done by journalists who knew little in this respect. See reviews here.]

  F179.   [Loss, Archie K. Of Human Bondage: Coming of Age in the Novel. (1990)]

·     [Twayne, Boston, 1990. xii+107 pp. See a review here.]

  F180.   [Archer, Stanley. W. Somerset Maugham: A Study of the Short Fiction. (1993)]

·     [Twayne, New York, 1993. Twayne Studies in Short Fiction.]

·     [Comprehensive but exceedingly superficial survey of Maugham's short stories. Devoid of malice, but certainly devoid of perceptive points as well. Nauseatingly descriptive. Some of Maugham’s own pieces on the art of the short story are reprinted in the second section of the book and they are by far the best part of it, though I wish Mr Archer had made a somewhat different selection. See reviews here.]

  F181.   [Holden, Philip. Orienting Masculinity, Orienting Nation: W. Somerset Maugham's Exotic Fiction. (1996)]

·     [Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1996. 168 pp. Bassett 335: “Sees in Maugham "the process of writing about the Orient and of being read in the Occident as part of the construction of a closeted subjectivity, the public man of letters and the private homosexual." Examines the oriental fiction of Maugham using contemporary post-colonial and gender theories with chapters on The Moon and Sixpence, The Trembling of a Leaf, On a Chinese Screen, The Painted Veil, the Malayan short stories, The Narrow Corner, and The Razor's Edge. Finds that Maugham was a "consummate recycler" of orientalist, gender, and class tropes and that Maugham's constructed heterosexual and masculine public persona is "peculiarly artificial" given Maugham's situation of writing as a homosexual man.”]

·     [Just as an example of the typically profound criticism on Maugham. See G249.]

  F182.   [Rogal, Samuel J. A companion to the characters in the fiction and drama of W. Somerset Maugham. (1996)]

·     [Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1996. See a review here.]

  F183.   [Rogal, Samuel J. A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia. (1997)]

·     [Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1997.]

·     [Very useful book for finding quickly a lot of interesting things about Maugham's life, the people he knew, and the places he visited. Rather useless about his works, though. Contains extremely long and tedious plot descriptions. The history of publication is perfunctory and with some embarrassing mistakes. At many places Mr Rogal is unwise enough to express personal opinions that range from gently misleading to frankly ridiculous. Worth having only at very cheap prices. See a long and tedious review here.]

  F184.   [Connon, Bryan. Somerset Maugham and the Maugham Dynasty. (1997)]

·     [Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, London, 1997. Trafalgar Square, North Pomfret, VT, 1998.]

·     [Total crap! Quite possibly the most vicious character assassination Maugham has ever been subjected to. Poorly researched and slanderous invective, trying to convince that Maugham's social duplicity was far and away the most important part of his life. Vast neglect combined with stupendous nonsense about some of Maugham's writings – but a lot of righteous venom on Looking Back. Lots of interesting stuff on the other Maughams, but also poorly researched and decidedly sensationalist. For some reflections by my annoyed self, see here.]

  F185.   [Vidal, Gore. Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings, 1960–1998. (1999)]

·     [Cleis Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1999. Paperback, 2001.]

·     [Contains “Maugham’s Half and Half”, a review of F178 first published in the New York Review of Books, February 1990. See G243.]

  F186.   [Rothschild, Loren & Whiteman, Deborah. A Catalogue of Rothschild Collection. (2001)]

·     [Heritage Book Shop, Inc., Los Angeles, MMI. A Catalogue of the Loren and Frances Rothschild Collection of Manuscripts, Letters, Printed Books, Pamphlets, Periodicals, Art and Ephemera.]

·     [Disappointingly ugly illustrations, black-and-white and fuzzy. Some useful information on page numbers and dust jackets. Of no use about contents and prefaces. Fixes some of Mr Stott’s mistakes and omissions, but adds new ones on its own. On the whole, not at all so great as the blurbs would lead you believe. The best thing about this book – in addition to some revealing notes on, and quotes from, Maugham’s letters – is the gorgeous lithograph on the dust jacket by Andrew Rhodes (c. 1960). A review here.]

  F187.   [Meyers, Jeffrey. Somerset Maugham: A Life. (2004)]

·     [Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004. Paperback, Vintage, 2005.]

·     [Third full-scale biography of Maugham, rather less extensive than the previous two attempts (F170, F178). Short, readable and breathtakingly mediocre hackwork. Cliché-ridden in the extreme. The only point in the author’s favour is his surprisingly positive attitude to Looking Back. Otherwise his book has no business existing. It presents nothing new save a few insignificant details (e.g. a childhood’s letter by Maugham in French). Mr Meyers’ literary analyses revolve around “Conradian projections” and other nonsense like that. The penetrating homosexual investigation of The Narrow Corner is especially notable as one of the most ill-informed and preposterous criticisms of Maugham’s work ever printed on paper.]

  F188.   [Hastings, Selina. The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham. (2009)]

·     [John Murray, London, 2009. Random House, New York, 2010. Paperback, John Murray, 2010.]

·     [Fourth full-scale biography, the least bad of all. Detailed and dull. Quite comprehensive in terms of facts and figures, though the research is often shaky. Pedestrian in terms of literary or psychological analysis. Much better balanced than Morgan, Meyers or Calder. For a long and tedious review of mine, see here.]

  F189.   [Jonas, K. W. W. Somerset Maugham: The Man and His Work / Leben und Werk. (2009)]

·     [Harrassowitz Verlag GmbH, 2009.]

·     [Bizarre book! As lavishly produced as it is terribly organised. Extremely badly presented and superficially written chronology of Maugham's life and two lectures (one in English, one in German) given by Mr Jonas a good many years ago. Unbelievably disgraceful bibliography of Maugham's works. Somewhat useful bibliography of secondary literature, but neither comprehensive nor annotated. The only things that redeem, at least to some extent, the exorbitant price this book is usually offered for are Maugham’s letter-preface, an old friend of Mr Jonas (F96, F104), the 66 excellent photographs, some of them rare and hitherto unpublished, and a few short excerpts from the author’s nagging and self-serving correspondence with Maugham in which the great writer expresses his doubts about Karl Pfeiffer and his “candid portrait” (F103).]

 

G.  CHECK LIST OF PERIODICALS CONCERNING W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

   [G0. Garnett, Edward, reader’s report on ‘A Lambeth Idyll’ for T. Fisher Unwin, January 1897. (F175)]

[G0a. Unsigned review of A1a, Academy, LII, September 1897, pp. 65-6. (F175)]

[G0b. Findlater, Jane H., The Slum Movement in Fiction, National Review, XXXV, May 1900, pp. 447-54. (F175)]

[G0c. Unsigned reviews of A2a: Literature, III, 27 August 1898, pp. 185-6; Academy, LIV, 17 September 1898, p. 270. (F175)]

[G0d. Unsigned reviews of A3a: Athenaeum, 3738, 17 June 1899, p. 751; Academy, LVI, 1 July 1899, p. 15. (F175)]

[G0e. Unsigned review of A5a, Academy and Literature, LXIII, 29 November 1902, p. 577. (F175)]

[G0f. Adcock, A. St John, Mr. W. S. Maugham’s New Novel (review of A5a), Bookman (Lond.), XXIII, December 1902, p. 102. (F175)]

[G0g. Chambers, E. K., Mr Maugham’s Irony (review of A6a), Academy and Literature, LXIV, 28 February 1903, pp. 207-8. (F175)]

[G0h. Beerbohm, Max, An Uncommercial Play (review of A6a), Saturday Review (Lond.), XCVII, 5 March 1904, pp. 207-8. (F175)]

[G0i. Unsigned reviews of A7a: Academy and Literature, LXVII, 15 October 1904, p. 338; Athenaeum, 4018, 29 October 1904, p. 586. (F175)]

[G0j. Unsigned review of A8a, Athenaeum, 4039, 25 March 1905, p. 306. (F175)]

[G0k. Woolf, Virginia, ‘Journeys in Spain’ (unsigned review of A8a), Times Literary Supplement, 26 May 1905. (F175)]

[G0l. The Baron de B[ook]-W[orms] [Sir F. C. Burnand], review of A9a, Punch, CXXX, 21 February 1906, p. 144. (F175)]

[G0m. Grein, J. T., review of A12, Sunday Times, 27 October 1907, p. 7. (F175)]

[G0n. Turner, Reginald, review of A12, Academy, LXXIII, 2 November 1907, pp. 96-7. (F175)]

[G0o. Grein, J. T., review of A13, Sunday Times, 28 March 1908, p. 4. (F175)]

[G0p. Beerbohm, Max, review of A13, Saturday Review (Lond.), CV, 4 April 1908, pp. 431-2. (F175)]

[G0q. Unsigned review of A14, Illustrated London News, CXXXII, 2 May 1908, p. 658. (F175)]

[G0r. Grein, J. T., review of A14, Sunday Times, 3 May 1908, p. 4. (F175)]

[G0s. Grein, J. T., review of A16, Sunday Times, 14 June 1908, p. 19. (F175)]

[G0t. Beerbohm, Max, How Dare He? (review of A16), Saturday Review (Lond.), CV, 20 June 1908, pp. 782-3. (F175)]

[G0u. Punch, 24 June 1908. The famous cartoon by Bernard Partridge showing the sullen Will biting his nails in front of a wall with posters of Willie’s four currently running plays. The same issue also contains a mock interview with “the Dramatist”. Both the cartoon and the interview are reproduced in Theatrical Companion to Maugham, pp. 57-9. See F93. Mr Moore carelessly puts this in Section D. But since it was not written by Maugham, it should be in Section G.]

        G1.   Tragedy of Maugham’s Dramatic Success, Current Literature, August 1908.

        G2.   Mr. William Somerset Maugham, Bookman (Lond.), June 1908.

        G3.   Eaton, W. P., Playwright Who Stumbled into Fame, Harper’s Weekly, 10 October 1908. [F87]

[G3a. Oliver Haddo [Aleister Crowley], How to Write a Novel! After W. S. Maugham (review of A.A11), Vanity Fair (Lond.), LXXXI, 30 December 1908, pp. 838-40. (F175)]

        G4.   Beerbohm, Max, W. Somerset Maugham, Saturday Review, 9 January 1909.

[G4a. Grein, J. T., review of A15, Sunday Times, 10 January 1909. p. 9. (F175)]

[G4b. Archer, William, Penelope and Popularity (review of A15), Nation (Lond.), IV, 16 January 1909, pp. 606-7. (F175)]

[G4c. A Feast of Horrors (unsigned review of A.A11), New York Times, 13 February 1909.]

[G4d. Grein, J. T., review of A19, Sunday Times, 3 October 1909, p. 4. (F175)]

[G4e. Unsigned review of A19, Athenaeum, 4276, 9 October 1909, pp. 435-6. (F175)]

        G5.   Colles v. Maugham, Times, 21 December 1909. Also in E. J. MacGillray’s Copyright Cases (1911).

        G6.   W. Somerset Maugham (interview), Ally Sloper, Vol. 27, p. 1342, 1910.

[G6a. Grein, J. T., review of A17, Sunday Times, 27 February 1910, p. 4. (F175)]

[G6b. Grein, J. T., review of A18, Sunday Times, 16 October 1910, p. 9. (F175)]

[G6c. Mr Maugham’s New Play (unsigned review of A32), Times, 25 February 1911, p. 8. (F175)]

[G6d. M[ilne], A. A., review of A32, Punch, CXL, 8 March 1911, pp. 177-8. (F175)]

[G6e. Maugham’s Play Pleases at the Lyceum (unsigned review of A20), New York Times, 26 December 1913, p. 11. (F175)]

[G6f. Grein, J. T., review of A20, Sunday Times, 1 March 1914, p. 6. (F175)]

        G7.   Pygmalion at Home and Abroad, English Review, May 1914.

·     [Not by Maugham. A comparative review of A.A20 and Shaw’s Pygmalion. Cf. D19. See (F175) for a more complete entry: S. O., Pygmalion (at Home and Abroad), English Review, XVII, May 1914, pp. 276-8.]

        G8.   Of Human Bondage (review), Times, 12 August 1915. [F175]

·     [F175: “Unsigned review, Times Literary Supplement, 12 August 1915, p. 269 / The reference in this review to the hero being ‘so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet’ was to suggest to Maugham the title of his next novel [A22], published in 1919.”]

[G8a. Gould, Gerald, review of A21, New Statesman, V, 25 September 1915, p. 594. (F175)]

[G8b. Unsigned review of A21, Athenaeum, 4582, 21 August 1915. (F175)]

        G9.   Dreiser, Theodore, As a Realist Sees it, New Republic, 25 December 1915.

·     [The famous review of A21a, reprinted as a pamphlet (F2) and many times in book form (A21e, A21h, F43, F87, F175). The last one gives more bibliographical details: “New Republic, V, 25 December 1915, pp. 202-4.]

[G9a. Grein, J. T., review of A31, Sunday Times, 13 February 1916, p. 4. (F175)]

     G10.   De Foe, Louis, A British Clyde Fitch, Green Book Magazine, November 1916.

[G10a. Unsigned review of A29, New York Evening Post, 13 March 1917, p. 9. (F175)]

[G10b. Unsigned review of A26, Times, 28 March 1919, p. 15. (F175)]

[G10c. [K]atherine M[ansfield], Inarticulations (review of A22), Athenaeum, 4645 9 May 1919, p. 302. (F175)]

[G10d. The Primitive Man (unsigned review of A22), Saturday Review (Lond.), CXXVII, 17 May 1919, pp. 481-2. (F175)]

[G10e. Archer, William, review of A26, Weekly Review (N.Y.), I, 14 June 1919, p. 110. (F175)]

[G10f. H[uxley], [Aldous], A Good Farce (review of A30), Athenaeum, 4665, 26 September 1919, p. 956. (F175)]

[G10g. Woollcott, Alexander, A Delightful Maugham Farce (review of A30), New York Times, 9 October 1919, p. 16. (F175)]

     G11.   Collins, J. P., W. Somerset Maugham: Playwright and Novelist, Bookman (Lond.), [LVII] October 1919 [pp. 12-15]. [F175]

[G11a. Anderson, Maxwell, In Vishny Land What Avatar? (review of A22), Dial, LXVII, 29 November 1919, pp. 477-8. (F87) (F175)]

     G12.   Craven, H. T., Tahiti from Melville to Maugham, The Bookman (N.Y.), November-December, 1919.

[G12a. Unsigned review of A23, Times, 10 August 1920, p. 8. (F175)]

     G13.   MacCarthy, Desmond, Somerset Maugham, New Statesman, 14 August 1920.

[G13a. Swinnerton, Frank, review of A23, Nation (Lond.), XXVII, 21 August 1920, pp. 637-8. (F175)]

[G13b. MacCarthy, Desmond, review of A24, New Statesman, XVI, 19 March 1921, pp. 704-5. (F175)]

[G13c. Turner, W. J., review of A24, London Mercury, III, April 1921, pp. 663-4. (F175)]

     G14.   West, Rebecca, W. Somerset Maugham, New Statesman, 5 November 1921.

·     [Review of A25. See F175: New Statesman, XVIII, 5 November 1921, pp. 140, 142.]

[G14a. Unsigned review of A25, Saturday Review (Lond.), CXXXII, 5 November 1921, p. 540. (F175)]

[G14b. Field, Louise Maunsell, review of A25, New York Times, 20 November 1921, p. 16. (F175)]

[G14c. Agate, James, West of Suez (review of A27), Saturday Review (Lond.), CXXXIV, 9 September 1922, pp. 374-5. (F175)]

[G14d. MacCarthy, Desmond, review of A27, New Statesman, XX, 7 October 1922, p. 14. (F175)]

[G14e. Gould, Gerald, review of A28, Saturday Review (Lond.), CXXXV, 13 January 1923. p. 54. (F175)]

[G14f. Field, Louise Mansell, Maugham’s Chinese Sketches (review of A28), New York Times, 4 February 1923, p. 11. (F87) (F175)]

[G14g. MacCarthy, Desmond, review of A29, New Statesman, XXI, 6 October 1923, pp. 738-9. (F175)]

     G15.   Rascoe, Burton, Gossip on Miss West and Mr. Maugham, Arts and Decoration, December 1923.

[G15a. Goodrich, Marcus Aurelius, After Ten Years of Of Human Bondage, New York Times, 25 January 1925, p. 2. (F175)]

[G15b. Mr Maugham Excels as a Craftsman (unsigned review to A33), New York Times, 22 March 1925, p. 7. (F175)]

[G15c. Kennedy, P.C., review of A33, New Statesman, XXV, 9 May 1925. (F175)]

[G15d. Unsigned review of A33, Times Literary Supplement, 14 May 1925, p. 332. (F175)]

     G16.   Van Doren, Carl, Tom Jones and Philip Carey: heroes of two centuries, Century, May 1925.

     G17.   Dottin, Paul, Le Realisme de Somerset Maugham, Revue de France, 1 June 1925.

·     [Translated by Mr Jonas in F87, a rare chance to read this critic in English.]

[G17a. Hartley, L. P., review of A34, Saturday Review (Lond.), CXLII, 18 September 1926, p 317. (F175)]

[G17b. Philips, Henry Albert, In the Shadow of the Casuarina Tree (review of A34), New York Evening Post, VII, 2 October 1926, p. 7. (F175)]

[G17c. Muir, Edwin, review of A34, Athenaeum, XL, 9 October 1926, p. 30. (F175)]

     G18.   Gabriel, G. W., Physician, Novelist and Playwright, The Mentor, December 1926.

[G18a. Benchley, Robert, Something Good (review of A35), Life, LXXXVIII, 16 December 1926, p. 19. (F175)]

[G18b. Unsigned review of A36, Times, 25 February 1927, p. 12. (F175)]

[G18c. Brown, Ivor, Here Are Tigers (review of A36), Saturday Review (Lond.), CXLIII, 5 March 1927, pp. 350-1. (F175)]

[G18d. Mr. Maugham’s Latest (unsigned review of A37), New York Times, 15 April 1928, p. 14. (F175)]

[G18e. Brown, Ivor, Heartless House (review of A35), Saturday Review (Lond.), CXLIII, 16 April 1927, pp. 598-9. (F175)]

[G18f. Shanks, Edward, review of A37, London Mercury, XVIII, May 1928, p. 98. (F175)]

[G18g. Lawrence, D. H., Four Contemporary Books, review of A37, Vogue, 20 July 1928. (F175)]

     G19.   Scully, Frank, Somerset Maugham at Home, World To-Day, August 1928.

[G19a. Atkinson, Brooks, Murder Will Out at 11 (review of A38), New York Times, 20 November 1928, p. 28. (F175)]

[G19b. Grein, J. T., Three Leading Ladies (review of A38), Illustrated London News, CLXXIV, 23 February 1929, p. 318. (F175)]

[G19c. Unsigned review of A39, Times Literary Supplement, 20 March 1930, p. 230. ]

[G19d. Partridge, Bellamy, Rare Traveler (review of A39), New York Herald Tribune, 20 April 1930, p. 5. (F175)]

[G19e. Colton, Arthur, Travelling with Composure (review of A39), Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), VI, 28 June 1930, p. 1159. (F175)]

[G19f. Brown, Ivor, Private Lives (review of A40), Observer, 5 October 1930, p. 6. (F175)]

[G19g. MacCarthy, Desmond, Two Comedies (review of A41 & Noel Coward’s Private Lives), New Statesman, XXXVI, 11 October 1930, pp. 14-15. (F175)]

[G19h. Marchand, Leslie A., Maugham Paints a Sardonic Portrait (review of A40), New York Times, 12 October 1930, p. 7. (F175)]

[G19i. Waugh, Evelyn, The Books You Read (review of A40), Graphic, CXXVII, 15 October 1930, p. 426. (F175)]

[G19j. Priestley, J. B., A Letter from England (review of A41), Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), VII, 1 November 1930. p. 209. (F175)]

     G20.   MacCarthy, Desmond, The Skirmishers, Life and Letters, Vol. VI, No. 33, February 1931.

·     Of all the outstanding critics who have written about Somerset Maugham, Desmond MacCarthy is probably the only one who ever really understood him and knew what he was striving to achieve in his literary work.

·     [I concur. As obvious from his reviews, Mr MacCarthy knew Maugham’s works intimately and followed his development closely. “The Skirmishers”, an even better essay than the much more famous “English Maupassant” (G24, F37, B4), is organised as an amusing yet pointed dialogue between a Maugham admirer and a Maugham detractor. The piece is extraordinarily prescient considering the time of writing. With the exception of Anthony Curtis, critics from later times have seldom taken Maugham as seriously, and written about him as admirably, as did Desmond MacCarthy back in the 1920s and 1930s. See F175 where five of his drama reviews are reprinted (G13b, G14d, G14g, G19g, G26a).]

     G21.   Maugham Discusses Drama (interview), Living Age, May 1931. [Cf. D91]

     G22.   Mr. Maugham Issues Writ for Libel Against Mrs. E. Mordaunt, Times, 6 October 1931.

[G22a. Strong, L. A. G., The Test That Failed (review of A42), Spectator, CXLVII, 10 October 1931, p. 468. (F175)]

[G22b. Dodd, Lee Wilson, Set of Six (review of A42), Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), VIII, 17 October 1931, p. 206. (F175)]

[G22c. Van Doren, Mark, Thomas Hardy Veiled (review of A40), The Nation, 25 November 1931. (F87)]

[G22d. Sykes, Gerald, An Author in Evening Dress (review of A42), The Nation, 1930 [sic] (F87).]

     G23.   Marchand, Leslie A., The Exoticism of Somerset Maugham, La Revue Anglo-Américaine, April 1932. [F87]

[G23a. Fleming, Peter, review of A45, Spectator, CXLIX, 11 November 1932, p. 659. (F175)]

[G23b. Britten, Florence Haxton, A Cynical, Gifted Story Teller (review of A44), New York Herald Tribune, 13 November 1932, p. 3. (F175)]

[G23c. Armstrong, Anne, review of A44, Saturday Review (Lond.), CLIV, 26 November 1932, pp. 564-5. (F175)]

[G23d. Grein, J. T., Two Gifted Pessimists (review of A45 and A. A. Milne’s Other People’s Lives), Illustrated London News, CLXXXI, 26 November 1932, p. 854. (F175)]

     G24.   MacCarthy, Desmond, Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation, Nash’s Magazine, May 1933. [F37, B4]

     G25.   Muir, Percy H., W. Somerset Maugham: Some Bibliographical Observations, Book Collectors’ Quarterly, January-March, April-June, 1933.

     G26.   Winn, Godfrey, Somerset Maugham: The Man and His Method, Strand, June 1933.

·     Recalling that Mr. Maugham had once written a short story – The Voice of the Turtle – said to have been based on Godfrey Winn who had spent some weeks at the Villa Mauresque soon after the publication of his first novel, I once asked him what he thought of Godfrey Winn, who was then a very successful columnist. He looked at me blandly for a moment and then said, after a slight pause, “he is a very good bridge player.” [See A60d and F137.]

[G26a. MacCarthy, Desmond, Mr Maugham’s New Play (review of A47), New Statesman, n.s. VI, 16 September 1933, pp. 325-6. (F175)]

[G26b. Plomer, William, review of A46, Spectator, CLI, 29 September 1933, p. 420. (F175)]

[G26c. Grein, J. T., Somerset Maugham’s New Play (review of A47), Illustrated London News, CLXXXIII, 30 September 1933, p. 498. (F175)]

     G27.   Beaumont, F. A., Luck in Authorship, John O’London’s Weekly, 7 October 1933.

     G28.   My Greatest Hour: the Play that Changed My Life, John Bull, 28 October 1933.

[G28a. Britten, Florence Haxton, Maugham’s Tragic Tales (review of A46), New York Herald Tribune, 12 November 1933, p. 4. (F175)]

     G29.   Kronenburger [sic], Louis, The Story Telling Art of Mr Maugham, New York Times Book Review [sic], 12 August 1934. [F175]

·     [Review of B3/4. See F175: Louis Kronenberger, “The Story-Telling Art of Mr Maugham”, New York Times, 12 August 1934, p. 2.]

     G30.   Cowley, Malcolm, Angry Author’s Complaint, New Republic, 22 August 1934. [F87]

[G30a. Mortimer, Raymond, Re-reading Mr Maugham (review of B3/4), New Statesman and Nation, n.s. VIII, 25 August 1934, pp. 243-4. (F175)]

     G31.   Lynd, Sylvia, Books of the Day, Observer (Lond.), 26 August 1934.

·     Sylvia Lynd, a noted critic in her day, goes sadly awry in attempting to sum up the literary achievements of Somerset Maugham.

[G31a. Greene, Graham, Maugham Short Stories (review of B3/4), Spectator, CLIII, 31 August 1934, p. 297. (F175)]

     G32.   Somerset Maugham Stands Corrected: Tallulah Bankhead gives an exciting, arresting performance in Rain, Literary Digest, 23 February 1935.

     G33.   Taggard, E. K., Biographical Sketch, Scholastic, 9 March 1935.

     G34.   Ervine, St John, The Plays of Somerset Maugham, Life and Letters, March 1935. A paper read to the Royal Society of Literature, 9 January 1935. [F87]

[G34a. Greene, Graham, Spanish Gold (review of A49), Spectator, CLIV, 21 June 1935, p. 1076. (F87) (F175)]

[G34b. Holliday, Terence, The Love Story of Mr Maugham and Spain (review of A49), New York Herald Tribune, 21 July 1935, p. 7. (F175)]

     G35.   Brown, Ivor, British Comedy, Theatre Arts Monthly, August 1935.

     G36.   Sitwell, Osbert, The Spain of Somerset Maugham, London Mercury, September 1935.

·     [Review of A49. London Mercury, XXXII, September 1935, pp. 485-6. (F175)]

     G37.   Mortimer, Raymond, “Mr Maugham”, New Statesman, 29 June 1935.

·     [Review of A49. New Statesman and Nation, n.s. IX, 29 June 1935, p. 966. (F175)]

[G37a. Britten, Florence Haxton, review of A50, New York Herald Tribune, 23 February 1936, p. 10. (F175)]

[G37b. Mr Maugham’s Mixture as Before (unsigned review of A50), Times, 31 March 1936, p. 10. Maugham audaciously used the phrase “The Mixture as Before” for a title of his next short story collection (A58). In the original Foreword, he explains his motives in his usual, witty and eloquent way. (F175)]

     G38.   Mackay, L. A., Somerset Maugham, Canadian Forum, May 1936.

[G38a. DeVoto, Bernard, Master of Two Dimensions (review of A52), Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), XV, 6 March 1937, p. 3. (F175)]

[G38b. Bowen, Elizabeth, A Straight Novel (review of A52), New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XIII, 27 March 1937, p. 525. (F175)]

     G39.   McIver, Claude S., Somerset Maugham, Reading and Collecting, July 1937. Check list of the novelist’s works.

     G40.   Epardaud, Edmond, Au Cap Ferrat: Chez Somerset Maugham, Romancier et Arboriculteur; Les Nouvelles Litteraires, 24 July 1937.

     G41.   Flament, Albert, Cap Ferrat: W. Somerset Maugham, La Revue de Paris, 5 October 1937.

[G41a. Greene, Graham, Maugham’s Pattern (review of A53), Spectator, CLX, 14 January 1938, p. 59. (F175)]

     G42.   Cowley, Malcolm, The Maugham Enigma, New Republic, 30 March 1938. [F87] [F175]

·     [Review of A53. New Republic, XCIV, 30 March 1938, pp. 227-8.]

     G43.   Benét, Stephen Vincent, A Self-Thought Trade: Advice to Young Writers from Two Recent Autobiographies, Sat. Rev. Lit., 16 April 1938.

·     [Review of A53. See F175: Stephen Vincent Benét, ‘A Self-Taught Trade’, Saturday Review of Literature (New York), XVII, 16 April 1938, pp. 3-4.]

[G43a. Belgion, Montgomery, review of A53, Criterion, XVII, 1938, pp. 748-52. (F175)]

     G44.   Colum, M. M., History of the Writer’s Mind, Forum, May 1938.

[G44a. Waugh, Evelyn, The Technician (review of A54), Spectator, CLXII, 17 February 1939, p. 274. (F87) (F175)]

     G45.   Aldington, Richard, Somerset Maugham: An Appraisal, Sat. Rev. Lit., 19 August 1939.

     G46.   Cordell, Richard A., Five-Day Adventure, Sat. Rev. Lit., 21 October 1939. [F175]

·     [Review of A54. See F175: Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), XX, 21 October, p. 10.]

[G46a. Pruette, Lorine, How to Like to Read (review of A57), New York Herald Tribune, 14 April 1940, p. 21. (F175)]

     G47.   Pritchett, V. S., W. Somerset Maugham, New Statesman, 15 June 1940. [F87] [F175]

·     Review of A58. See F175: “115. V. S. Pritchett, review, New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XIX, 15 June 1940.”]

[G47a. Barry, Iris, Midsummer Nights’ Fare (review of A58), New York Herald Tribune, 14 July 1940, p. 4. (F175)]

     G48.   Ashenden’s Escape, Time, 22 July 1940. Story of Mr. Maugham’s escape from France.

     G49.   Benet, W. R., English Maupassant, Sat. Rev. Lit., 27 July 1940.

     G50.   Van Gelder, Robert, Mr. Maugham on the Essentials of Writing, 20 November 1940 [where?]. [F87]

     G51.   Somerset Maugham Visits U.S. after Fleeing Conquered France, Life, 2 December 1940.

[G51a Spencer, Theodore, An Appreciation, College English, 1940. (F87)]

     G52.   Cowley, Malcolm, Devil a Monk Was He, New Republic, 1 May 1941.

     G53.   Zabel, M. D., Cool Hand, Nation, 3 May 1941. [F175]

·     [Review of A59. Full data: Morton Dauwen Zabel, “A Cool Hand”, Nation (N.Y.), CLII, 2 May 1941, pp. 534-6.]

[G53a. Johnson, Pamela Hansford, Bread and Circuses (review of A59), Books of the Month, XI, June 1941, pp. 18-19. (F175)]

[G53b. Krutch, Joseph, An Epicurean on Liberty (review of A60), The Nation, 4 October 1941. (F87)]

[G53c. Roberts, R. Ellis, The Art of Somerset Maugham (review of A61), Saturday Review of Literature (N.Y.), XXV, 27 June 1942, p. 6. (F175)]

[G53d. Unsigned review of A61, Nation (N.Y.), CLV, 4 July 1942, p. 18. (F175)]

     G54.   Close-Ups of Thomas Mann and Somerset Maugham, House and Garden, August 1942.

     G55.   Smith, H., Imperturbable Mr. Maugham, Sat. Rev. Lit., 22 April 1944.

[G55a. Beach, Joseph Warren, Maugham Considers Mystics (review of A63), New York Times, 23 April 1944, p. 3. (F175)]

[G55b. Trilling, Diana, review of A63, Nation (N.Y.), CLVIII, 6 May 1944, p. 547. (F175)]

     G56.   Cerf, B., Trade Winds, Sat. Rev. Lit., 27 May 1944.

[G56a. O'Brien, Kate, review of A63, Spectator, CLXXIII, 21 July 1944, pp. 64, 66. (F175)]

[G56b. Connolly, Cyril, The Art of Being Good (review of A63), New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XXVIII, 26 August 1944, p. 140. (F175)]

     G57.   Life Calls on Somerset Maugham, Life, 18 September 1944.

     G58.   Somerset Maugham’s Gift to the King’s School, Canterbury, Times, 24 October 1944.

     G59.   Basso, Hamilton, Somerset Maugham: A Profile, New Yorker, 6 January 1945.

     G60.   Stokes, Sewell, W. Somerset Maugham: his attitude toward the drama and his dictum on the theatre, Theatre Arts, February 1945. (F175)

·     [F175, 143: Sewell Stokes, “W. Somerset Maugham”, Theatre Arts, XXIX, No. 2, February 1945.]

     G61.   Pfeiffer, Karl G., Maugham – As I Know Him, Redbook, May 1945. [F87]

     G62.   Volkov, N., Somerset Maugham: Soviet Stage Productions of His Works, Theatre World, April 1946.

     G63.   Van Gelder, Robert, An Interview with Somerset Maugham, New York Times Book Review, 21 April 1946.

     G64.   Mr. Somerset Maugham, Times Lit. Suppl., 27 April 1946.

·     Article written on the occasion of Maugham’s presentation of his manuscript Of Human Bondage to the Library of Congress. [See A65.]

[G64a. Clinton-Baddeley, V.C., review of A64, Spectator, CLXXVI, 17 May 1946, p. 514. (F175)]

[G64b. Wilson, Edmund, Somerset Maugham and an Antidote (review of A64), New Yorker, XXII, 8 June 1946, pp. 96-9. (F175) Later revised as “The Apotheosis of Somerset Maugham. See F75.]

     G65.   Maugham Epigrams, Selected by Karl G. Pfeiffer, Vogue, July 1946.

     G66.   Paul, David, Maugham and the Two Myths, Cornhill Mag., Autumn 1946. [F87]

     G67.   Brown, J. M., English Laughter Past and Present, Sat. Rev. Lit., 23 November 1946.

[G67a. Lee, Charles, Mr Maugham Still Urbane (review of A66), New York Times, 24 July 1947, pp. 4. 23. (F175)]

     G68.   The Mysterious Mr. Maugham, Sat. Rev. Lit., 26 July 1947.

[G68a. Manning, Olivia, review of A66, Spectator, CLXXIX, 8 August 1947, p. 188. (F175) This article also reviews volumes of short stories by A. L. Barker, Graham Greene and John Sommerfield. The part about Maugham is exactly seven lines long!]

     G69.   Wescott, Glenway, Somerset Maugham and Posterity, Harper’s Magazine, October 1947. Reprinted from The Windmill (Heinemann) [F67a]. A fine, critical study.

·     [Reprinted in B16 and F104 (abridged).]

[G69a. Ross, Woodburn O., Theme and Variations, English Journal, 1947. (F87)]

     G70.   Of Innocence and Experience, Time, 22 March, 1948. The Somerset Maugham Award.

[G70a. Bloomfield, Paul, review of A67, Manchester Guardian, 20 August 1948, p. 3. (F175)]

     G71.   Maugham’s Folly, Desiderata, 3 September 1948. A shrewd, penetrating article, written anonymously.

[G71a. Aldridge, John W., review of A69a, Saturday Review of Literature (N. Y.), XXXI, 2 October 1948, pp. 23-4. (F175)]

[G71b. Prescott, Orville, review of A67, New York Times, 26 October 1948, p. 29. (F87) (F175)]

     G72.   Gilroy, Harry, How To Write – By Maugham, New York Times Book Review, 16 January 1949. [F87]

     G73.   Rhodes, R., Maugham Cinematized, Sat. Rev. Lit., 18 June 1949.

     G74.   Happy House, New Yorker, 27 August 1949.

     G75.   O’Hearn, W. De senectute, Commonweal, 16 September 1949.

     G76.   Dick, Karl, W. Somerset Maugham: A Story of Success, Leader, 1 October 1949.

[G76a. Morgan, Charles, Maugham’s Workshop (review of A70), Spectator, CLXXXIII, 7 October 1949, p. 468. (F87) (F175)]

[G76b. Pritchett, V.S., review of A70, New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XXXVIII, 8 October 1949, p. 401. (F175)]

     G77.   Benet, W. R., Maughamiana: 1892-1949, Sat. Rev. Lit., 22 October 1949.

[G77a. Auden, W.H., Notebooks of Somerset Maugham (review of A70), New York Times, 23 October 1949, pp. 1, 22. (F175)]

[G77b. Behrman, S.N., The Notes of a Popular Pessimist (review of A70), New Yorker, XXV, 29 October 1949, pp. 88, 91-4. (F175)]

     G78.   W. Somerset Maugham, Ladies Home Journal, November 1949.

     G79.   Allen, Trevor, W. Somerset Maugham, The Queen, 7 December 1949.

     G80.   Somerset Maugham, Sunday Times (Lond.), 11 December 1949.

·     The famous photographic portrait by Douglas Glass, with a short biographical note.

     G81.   Angoff, C., W. Somerset Maugham, American Mercury, January 1950.

     G82.   Kochan, L., Somerset Maugham, Contemporary Review, February 1950.

     G83.   Parsons, Luke, Somerset Maugham: An Evaluation, Fortnightly Review, November 1950.

     G84.   A Play [sic] to Encourage Young Writers: W. Somerset Maugham proposes an Academy and how it should be conducted, New York Herald Tribune, 1 November 1950.

·     [“A Plan to Encourage Young Writers” (B43). This is an address by Maugham and it belongs to Section D. See D175a.]

     G85.   Life Spends a Day with Somerset Maugham in New York, Life, 20 November 1950.

G85a. Hall, Julian, Somerset Maugham at Rehearsal, Radio Times, 19 January 1950.

     G86.   Spence, Robert, Maugham’s Of Human Bondage: The Making of a Masterpiece, Library Chronicle (University of Pennsylvania), Spring-Summer 1951.

     G87.   Georgian, Encore, Woman’s Journal, September 1951.

     G88.   Mere Storytellers, The Times (Lond.), 25 October, 1951. Leading article.

     G89.   Walter, Allen, Somerset Maugham, Journal of the National Book League, November 1951.

     G90.   Profile – W. Somerset Maugham, Books of the Month (Lond.), September 1952.

     G91.   Mortimer, Raymond, Mr. Maugham to the Rescue, Observer (Lond.), 14 September 1952.

[G91a. Squire, Sir John, Somerset Maugham as Essayist (review of A74), Illustrated London News, CCXXI, 15 November 1952, p. 802. (F175)]

     G92.   The Old Party Goes to London, Esquire, December 1952. Reprinted from the Preface to his Collected Plays, Vol. 1 [B18].

     G93.   W. Somerset Maugham, Författarens Syn pä Saken, Bonniers Litterära Magazine, February 1953. A fine critical article.  

[G93a. Morley, Christopher, The Maugham Seesaw (review of A74), New York Times, 5 April 1953, p. 5. (F175)]

     G94.   Remembrance of H. G. Wells, Sat. Rev. Lit., 11 April 1953.

     G95.   Alpert, H., Dean of the Smoothies, Sat. Rev. (N.Y.), 25 April 1953.

     G96.   Taylor, D., Maugham and the Young Idiot, Vogue, 1 September 1953.

     G97.   Ray, Cyril, Somerset Maugham at Eighty, Sunday Times, 1 November 1953.

     G98.   Chappelow, Allan, He Planned His Life Like One of His Novels, D. Mail (Lond.), 21 January 1954.

     G99.   John O’London’s Weekly, 22 January 1954.

·     Nearly the whole of this issue is devoted to W. Somerset Maugham, with articles by G. B. Stern: Somerset Maugham Comes of Age, O. Blakeston: Somerset Maugham and the Critics, Frank Swinnerton: Somerset Maughm as a Writer [F104], etc.

 G100.   Somerset Maugham, Times Lit., Suppl., 22 January 1954 [unsigned]. Appreciation of W. Somerset Maugham’s literary career on the eve of his 80^th birthday. [F175]

[G100a. Raymond, John, review of A74 and F87, New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XLVII, 23 January 1954, pp. 101-2. (F175)]

 G101.   Kelly, Sir Gerald, Old Friends, Sunday Times, 24 January 1954.

 G102.   Nicolson, Harold, Somerset Maugham, Aet. Suae: LXXX, Observer (Lond.), 24 January 1954.

 G103.   Brady, Thomas F., The Eighty Years of Mr. Maugham, New York Times Magazine, 24 January 1954.

[G103a. Maugham at 80, unsigned leading article, New York Times, 25 January 1954. (F175)]

[G103b. Scott, J.D., The Maugham Effect (review of B21), Spectator, CXCII, 29 January 1954, p. 129. (F175)]

 G104.   Duesberg, Jacques, Les 80 Ans de W. Somerset Maugham, Syntheses (Brussels), February-March 1954.

 G105.   Laws, Frederick, His Pen Earned Him ₤750 000, News Chronicle, 10 June 1954.

 G106.   Agg, Howard, Somerset Maugham Festival: An Evening with Somerset Maugham, Radio Times, 29 October 1954. Portrait on front cover.

[G106a. Annan, Noël, review of A69b, New Statesman and Nation, n.s. XLVIII, 13 November 1954, pp. 61-2.]

 G107.   Chambrun, J., Mr. Maugham’s Magic Cup, Readers Digest, December 1954.

 G108.   Home of the Grand Master of the Riviera’s Edge – Somerset Maugham’s Villa Mauresque, Woman’s Journal, January 1955. Finely illustrated.

 G109.   A Perpetual Student, St Thomas’s Hospital Gazette, April 1955. (Front. port.)

 G110.   Dobrinsky, J., Aspects Biographiques de l’Oeuvre de Somerset Maugham Enfance, Etudes Anglaises, October-December, 1955.

 G111.   Durston, J. H. Mann and Maugham, House and Garden, November 1955.

 G112.   Trewin, J. C., Physician for the Theatre’s Ills, Theatre Arts, June 1956.

 G113.   Even at 83 You’re Never Too Old, D. Mail, 16 May 1957. Somerset Maugham re-visits Heidelberg. Illustrated.

 G114.   Lash, H., Tea with Somerset Maugham, Library Journal, 1 October 1957.

 G115.   The ‘Scum’ and I: Somerset Maugham takes a long look at the new crop of Angry Young Men, in a talk with Gordon Young, Sunday Dispatch, 6 October 1957.

·     The now famous remark that raised a storm of protest. Mr. Maugham diplomatically recants in this interview but one imagines that his conception of the new generation of writers is not confined to Mr. Maugham, although he was the first to express it.

 G116.   Angry Young Men – I Admire Them, Somerset Maugham discusses ‘that rumpus’ with Godfrey Smith, Sunday Times, 6 October 1957.

 G117.   Somerset Maugham Makes a Very Odd Request, D. Mail, 12 November 1957. The interview following the published request to his friends to destroy all his letters.

 G118.   Kahn, E. J., Of Human Bondage, New Yorker, 11 January 1958.

 G119.   Somerset Maugham, a full-page interview with Philip Toynbee, Observer, 20 January 1958. An odd interview indeed!

 G120.   Somerset Maugham Sums Up: In an Interview with William Hickey, D. Express, 20 January 1958. (Illustrated.)

 G121.   Fleming, Ann, Somerset Maugham, House and Garden, March 1958. A long, finely illustrated article describing Somerset Maugham’s famous villa at Cap Ferrat.

 G122.   Some New Short Stories by Somerset Maugham: Told in London Yesterday – and all about Himself, D. Express, 4 October 1958. (Interview.)

[G122a. Kermode, Frank, Eminently Readable (review of A77), Manchester Guardian, 11 November 1958, p. 2. (F175)]

 G123.   Beavan, J., Maugham: A Free Man at Eighty-Five, New York Times, 25 January 1959. (Illustrated.)

 G124.   Cordell, Richard A., The Theatre of Somerset Maugham, Modern Drama, February 1959.

 G125.   Yachts? Caviar? Not for Me, says Mr. Maugham, an interview with Robert Pitman on the eve of the publication of the Pfeiffer biography Somerset Maugham as a Candid Portrait [sic, F102], Sunday Express, 19 April 1959.

 G126.   It’s Against the Doctor’s Orders: but Maugham (at 85) still Dives, D. Mail, 18 May 1959.

[G126a. Pfeiffer, Karl G., Mr Maugham’s Valedictory (review of A77), New York Herald Tribune, 31 May 1959, p. 8. (F175)]

 G127.   Muller, Robert, Old Party at Twilight, D. Mail, 12 October 1959.

 G128.   Geisha Gambol for Somerset Maugham, Life, 14 December 1959.

 G129.   Substance and Shadow: The Originals of the Characters in Cakes and Ale, papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, XLV, 1960.

 G130.   Korry, Edward M., A Visit with Somerset Maugham, Look, 5 January 1960.

·     Interview with Maugham on the eve of his 86^th birthday.

 G131.   Swaffer, Hannen, Master of Fiction – and Mirror of Fact, T.V. Times (Lond.), 29 January 1960.

 G132.   Edward Korry Visits Somerset Maugham, the World’s Richest Writer, Woman’s Day (Australia), 7 March 1960. Reprinted form Look [G130]. Lavishly illustrated in colour.

 G133.   Lieber, Joel, Somerset Maugham Talks About Life, This Week, 22 January 1961 (interview).

 G134.   Robin, A., Living Legends, Today’s Health, April 1961.

 G135.   Amis, Kingsley, Mr. Maugham’s Notions, Spectator (Lond.), [date?]

 G136.   Fielden, John S., The Ibsenite Mayhem, Modern Drama, September 1961.

 G137.   Lyons, Leonard, Maugham By the Sea, Saturday Review (N.Y.), 14 October 1961.

 G138.   Russell, John, Maugham Under the Hammer, The Sunday Times Colour Section (Supplement), April 1962. The dispersal of the famous Maugham collection of pictures at Sotheby’s.

 G139.   Maugham, William Somerset (1874–1965). British Author. By Anon., Madame Tussaud’s Biographies, on sale at the exhibition. (c. 1962)

·     An effigy of the most widely read writer since Dickens was added to the waxworks in November 1962. When Maugham saw it, he said “Quite a good likeness.”

 G140.   Davies, H. M. P., The King’s School, Canterbury. The Hugh Walpole Collection. The Maugham Library. Etudes Anglaises, January-March 1963.

 G141.   Maugham at Ninety: Stephen Coulter reports on a visit to the Villa Mauresque, Sunday Times, 19 January 1964.

 G142.   Allen, Walter, Summing Up Somerset Maugham at 90, New York Times Book Review, 19 January 1964 [pp. 1, 24]. [F175]

 G143.   Maugham, Robin, Somerset Maugham at 90, Sunday Telegraph, 26 January 1964. Talking to his nephew, a great storyteller recounts some tales he has never written.

 G144.   I Have One Desire Left – To Return to My Last Village in the Jungle: Somerset Maugham talking to Ewan MacNaughton, Sunday Times, 26 January 1964. [B43]

 G145.   Lurie, Joseph B., A William Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation and a Probe, Medical Proceedings, 16 January 1965. A doctor who trained at St. Thomas’s Hospital, and became interested in Maugham.

 G146.   Confidential Question, NEA Journal, April 1965.

 G147.   Shirley, F. J. (Canon F. J. Shirley), William Somerset Maugham: The Canturian, (Magazine of King’s School, Canterbury), December 1965.

·     One of the great headmasters of his day, Canon Shirley was responsible for bringing the School back to prosperity when it was in very low waters, and he had the great gift of being able to talk influential people into providing for projects to help the School expand. Under his guidance Maugham was brought back to the fold, for after he had left the school he took no further interest in it until Canon Shirley became Headmaster. Then his gifts became frequent and substantial, and these are described in this article. Quotations from Maugham’s letters add to its biographical interest.

 G148.   Gilroy, Harry, Posthumous Publication Banned By Maugham: Executor Reports, New York Times, 16 December 1965.

 G149.   Somerset Maugham: “…The Most Assured English Writer of His Time”, Times, 17 December 1965 (obituary).

 G150.   Somerset Maugham, New York Times, 17 December 1965 (obituary).

 G151.   Sherry, Norman, Somerset Maugham, The Guardian, 18 December 1965 (obituary).

 G152.   Muggeridge, Malcolm, Somerset Maugham, Observer, 19 December 1965 (obituary).

 G153.   Connolly, Cyril, Maugham: Compassionate Cynic: A Summing Up by Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times, 19 December 1965 (obituary). [F175]

 G154.   Burgess, Anthony, W. Somerset Maugham: 1874–1965, Listener, 23 December 1965.

 G155.   Somerset Maugham: During a simple funeral ceremony at the King’s School, Canterbury, yesterday the ashes of W. S. M. an old boy of the School, were buried by the wall of the Library that he gave to the school some years ago, Times, 23 December 1965.

 G156.   Lehmann, J., Very Old Party, New Republic, 8 January 1966.

 G157.   Las Vergnas, Raymond, Somerset Maugham, La Revue, 15 January 1966.

 G158.   Maugham, Robin, Somerset and All the Maughams, Sunday Telegraph, 16, 23 and 30 January 1966. Pre-publication serialisation of parts of Robin Maugham’s book which was published in April.

 G159.   Goren, C., Maugham Never Forgot the Day I Trumped His Ace, Sports Illus., 17 January 1966.

 G160.   Bolitho, Hector, The Other Somerset Maugham, Medical News, 21 January 1966.

 G161.   Maugham, Robin, “My Uncle Willie”, Sat. Eve. Post, 29 January 1966. [See G158.]

 G162.   W. G. S., Why Maugham Was Miserable, Books and Bookmen, February 1966.

 G163.   Clinton, F., Maugham’s Bondage, Nat. Review, 22 February 1966.

 G164.   Nichols, Beverly, A Case of Human Bondage, Sunday Express, 10 February – 3 June 1966. This book was serialised in full.

 G165.   Greene, Graham, Principles and Profits: Publication “Freedom”, Daily Telegraph, 10 June 1966.

·     The devastating letter written by Mr. Greene, protesting against the publication by Maugham’s publishers of B. Nichols’ “A Case of Human Bondage”.

 G166.   Kanin, Garson, Remembering Mr. Maugham, Vogue, 15 August, 1966. [F135a]

 G167.   Pollock, Sir John, Somerset Maugham and His Work, Quarterly Review, October 1966. An important article about Maugham’s literary work.

 G168.   The Twisted Marriage of Somerset Maugham: excerpts from A Case of Human Bondage, by Beverly Nichols, Look, 18 October 1966.

 G169.   Rogers, Fred B., W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965): A Medical Truant, Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, January 1967. A well illustrated article.

 G170.   Simpson, Colin, Maugham For Sale, The Sunday Times Magazine Supplement, 19 November 1967.

·     The contents of the Villa Mauresque, some of which are here illustrated in colour, were left to Alan Searle, and were sold at Sotheby’s.

 G171.   Menard, Wilson [sic: Wilmon], Somerset Maugham: Encounters with Peril, Blackwood’s Magazine, March 1969. [See F121.]

 G172.   [Burt, Forrest D., William Somerset Maugham: An Adlerian Interpretation, Journal of Individual Psychology, 26 (1970): 64-82. See F174 and Bassett 11.]

 G173.   [Stott, R. T.,] Soundings: Collections of the University Library, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1971 [3.1, pp. 7-17]. Recollections on Somerset Maugham by R. Toole Stott. His article is a slightly revised transcript of a recorded talk. [See Bassett 28.] [G172 in Stott!]

 G174.   Daubeny, Peter, A Visit to Maugham, and a Visit from Coward, Sunday Times, 10 April 1971. Pre-publication excerpts from Daubeny’s book [F155]. [G173 in Stott!]

 G175.   Roberts, Cecil, Somerset Maugham’s Quest for Freedom, Books and Bookmen, January 1973 [#18, pp.19-23]. A fine very long article on Somerset Maugham by Cecil Roberts in his 81^st year. [G174 in Stott!]

·     [“Maugham Dissected”, a review of F160. See also F161–2.]

·     [Bassett 46: “Faults Calder's study as "a long, solemn book" that "wastes... labour on many of Maugham's negligible books." Goes on to correct the treatment of Maugham's life by offering personal reminiscences of the Villa Mauresque, Maugham's homosexuality, Gerald Haxton, and Maugham's view of money”]

 G176.   [Swanson, William, J., Somerset Maugham’s “The Colonel’s Lady”: An Explication, Chapbook [Southwestern St. College] (1973-74): 79. Bassett 48: “Identifies and discusses the three poetry allusions to Rudyard Kipling, Felicia Dorothea Hemans, and Thomas Gray in the short story that "help to illuminate George Peregrine's refusal to acknowledge the femininity of his wife."]

 G177.   [Yevish, Irving A., In Defense to Somerset Maugham, Michigan Quarterly Review 12 (1973): 72-80. Bassett 51: “Concedes that Maugham "was guilty of most of the pejoratives his critics used in describing his ability: he was readable, he was competent, he was a gifted story teller" and his books "did not in any great sense innovate." Yet "there are not many twentieth-century writers who can claim a trio of entries... of the caliber of Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, and Cakes and Ale." Briefly discusses these three works and the views of hostile and friendly critics, and concludes "Maugham, of course, had his faults – what writer hasn't? But no one of them was fatal."”]

 G178.   [Raphael, Frederic, A Case for Somerset Maugham, Sunday Times [London], 6 Jan 1974: 25, 27. Bassett 65: “Observes the numerous detractors of Maugham's life, adding that Maugham "never produced a great work, but he produced a great body of work." Recounts meeting Maugham at the Villa Mauresque and discussing literature and literary figures.” See F166.]

·     [Shortened version of this article appeared in Saturday Review World, 5 Oct. 1974: 18-24, as “Visit to the Villa Mauresque”, see Bassett 65. A revised version of the article appeared in Critic, 35 (Summer 1977), pp. 27-32, see Bassett 99.]

 G179.   [Wilson, Angus, Best and Worst of Maugham (review of F163), Observer [London], 20 Jan 1974: 25. Bassett 72: “Notes that "despite his happy insights and his easy readability, Mr Curtis does go too far to the... extreme" of celebration. Goes on to discuss the loneliness of Maugham and judges Maugham's exotic short stories his best work.”]

 G180.    [Review of F163, TLS, 25 Jan 1974: 67. Bassett 66: “Discusses Maugham's seriousness, his isolation, and his artistic rank in comparison to Henry James. Concludes, "Maugham was an immensely skilful story-teller, who will continue to give pleasure for a long time, especially y through his short stories. His admirers should regard that as a tribute, not a slight."]

 G181.   [Bryden, Ronald, Shams and Penances (review F163), New Statesman, 25 Jan 1974: 115-16. Bassett 54: “Observes that the book is "well researched, but shows signs of hasty writing and even hastier proof-reading" and that the best parts are "the chapters which set Maugham's work in the context of its times." Goes on to criticize Maugham's style, use of melodrama, and characteristic narrator.”]

 G182.   [Very old party (review of F163), Economist, 26 Jan 1974: 105. Bassett 70: “Briefly discusses Maugham's reputation and popularity and finds the study "light-weight criticism, but pleasantly written."”]

 G183.   [Dale, S. S., W. S. Maugham and Music: A Centenary Footnote, Musical Opinion (Jan 1974): 191-93. Bassett 58: “Examines Maugham's views towards music and the references to music in Maugham's work, especially in the story "The Alien Corn."” See also Maugham and Music: Reflections.]

 G184.   [Axelrod, George, George Axelrod on the Moon and Two and a Half New Pence, (review of F163), Spectator, 2 Feb 1974: 134. Bassett 52: “Finds the study useful, unpretentious, well-researched, but given to cliché, and concludes "what Mr Curtis has done, with great care and in enormous detail, is to fill in the ever-changing emotional, social, literary and historical climate" of Maugham's career.]

 G185.   [Curtis, Anthony, et al., The Faces of Maugham: a portrait for his centenary – introduced by Anthony Curtis, Listener, 7 Feb 1974: 167-70. Bassett 57: “Various authors and friends of Maugham – including David Pryce-Jones, John Lehmann, Kingsley Amis, George Rylands, Arthur Marshall, Jane Kelly, Robert Boothby, Frank Swinnerton, A. S. Frere, Terence Rattigan, John Gielgud, Fay Compton, Sheridan Morley, Kenneth Clark, and C. P. Snow – give their views about and memories of Maugham as moderated by Anthony Curtis.”]

 G186.   [Green, Benny, Once upon a time (review of F163), Spectator, 9 Feb 1974: 175. Bassett 60: “Focuses on the "two great literary disputes surrounding Maugham's oeuvre": the attack by Edmund Wilson and the inspiration for Cakes and Ale. Finds the former accurate, despite Wilson's supposedly limited knowledge of Maugham's works. Concludes in the latter that Hugh Walpole was the model for Alroy Kear, not Maugham himself.]

 G187.   [Boothby, Lord, Assessment of Maugham (review of F163), Books and Bookmen, March 1974: 55-56. Bassett 53: “Finds Curtis's book "a cool, objective, detached assessment of Somerset Maugham's work." Considers Maugham's achievements and reprints a letter from Maugham to the author. Concludes "[w]hen posterity comes to write the History of the Decline and Fall of the British Empire, Kipling and Maugham will be prime sources of information. They have described it all more vividly than any two other writers."”]

 G188.   [Menard, Wilmon, Sailing the South Seas with Somerset Maugham, Oceans, March 1974: 50-55. Bassett 62: “Recounts the author's trips to the South Pacific inspired by the works of Maugham and details a particular trip to Tahiti to meet Maugham's sources for The Moon and Sixpence and to visit Gauguin's grave.” See also G171 & F121.]

 G189.   [Roberts, Cecil, Memories of Maugham (review of F163), Books and Bookmen, 19 (July 1974): 18-22. Bassett 67: “Feels the breadth "places the book ahead of all its companions" and singles out Curtis's treatment of Maugham's homosexuality and his final assessment for commendation. Adds his own memories of Maugham including their meeting in America during the Second World War and the death of Gerald Haxton.”]

 G190.   [Whitehead, John, ‘Whodunit’ and Somerset Maugham, Notes and Queries, 21 (Oct. 1974): 370. Bassett 71: “Suggests the term "whodunit" for detective fiction originates in Maugham's short story "The Creative Impulse."”]

 G191.   [Raphael, Frederic, Fiction and the Medical Mode, Eighteen Nineties Society, 6-7 (1975-76): 5-12. Bassett 81: “Draws an analogy between Frederick Treves, doctor and discoverer of the Elephant Man, and Maugham – for both men "the London hospital gave access to a side of life which neither man might normally have encountered." Generalizes the "medical mode": a contempt for cant, a dispassionate outlook, and a bent towards observing and listening.” See F166.]

 G192.   [Sherry, Norman, How Murder on the Veranda Inspired Somerset Maugham, Observer Magazine [London], 22 Feb 1976: 12-16. Bassett 93: “Discovers the basis of Maugham's short story "The Letter" – a 1911 murder case in Kuala Lumpur.”]

 G193.   [Curtis, Anthony, review of The Circle (Chichester Festival, England), Plays and Players, Sept 1976: 34. Bassett 85: “Reviews the production warmly and hopes it to be "the moment of acceptance when the plays [of Maugham cease] to be a mere period wonder and [join] the permanent tradition." Also observes that "Maugham evinces marvellous audience control as he manipulates his double situation" in the play.”]

 G194.   [Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri, W. Somerset Maugham: Anglo-American Agent in Revolutionary Russia, American Quarterly, 28 (1976): 90-106. Bassett 88: “Evaluates the significance of Maugham's undercover activities in Russia in the weeks preceding the Bolshevik coup of 1917 and finds that "unlike other sources of intelligence [in Russia], he [Maugham] gave due warning of Kerensky's infirmity, of Bolshevik strength, and of Polish and Czech possibilities." Also recounts Maugham's relationships with American and British intelligence, and Sir William Wiseman during the war.”]

 G195.   [Marshall, Arthur, In Gratitude (review of F166), New Statesman, 25 Feb 1977: 251. Bassett 98: “Raphael's book "is a conscientious attempt at a fair biography but the text reveals little that was not already widely enough known." Recounts the author's own friendship with Maugham and his visits to the Villa Mauresque.”]

 G196.   [Worsley, T C, Commercial Considerations (review of F166), TLS, 25 Feb 1977: 200. Bassett 106: “Commends Raphael's book: "the life ... is sharply etched in a dry, crisp, readable prose."”]

 G197.   [Trevor, William, The Bad and the Brilliant (review of F166), Spectator, 26 Feb 1977:18-19. Bassett 105: “Raphael's book "is accompanied by too many irrelevant photographs ... and this single criticism is outweighed by the virtues of his writing." Reflects on Maugham's critical reputation, adding "Maugham was not second-rate: he was fifth-rate at his worst, and at his best he achieved the greatness that Mr. Raphael denies him."”]

 G198.   [Review of F166, Times [London], 21 July 1977: 12. Bassett 102: “Finds "One catches criticism held at bay, near personal enthusiasm for the glamour of the highly successful Maugham, with genuine praise for Cakes and Ale and The Razor's Edge."”]

 G199.   [Raphael, Frederic, His Nibs (review of F167), New Statesman, 14 Oct 1977: 512. Bassett 100: “Summarizes the history of Maugham's critical reputation. Though noting some good features, finds the biography "written in a graceless style and... sprigged with infelicities."”]

 G200.   [Shone, Richard, Skimming (review of F167), Spectator, 15 Oct 1977: 23-24. Bassett 103: “Finds the book "displeasing": "the literary criticism is perfunctory and [the] style is one long shuffle... from cliché to cliché." Criticizes Curtis's style and his analysis of Maugham's rank.”]

 G201.   [Calder, Robert L., Maugham Revealed (review of F165), Études Anglaises, 31.3-4 (1978): 331-39. Bassett 109: “Calls Dobrinsky's book "of great importance to Maugham scholarship" and "the product of a meticulous and exhaustive reading of Maugham's vast output."]

 G202.   [Calder, Robert L., Somerset Maugham and the Cinema, Literature/Film Quarterly, 6 (1978): 262-73. Bassett 110: “Examines the adaptation of Maugham's fiction to film –his short-story ability and his dramatic skills helped, but Maugham's tone, themes, and attitude were less acceptable to Hollywood. Recounts the censorship difficulties with film versions of Up at the Villa, Then and Now, and "Rain"; the sometimes strange film histories of The Moon and Sixpence and The Razor's Edge; and the film translations of numerous short stories in Quartet, Trio, and Encore that "consistently stripped the original stories of their realism, cynicism, and satiric purpose."”]

 G203.   [Calder, Robert L., W. Somerset Maugham's Strictly Personal: A Missing Chapter, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 72 (1978): 299-303. Bassett 111: “Discovers "a significant variation between the American and British editions [of Strictly Personal]:… the American edition contains one more chapter than its British counterpart." The omitted chapter "describes an encounter in Nancy [France] between Maugham and a young English writer" identified as Godfrey Winn, who considered Maugham his mentor.” See A60.]

 G204.   [Forbes, Alastair, "Uncle me no... (review of F168), Spectator, 6 May 1978: 21-22. Bassett 115: “Discusses the relationship between Robin Maugham and his uncle and criticizes the memoir in comparison to Robin Maugham's Somerset and All the Maughams.”]

 G205.   [Hyde, H. Montgomery, At the Villa Mauresque (review of F168), TLS, 26 May 1978: 578. Bassett 117: “The memoir "is a short but immensely revealing record of the conversations between two related writers which perhaps sheds more light than has appeared hitherto on the elder man's domestic life." Concludes that Robin Maugham "is the only person who can write the full biography."”]

 G206.   [Waugh, Auberon, Happy in His Malice (review of F168), New York Times Book Review, 25 June 1978: 10. Bassett 123: “Generally favorable review notes a tone of retribution in the account of Maugham's senility.”]

 G207.   [Mazzocco, Robert, Slippery Fish (review of F168), New York Review of Books, 23 Nov 1978: 26-30. Bassett 120: “Finds the book "an intermittently entertaining memoir, but its details can be careless." Goes on to discuss Maugham's relationship with Gerald Haxton, his views of art and society, and compares passages from Maugham and Marcel Proust.]

 G208.   [Curtis, Anthony, Review of For Services Rendered (Lyttelton Theatre, London), Drama 133 (1979): 46-49. Bassett 126: “Written after Maugham grew bored with drama, finds "this boredom on the part of the playwright cannot be wholly disguised. It shows through in the construction." Calls the production a "thoroughly credible revival."”]

 G209.   [Menard, Wilmon, Maugham in Hollywood, American Film, 4.6 (1979): 15-16. Bassett 133: “Recounts Maugham's association with Hollywood, especially during the making of The Razor's Edge.”]

 G210.   [Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher, Books of the Times (review of F170), New York Times, 6 March 1980: C21. Bassett 151: “Credits the "extraordinary job of research": "he has made of 'Maugham' a life of stature. Quite an ugly life, but heroic nonetheless." Judges Maugham's literary reputation: "Despite the very considerable achievement of the best of his short stories and of his bildungsroman, 'Of Human Bondage, 'there is no 'Lear' or 'The Brothers Karamazov' or 'Dr. Faustus' or even 'The Old Man and the Sea' to crown his canon."”]

 G211.   [Fussell, Paul, Review of F170, New Republic, 8 March 1980: 30-33. Bassett 147: “Questions Maugham's right to posthumous privacy and speculates that Maugham continued his role as a spy long after 1917. Finds the biography "critically unsophisticated, superficial, [and] vulgar" and criticizes Morgan's annotations, use of sources, and style.”]

 G212.   [Drabble, Margaret, Review of F170, New York Times Book Review, 9 March 1980: 1, 24-26. Bassett 143: “Calls Morgan's book "an extremely interesting biography" but "Morgan is no stylist; he writes inelegantly, relays apocryphal jokes, quotes gossip as though it were fact, is immensely repetitive and loves to explain the obvious."”]

 G213.   [Ratcliffe, Michael, Review of F170, Times [London], 24 April 1980: 10. Bassett 160: “Finds it "impossible to believe that anyone who reads Morgan's vast and painstaking account will not find its subject even less attractive than before...." Judges the biography in the main favorably, but notes numerous errors of fact.”]

 G214.   [Glendinning, Victoria, The Great Untouchable (review of F170 and The Scandal of Syrie Maugham by Gerald McKnight), TLS, 25 April 1980: 459. Bassett 149:
”Morgan's "well-documented and startlingly good material needed no cosmetic treatment" and he "has got as close as anyone could to his subject."”]

 G215.   [Forbes, Alastair, Coming the Old Acid-bath (review of F170 and The Scandal of Syrie Maugham by Gerald McKnight), Spectator, 26 April 1980: 17-18. Bassett 146: “Says of Morgan's biography, "There remains the extreme poverty of this extremely rich man's life, to which Mr Morgan has done dispassionate justice at such tedious length." Of McKnight's book, "The story of his [Maugham's] marriage ... did not really need to be told again, but Mr McKnight has chosen to do so in an un-indexed and ill-written book." Adds a discussion on Maugham's writing style.”]

 G216.   [Raphael, Frederic, A Case of Human Bondage (review of F170), Sunday Times [London], 27 April 1980: 42. Bassett 159: “Questions the motivation of Morgan, "who seems to like neither him [Maugham] nor his works." Finds best the first section and the treatment of Gerald Haxton, but faults Morgan's reticence and the "petty errors."”]

 G217.   [Annan, Gabriele, Miserable Maugham (review of F170 and The Scandal of Syrie Maugham by Gerald McKnight), Listener, 8 May 1980: 617-18. Bassett 137: “Questions Morgan's impartiality and accuracy – "A better adjective than 'scrupulous' for Mr Morgan's research would be 'assiduous.'"”]

 G218.   [Nichols, Beverley, Exhuming Maugham (review of F170), Books and Bookmen, 25.8 (May 1980): 13-15. Bassett 157: “After discussing the estate's and Lady Glendevon's (Maugham's daughter) questionable decisions to assist Morgan's biography, Nichols gives reasons why Morgan's biography is "misleading, vulgar and offensive": it is "grossly unfair to Syrie [Maugham]," it "absurdly exaggerates the role which sex... played in Maugham's life and works," and it shows Morgan's ignorance of "the manners and customs of the English upper classes." Goes on to fault the "outrageous" portrayal of Maugham's final years and the negative portrayal of Alan Searle.”]

 G219.   [Barnes, Julian, A Foreign Code (review of F170), New Statesman, 15 Aug 1980: 19-20. Bassett 138: “Questions the estate's decision to aid Morgan and draws biographic parallels between Maugham and W H. Auden. Feels the biography "will produce not new readers of the short stories but further articles on the life..." Criticizes Morgan's style, judgment of Maugham's works, and errors.”]

 G220.   [Sanders, Charles, Flat Cakes, Flatter Ale: Ted Morgan's Maugham (review of F170), ELT, 23 (1980): 260-63. Bassett 164: “Criticizes Morgan's writing style, especially his clichés and rambling sentences, and questions his research. Concludes "in coming too close" to other writing on Maugham, "Morgan does not come close to his subject, W. Somerset Maugham" [author's emphasis].”]

 G221.   [Stott, R. Toole, Maugham's Of Human Bondage: Canadian Edition, Book Collector 30 (Spring 1981): 100-101. Bassett 182: “Questions whether the Canadian edition of the novel appeared before the American edition – the designated first edition – but notes the lack of conclusive evidence.”]

 G222.   [Weintraub, Stanley, Expatriate Lives: First Biographies of Maugham and Auden (review of F170), Review [Charlotteville, VA], 3 (1981): 115-27. Bassett 184: “Compares W. H. Auden and Maugham including their homosexuality, living abroad, unsuccessful marriages, and resistance to biographies. Whereas "the extent of its documentation is prodigious," lists numerous factual and editorial errors in Morgan's biography.”]

 G223.   [Archer, Mary Lee Garrett, A Bibliographic Study of the Herbert J. Frost/W. Somerset Maugham Collection in the Sterling C. Evans Library, DAI, 43 (Dec 1982): 1977A. Bassett 185: “Texas A&M U. Provides an annotated, descriptive bibliography of the 464 primary works and 483 secondary works by and about Maugham housed at Texas A&M University.”]

 G224.   [Calder, Robert L., Review of F170, Ariel, 13.2 (1982): 89-91. Bassett 186: “Condemns Morgan's book as "619 pages of gossip, trivia, clichés, and pastiche of earlier books and reminiscences, devoid of anything but the most superficial kind of analytical comment." Criticizes Morgan's interpretation, accuracy, and portrayal of Maugham's homosexuality.” See F178.]

 G225.   [Tintner, Adeline R., W. Somerset Maugham vs. Henry James, AB Bookman's Weekly, 7 Nov 1983: 3092-3120. Bassett 200: “Discusses Maugham's criticism of Henry James's work and character, the persona of James as he appears in Maugham's work, and Maugham's use of James's stories in his own works, especially Our Betters which relies on two James stories, "An International Episode" and "A London Life."”]

 G226.   [Levi, Peter, Unbuttoned after golf (review of B43), Spectator, 1 Dec 1984: 27-28. Bassett 208: “Finds that Maugham's "uncollected pieces are highly instructive; they will attract attention to him, and in that sense will add to his reputation." Goes on to discuss Maugham's style and his reputation in comparison to other writers.”]

 G227.   [Mavor, Elizabeth, Maughamisms (review of B43), London Review of Books, 18 July 1985: 22. Thinks Maugham "very little tinged with romance" judging by his work. Compares the description of Rosie in Cakes and Ale with Leah in Colette's The Last of Chérie.”]

 G228.   [J., L., Review of B43, West Coast Review, of Books 11 (July 1985): 37. Bassett 232: “Finds that "[a]lmost all the material is less dated than one might think."”]

 G229.   [Bold, Alan, Review of B43, New Statesman ,6 Sept 1985: 29. Bassett 217: “Identifies a moralistic tone in Maugham's work and judges that "[f]or the student of Maugham this is an indispensable collection; to the general reader it gives, in one volume, a good impression of Maugham's range as a writer."”]

 G230.   [Calder, Robert L.., “Nothing So Becomes a Man”: Maugham in Peace and War, CVE, 22 (1985): 17-31. Bassett 220: “Says that, despite the apparently pacifistic stance of For Services Rendered, Maugham's activities during the two world wars showed he didn't necessarily share this stance. Recounts his ambulance and espionage service during the First World War, and his propaganda work in France and America during the Second World War. The cynicism and pacifism of For Services Rendered compared to Maugham's service to his country in wartime offer "another of the striking paradoxes in this complicated man."]

 G231.   [Curtis, Anthony, Maugham and his Critics, CVE, 22 (1985): 3-16. Bassett 224: “Through the reviews of Maugham's work, traces the dialogue between Maugham and the literary intelligentsia, which ranged from modest praise for the early work to enthusiastic praise for the drama and the later work. Notes the numerous literary figures who wrote reviews of Maugham's work, and forms a consensus of the criticism of Maugham by examining negative reviews by Katherine Mansfield, D. H. Lawrence, and Edmund Wilson; and positive reviews by Rebecca West, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and W H. Auden.”]

 G232.   [Epstein, Joseph, Is It All Right to Read Somerset Maugham?, New Criterion, 4.3 (1985): 1-13. Bassett 227: “Gives a synopsis of Maugham's life, and discusses various features of his work – his wide reading, his style, and his large body of work. Examines the views of two critics of Maugham – Edmund Wilson and Morton Dauwen Zabel – and assesses the position of Maugham's work.”]

 G233.   [Barnes, Julian, Maughams Tor, Flauberts Papagei, Koestlers Zigaretten [in German], Merkur, 41.2 (1987): 174-79. Bassett 246: “Discusses the obsession fans have for authors and their belongings (Barnes has a piece of Maugham's gate among other things). Goes on to discuss the reluctance authors, including Maugham, have towards biographies, suggesting that they want readers to concentrate on their works and not their lives. Finds that biographies are nothing more than collecting a lock of hair – all but useless for understanding an author or his works.”]

 G234.   [Bayley, John, The Art of Being Good (review of F175), TLS, 23 Oct. 1987: 1155-56. Bassett 247: “Congratulates the editors "on the way they have assembled a whole perspective of changing views on the theatre, the novel and every other form to which Maugham's talent resorted." Includes a discussion of Maugham's influence, criticism of other writers, and homosexuality.”]

 G235.   [Costa, Richard Hauer, Somerset Maugham (review of F177), ELT, 31 (1988): 385-88. Bassett 262: “The references to homosexuality "comprise most of the book's originality and therefore stand out," but "Loss would have done better either to have truly forged a linkup with Maugham's homosexuality and writings or have ignored it altogether."”]

 G236.   [Miles, Peter Review of F176, Notes and Queries, 36.1 (March 1989): 124-25. Bassett 277: “Asks "why... when Whitehead is so aware of the ease with which a Maugham story dissected this way slips into self-parody, does he persist with the technique of story-summary, and almost to the exclusion of any other kind of sustained critical attention?"”]

 G237.   [Raphael, Frederic, The Skins of an Exotic Fruit (review of F178), TLS, 31 March 1989: 329-30. Bassett 280: “Notes Calder's biography "will seem indulgent only to those who relished the demolition undertaken by Ted Morgan's 1980 biography" but admits "Maugham's life has proved more interesting than his work." Goes on to discuss the French influence on Maugham, his style, and his dialogue.”]

 G238.   [Carpenter, Humphrey, A Lesser Splash (review of F178), Sunday Times [London], 26 March 1989: Gl-2. Bassett 273: “Comments on Maugham's reputation and homosexuality. Faults the biography for not citing more of Maugham's published works and for overusing secondary sources.”]

 G239.   [Parker, Peter, The Lamb's Conduit (review of F178), Listener [London], 30 March 1989: 27. Bassett 279: “Finds Calder "diligent in his research, scholarly with his sources and... sympathetic towards his subject," but needs an editor to pare it down.”]

 G240.   [Fallowell, Duncan, The clubbable outsider (review of F178), Spectator, 29 April 1989: 28-29. Bassett 275: “Comments on the difficulties that Calder faced, especially the lack of help from Maugham's daughter and estate. Discusses Maugham's homosexuality and travelling as part of his status as an "outsider" and his artistic style as that of an "insider": "Maugham's best work syntheses outsider with insider."”]

 G241.   [Rich, Frank, Rex Harrison Back on Broadway (review of The Circle, Ambassador Theater, New York), New York Times, 21 Nov 1989: C19. Bassett 282: “Despite the play's "occasional laughs and solid construction..., 'The Circle' isn't about to slow the decline in Maugham's literary reputation since his death in 1965, and it hardly leaves one eager to exhume the 20-odd other plays..."”]

 G242.   [Rowel, George, Review of F175, Theatre Research International, 14.1 (1989): 100-101. Bassett 283: “Notes that the "critics cited make up an impressive roll," finding it "noticeable that most reviewers overpraise Maugham's serious plays" and that "American critics are mostly dismissive" of Maugham's drama.”]

 G243.   [Vidal, Gore, Maugham’s Half & Half (Review of F178), New York Review of Books, 1 February 1990, pp. 39-44. Indifferent hotchpotch of tedious biography and misguided criticism. Mr Vidal clearly is not impressed with Calder’s biography, nor does he think much of Maugham’s works or indeed of Maugham himself. To him belongs the memorable description of The Narrow Corner as “Maugham's one and only crypto-fag novel” and the hypothesis that the best thing about Of Human Bondage is that it gave Bette Davis a great role. See F185.] 

 G244.   [Beattie, L. Elisabeth, Review of F178, New York Times Book Review, 25 March 1990: 23. Bassett 287: “Biography "succeeds not by lifting Maugham's mask, but by explaining how and why it came to be one man's sole expression of self as well as one writer's self-expression."”]

 G245.   [Beattie, Munro, Review of F178, English Studies in Canada, 16.1 (1990): 114-19. Bassett 288: “Calls Calder's biography "thorough, reasonable, and perceptive" and finds the pages devoted to Maugham's relationships with Gerald Haxton and Alan Searle the most helpful. Concludes with a discussion of the characteristic Maugham narrator.”]

 G246.   [Costa, Richard Hauer, A New Life for Somerset Maugham (review of F178), ELT, 33.1 (1990): 95-98. Bassett 291: “Gives a comparison between the biographies of Morgan and Calder, noting "Calder ... writes to redress the wrongs he believes done his man by the previous book." Judges ultimately that Calder's biography is "a compassionate hagiography but an unsatisfactory biography."]

 G247.   [Dobrinsky, Joseph, Review of F178, CVE, 31 (1990): 176. Bassett 293: “Notes "far from duplicating" Morgan, Calder offers a "sympathetic spirit" and "unbiassed stance" towards Maugham's homosexuality, obsession with money, and marriage. Calls it the "new standard biography."”]

 G248.   [Meyers, Jeffrey, Conrad's Influence on Modern Writers, Twentieth Century Literature, 36.2 (1990): 186-206. Bassett 297: “Considers Joseph Conrad's influence on Maugham: Ashenden follows "the realistic espionage genre" begun by Conrad's The Secret Agent; and Maugham's travels to the Far East for material follow Conrad's.” Tell me about it! See F185.]

 G249.   [Holden, Philip. "W. Somerset Maugham's Yellow Streak." Studies in Short Fiction 29 (1992): 575-82. Bassett 308: “Gives a reading of "The Yellow Streak," focusing on the "correlation between Maugham's homosexuality and his representation of masculinity," using a gender and post-colonial approach. Finds the "parallel between the yellow streak of Izzart's race and similar flaw in his observances of the codes of masculinity written over another parallel, that between homosexuality and femininity."” Just as an example of the typically profound criticism on Maugham. See also F181.]

 G250.   [Calder, Robert L., Somerset Maugham (review of F180), ELT, 37 (1994): 396-98. Bassett 319: “Citing the need for this book, finds the problem "is that while it is thorough in the sense of covering almost every short story Maugham ever wrote, it is short on analysis" which may be the limitation of the Twayne format. Calls it a "useful introduction."”]

 G251.   [Bassett, Troy James, W. Somerset Maugham: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, 1969–1997, English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 41, Number 2, pp. 133-84. Very useful resource fortunately available online.]

 G252.   [Rubin, Merle, The troubled popularity of Somerset Maugham, Christian Science Monitor, 17 February 2004.]

 G253.   [Allen, Brooke, The Old Parrot (review of F187), New York Times, 14 March 2004.]

 G254.   [Hitchens, Christopher, Poor Old Willie (review of F187), Atlantic Monthly, May 2004.]

 G255.   [Wright, Charles, Somerset Maugham: A Life (review of F187), Theatre Mania, 26 July, 2004.]

 G256.   [Boyd, William, Review of F188, Observer, 13 Sep 2009.]

 G257.   [Davenport-Hines, Richard, Review of F188, Telegraph, 20 Sep 2009.]

 G258.   [Dirda, Michael, Review of F188, Washington Post, 20 May 2010.]

 G259.   [Rayner, Richard, Review of F188, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2010.]

 G260.   [Franklin, Ruth, The Great and the Good (review of F188), New Yorker, 31 May, 2010, p. 70.]

 G261.   [Leavitt, David, Lives of the Novelists: Somerset Maugham (review of F188), The New York Times, 22 July 2010. The review concludes with this profound observation:]

·     [“If so much of Maugham’s fiction comes across today as brittle, arch, world-weary and heartless, it may be precisely because he devoted more energy to maintaining his own double standard than he did to interrogating the double standards of others. He tried to have it both ways, and as his stories so amply demonstrate, those who try to have it both ways rarely come to a happy end.”]

·     [See F184 for a book-length treatment of this entertaining notion.]

 G262.   [Blackburn, Daniel & Arsov, Alexander. Three “Lost Stories” by Somerset Maugham. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 57, Number 1, 2014, pp. 3-15. Investigates three recently discovered early short stories, first published in magazines between 1901 and 1904, which have never appeared in book form. Reprints the full texts of the stories together with the original illustrations. See D4b, D4c, and D6a.]

 G263.   [Blackburn, Daniel & Arsov, Alexander. Somerset Maugham’s Apocryphal “Second-Rate” Status: Setting the Record Straight. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 59, Number 2, 2016, pp. 139-152. Refutes the long-standing spurious self-description of Maugham as “first among the second-rate” or other words to that effect.]

 

APPENDICES:

 

I. MANUSCRIPTS

·     As few authors today compose their manuscripts in longhand but rattle them off on typewriters, we are fortunate that W. Somerset Maugham never became a devotee of the machine but set down in longhand everything he wrote. A number of manuscripts have disappeared and several have been destroyed, some by Maugham himself. It is known he tore up one or two of the early manuscripts which he though immature and not worth preserving, and it is also known that in old age he spent one infamous day, now known as the ‘holocaust’, when he put in the fire every manuscript and letter he could lay his hands on, despite the endeavours of his friend and Secretary Alan Searle to dissuade him. Fortunately, however, by that time he had already distributed among Institutions and Universities both here and in America most of the manuscripts which, in the 30’s, he was trying to sell for £10 000 to provide a fund to help young authors – a project happily that came to nought. A number remained in private hands but since his death several of these have been disposed of by their owners, so that now less than two or three remain in private hands. I have been fortunate in tracing one or two ‘lost’ manuscripts and I do not doubt that one or two others may turn up in course of time. Meanwhile, the following list is as complete a census of the manuscripts still surviving it is possible to compile. They have been listed in chronological order based on date of publication and it can be assumed that any not so listed have been lost or destroyed. I have seen most of the manuscripts, but not all, and I have to thank the curators of Special Collections in American Universities, particularly those outside New York and Washington, for their cooperation in providing me with all the information I needed to complete the cataloguing.

·     The plays, since most of them are now property of the National Theatre, perhaps deserve a special mention. At the present time they are preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but when the National Theatre, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1951, is complete, space will be provided for a Museum or Gallery in which Maugham’s plays and his fine collection of theatrical pictures will be on permanent exhibition. The plays are uniformly bound in dark blue or black morocco and written on quarto ruled paper or, as is the case with most of the early plays, on paper torn from exercise books of not always uniform size. Probably because he had not the money to buy fresh paper, he had to make do with what he had. Usually he wrote on ordinary school exercise books bought for a penny, but he would also use all kinds of odd sheets, and even the back of discarded typescripts. The writing has changed somewhat over the years. In the early days the manuscripts were untidy and the writing at times almost illegible but in later years they were both legible and carefully wrought. He hardly ever dated his manuscripts and if it were not for his admirable prefaces, it would be difficult to state with any certainty when his books were written. This reluctance to date his manuscripts applies also to his letters. He would write the day of the month, but invariably not the year.

·     It is gratifying to know that all plays Maugham wished to preserve and which were included in the Selected Plays [sic: Collected Plays] with the exception of Our Betters, stolen by a friend, and one act of Lady Frederick, are now safe for posterity in institutional libraries.

·     [Nobody loves Maugham’s prefaces more than I do. But I do think dating his manuscripts is the least important – and the least reliable – information that can be gained from them. The following appendices, especially the first two dedicated to manuscripts, letters and collections, may well be quite dated by now, but their verification, even in our Web-obsessed jet-age, is a great deal more difficult than published matters. Keep in mind that Mr Stott’s information was not updated at least since 1973.]

Liza of Lambeth [A1]

·     The manuscript of Liza of Lambeth is written in 3 differently sized school exercise books in marbled boards and cloth sides, with a stationer’s label inside ‘Papeterie F. Brocchi, 30 Farbourg Saint-Honoré, Paris.’ In the first volume is still preserved the piece of blotting paper he used during the writing of it. The writing is recognisable, but it has none of the evenness of his later years and is sometimes difficult to decipher. The title originally stood as A Lambeth Idyll and the author’s name is given as William Somerset, whether because he was training as a doctor and did not want his identity revealed, or wished to remain anonymous in case his book was not a success, are matters for conjecture.

·     The first volume, which has a map of France on the inside cover, runs to 84 pp. and is written on one side of the sheets only. Vol. 2 is paginated 85–148 and Vol. 3 149–212. The last few pages of the original manuscript have been torn out and six pages added in Maugham’s handwriting with the explanation ‘The last four pages of this MS. written on loose sheets have vanished in the course of years, so to complete it I have re-written them. 15 July 1931.’ And he added a postscript. ‘P.S. This novel, my first, was written in 1895 at 11 Vincent Square, Westminster. W. Somerset Maugham.’

·     It was a strange, eerie sensation to hold these three precious volumes in one’s hands in the school grounds when 80 odd years ago Maugham must have passed with his school books under his arm and now, in the wall of the Library, after a lifetime of wonderful story telling, all that remained was a simple plaque bearing his name behind which his ashes rested and where perhaps he had found at last the peace for which he craved.

·     King’s School, Canterbury, through the gift of the author.

The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey [unpublished]

·     Mr. Maugham presented this manuscript to The Library of Congress on condition that it was never to be printed [A65b, note]. He gave as his reason its immaturity and that he was then too young to make proper use of his subject, but the real reason may have been that in it he gave too much of himself away and could not disguise it as he was able to do later when he became a professional writer. For the biographer, this is probably the most important and revealing document in the entire Maugham canon.

·     The story begins with Stephen in his nursery. He is playing with a toy theatre and his nurse comes in to tell him that his mother has died, and the moving scene (repeated in Of Human Bondage) describing the young child going into his mother’s bedroom, opening a cupboard filled with dresses and burying his face in them so he could smell her scent, is told with a poignancy suggesting it may really have happened.

·     In this first draft Stephen has no club-foot or infirmity of any kind, his Uncle is not a parson or his Aunt a foreigner, and they have a daughter May (the original of Sally) whom Stephen marries in the end.

·     He goes to Tercanbury School and is bullied by the other boys, not because of any infirmity but because of his dislike of games and his aptitude for work. The revulsion he has for school, more dramatically expressed in Of Human Bondage when the club-foot is the cause of so much humiliation, is not apparent here, and his years at Tercanbury are no more than a passing phase in the life of a sensitive schoolboy.

·     He leaves school at the age of sixteen and goes to France (instead of Germany in the later version) ostensibly to learn the language but little emphasis is given to his studies. Here he meets Hayward (named Cross in this draft) but he bears little resemblance to the important figure he became in Of Human Bondage. After two years in France, spent mostly idling, he returns to England where his Uncle obtains for him a position in a solicitor’s office, where he remains until he qualifies.

·     His Uncle and Aunt live at Woodbridge (the equivalent of the Rectory in the later version) and here Stephen meets his niece’s governess Miss Wilkinson, the only character to retain her name when the book is re-written. His affair with her brings the book alive for the first time, and the author uses quite a substantial part of this text when he re-writes the story.

·     While living in London one of the clerks in the office takes him to the tea-shop where Rosie Cameron (the original of Mildred) works as a waitress. And here one gets the impression that this story of unrequited love still fresh in his memory is the motive for writing the book, for apart from the few digressions in the early chapters, the rest of the novel revolves round Rosie and ends with her.

·     Miller, the commercial traveller, makes his appearance in much the same way as he does in Of Human Bondage, and events succeed each other after much the same pattern, with Miller offering to marry Rosie but does not do so, and she becomes pregnant and he deserts her. She returns to Stephen and the affair miserably drags on for two more years and then she drifts out of his life.

·     His Uncle dies and Stephen goes down to Woodbridge and meets May again, who is now grown up. He tells her about Rosie and afterwards proposes to her, and though she is unhappy about the influence Rosie still seems to wield over him, she agrees to marry him.

·     Then out of the blue Rosie comes into his life again. He receives an importunate letter from her, insisting she must see him. He is reluctant to do so but May, knowing he will not be able to get her out of his mind until he makes a final break, urges him to go. And against all reason and all his good intentions, Stephen succumbs once again to the hopeless and inexplicable passion he still has for this worthless slattern. He wakes up next morning in a cheap Shaftesbury Avenue hotel with her beside him, realising he has shattered his happiness and can never return to May.

·     This is undoubtedly how the young Maugham intended to end his novel, but the story is continued for several loose foolscap sheets (filed in a pocket at the end of the second volume) describing his return to Woodbridge and his marriage to May, leading one to believe that a publisher had hinted that if he would give the story a happy ending, he might re-consider it. But the author’s heart is not in it and it is laboured writing.

·     Nevertheless, here was the core of the later draft – the harrowing story of a young and inexperienced boy’s passion for a worthless slut that became in the hands of an experienced and accomplished writer one of the great novels in the English language.

·     The full text of this novel is written on one side of the paper of ruled exercise books measuring 21 X 15 cm and bound in two volumes. Vol. I ends on p. 299 with chapter XXXIII and Vol. II on p. 302 with chapter LIX. The conclusion of the last chapter is continued on sheets of loose ruled foolscap. The title page of Vol. II reads “An Artistic Temperament” but this is crossed out and changed to “The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey”. In the top left-hand corner, also crossed out, is written ‘Mr. Payne, Albany Chambers, York St, S.W.’ Added later under the author’s name is the inscription ‘This manuscript is presented to The Library of Congress on the condition it is never printed. WM.’ In Vol. II the author has made a design of a series of ruled coloured lines as a border to the title-page and at the bottom of the page has written ‘44 220 words’.

·     The handwriting is irregular and uncertain, there are numerous corrections, substantial parts having been re-written, and the manuscript has all the signs of having been written in a hurry. Vol. I is bound in brown morocco and Vol. II in blue morocco.

·     The Library of Congress, through the gift of the author.

The Middle of Next Week [unpublished]

·     On p. 63 of his delightful Remembering Mr. Maugham [F135a][14] Garson Kanin tells the story of a play that Maugham wrote for Charles Hawtrey, the actor manager. He did not give it a name but he said that when Hawtrey read it he came round full of excitement and all enthusiasm for the play and for his role. But he wanted to make changes, first one and then another, and though Maugham demurred Hawtrey was such an important figure in the theatre at that time he did not wish to offend him and he promised to give his ideas consideration. When he had gone he picked up the manuscript and became very angry for the pages were full of scribblings and parentheses indicating cuts. Maugham said “I was soon at a boil. I destroyed the manuscript and all the other copies save one – for my files. That one we put into that flame a few nights ago… I saw Hawtrey many times after that,” continued Maugham “and we remained good friends until his death – but he never mentioned my play again. Nor did I.”

·     In the late fifties I went down into the vaults of a bank in St James St and went through a lot of Maugham manuscripts stored there in an old deeds box. Among them was one entitled The Middle of Next Week – the first title had been One of These Days, but this had been crossed out. I had never heard of the play nor could I recognise it from the names of the characters. When I mentioned it to Mr. Maugham he told it had been written for Charles Hawtrey and he thought it had been destroyed. That was all.

·     The play, judging from the handwriting, which is erratic and at times almost illegible, must have been written very early in Maugham’s career, round about the turn of the century. It may have been the second draft of the play for leaves written with a very thick nib on paper of smaller size have been inserted possibly from an earlier manuscript. The handwriting resembles that in the manuscript of A Man of Honour and judging from the inks employed was written over a period and not continuously.

·       It is quite an amusing play and the main character the Duke of St Erth was a typical ‘Hawtrey part’. Maugham gives the Times as ‘One Hundred Years (changed to ‘A Number of Years’) after the abolition of the House of Lords’, but what the future has got to do with the play is anybody’s guess since all the changes the author sees in the future is the impecuniosity of the well-to-do. It is a straight forward story of a member of the aristocracy endeavouring to sustain his financial position in the world by ‘inviting ladies and gentlemen of means to join in his historic castle during summer holidays.’ He makes his terms very high so that only the ‘very nicest people could accept the invitation’.

·     The manuscript is written on 127 leaves of ruled thick and thin paper of different dimensions and quality measuring from 21.8 to 25.4 cm. The author has numbered the pages Act I 1–38, Act II 1–56, Act III 1–37. The ending to the play has been accidentally misbound at the beginning of Act III. There are some revisions of the dialogue and all in the author’s hand. A label of Ethel Christian’s Typewriting Office, Strand, W.C. is attached to the back of one of the leaves, so it was probably a typed copy that Hawtrey saw and not the manuscript. Bound into a single volume of black morocco with the title in gilt on the front cover.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.       

The Hero [A4]

·     This extensively revised and corrected working manuscript is written in seven 6d school exercise books with linen spines and marbled boards. This is probably one of the most interesting of the Maugham manuscripts, not only because the author’s handwriting has still not matured but also because it is so extensively revised and altered that one could say it has been completely rewritten; indeed, at first sight it looks as though the author had used both sides of the leaf when writing his story. The foliation in the author’s hand is as follows: (1) 1-65, (2) 1-67, (3) 9 leaves unnumbered, 10–67, (4) 1–64, (5) 1–66, (6) 1–37, (7) 1–39. The end is written on the backs of 3 sheets of discarded typescript of the play The Explorer and folded into the back of the last notebook. Unlike most of the author’s manuscripts, this one is dated 1900 October 8 – 1901 January 14, and at the top of the title page the author has written ‘76 000 words’. The seven notebooks are preserved in two black half morocco boxes, red labels on spine.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Merry-Go-Round [A7]

·     The first draft of this novel written entirely in the author’s hand in four school exercise books with linen sides and marbled paper sides. The first book contains chapters I–VIII (part) of Part I and is foliated in the author’s hand 1-138; the second book contains chapters VIII–XV and is foliated 1–142; the third book commences with Part II and contains chapters I–VIII (part) and is foliated 1–140; the fourth book contains chapters VIII–XIV and is foliated 1–139. The novel is written of course on one side of the leaf only, but it has been so heavily corrected and added to that the back of the previous leaf is often completely filled with corrections and additions, here and there in red ink. The writing and inks differ so much that one gets the impression that the alterations and revisions were made at different periods and at long intervals. The title of the first two notebooks is The Old and the New, changed in the final version to The Merry-go-Round. The original inscription, which is crossed out, was to ‘Gerald’ (Gerald Haxton) but this was changed at a much later date to ‘Jerry’ (Jerry Zipkin). In the third book not crossed out is the inscription ‘for dear Gerald. W. S. M.’ The four books are preserved in two half black morocco box cases, with red labels on spine.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

·     [It is not clear what the “original inscription” has to do with a man whom Maugham met more than a decade after the novel was published and who, if the dedication of A Writer’s Notebook (A70) is to be believed, was 12 years old in 1904. The Merry-Go-Round was not reprinted in The Collected Edition, nor anywhere else I should think, until after Maugham’s death. Either he gave the manuscript as a gift to Haxton and then to Zipkin late in his life, or the “Gerald” from the inscription was a completely different person, apparently a friend of Maugham’s from his early years.]

Mrs. Craddock [A5]

·     The manuscript of Mrs Craddock is written in black ink in five small quarto volumes (Vols. I and II of about 200 leaves each, bound in blue cloth, Vols. II–V in school exercise notebooks of about 40 leaves each, bound in marble wrappers). It is undated and entirely in the author’s hand, the main text written on recto leaves with additions, corrections and revisions on versos, with numerous stapled and pasted insets throughout. It is not paginated and the extensive corrections in red ink all in the author’s handwriting are very legible and complete. The manuscript was originally given by Maugham to Mr. A. S. Frere, head of Heinemann’s for many years, but it has now changed hands and [is] in the possession of Mr. Lew David Feldman of New York.

A Man of Honour: a play in four acts.

·     The first draft of Maugham’s first full length play written on the back of 98 leaves of the typed corrected version of Mrs. Craddock, measuring 25.5 X 22 cm., now bound into a single volume of       limp blue morocco. The manuscript has the appearance of having been written over a period, as different inks are used, the first 8 pages being in purple ink. The writing is very uneven and sometimes difficult to decipher. The author has numbered the leaves boldly Act I 1–27, Act 2 1–28, Act 3 1–25 and Act 4 1–20. The names of some of the characters have been changed but there are very alterations or amendments.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.       

A Man of Honour: printed version [A6].

·     Mr. Maugham undoubtedly learnt a lot from watching the rehearsals and the first performance of A Man of Honour. For one thing he discovered that some scenes of ‘flirtations bandinage’ [sic][15] in the first act were amusing, and he decided that he could write a comedy. The other thing he noticed was that the scenes in Act III did not develop as he had hoped, and some of them fell quite flat. When, therefore, he heard the play was going to be put on for public performance at the Avenue Theatre he decided drastically to revise Act III, and this he did in collaboration with the leading lady Miss Wyford. He used for this purpose a copy of the printed version of the play that had been on sale the first night of the Stage Society’s production, and this is the actual copy with the many revisions set down in his own hand. In the Grenville Cook collection there is a letter from Maugham to J. T. Grein dated 25 May 1922 in which he expresses the opinion that he did not think it worth reviving A Man of Honour for a stage production. ‘I have not read it for 15 years but my recollection is that the construction of the 3^rd Act even in those days was clumsy.’

·     The University of Texas, Austin.  

Lady Frederick: a comedy in three acts [A12].

·     The first act of the play that changed the fortunes of Somerset Maugham overnight. It is written on the backs of discarded typescript because, as the author says in his preface to the Stanford University catalogue, “being then very short of money, very short indeed, I could not afford to waste pages of good clean paper.” It was written in 1905. There are 52 sheets written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous corrections and alterations. Maugham states in the above preface that two acts had survived, but so far as is known this single act is the only extant fragment. Included with the manuscript is a presentation letter to Jerome R. Zipkin dated Xmas 1957 in which the author says “the other two acts must have been destroyed years ago.” Boxed.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

·     [The play is supposed to have been written in 1903. It is not clear how Mr Stott deduced the later year. In his introduction to this appendix he, too, states that only one act has been lost, implying that the other two have survived, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.]

Jack Straw: a farce in three acts [A13].

·     The first draft of this play written entirely in the author’s hand with a great many changes and interpolations on 141 sheets measuring 20.4 X 181/2 cm., the first 41 sheets on lined exercise book paper, the next 46 on similar paper but larger, with the remainder of the earlier size, now bound into a single volume of blue limp morocco. The sheets have been numbered by Maugham Act 1 1–48, Act 2 1–41 and Act 3 1–48. The author described the play originally as a Farce in Three Acts, but crossed this out and changed it to A Very Light Comedy in Three Acts. In the printed version he reverted to the first description and called the play ‘a Farce’. This was one of the four plays that he had running in London simultaneously in 1908.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

[Mrs. Dot: a light comedy in three acts (A14).]

·     The first draft of the play originally entitled Worthley’s Entire is written entirely in the author’s hand on 127 leaves of ruled exercise book paper, measuring 23.8 X 19.7 cm. Act II is on larger size ruled paper. There are very few alterations but the ending of the first act was changed, the old ending still being present. The author gave up numbering the leaves after fol. 24, and another hand has written in the foliation in pencil as follows: Act 1 1–39, Act 2 1– 40, Act 3 1-38. Bound in limp blue morocco.

·     When Maugham first started writing plays he had one play after another turned down because – as with Loaves and Fishes – it was felt he had help up a clergyman to ridicule; and as with Lady Frederick, no actress would be seen on the stage with no make-up on and her hair dishevelled. So he made up his mind to devise a play in which no one would find anything to object to. He wrote Mrs. Dot. It suffered the same fate as the others.

·     The managers complained there was not enough action, and a popular actress [Miss Mary Moore] suggested he added a burglary to make it more exciting. When Mrs. Dot eventually found a backer, it run for over a year.[16]

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Penelope: a comedy in three acts [A15].

·     The first draft of the play written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of corrections in red ink on 161 leaves of lined exercise book paper, bound into a single volume of dark blue morocco.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Tenth Man: a tragic comedy [A17].

·     The manuscript of The Tenth Man is written on 109 leaves of ruled and plain paper measuring 25.5 X 22 cm. with many alterations and additions, especially to Act 2 and Act 3, and several rewritten leaves have been inserted. The pagination is erratic, particularly of Act 1, where letters of the alphabet are used as well as numbers. Act I runs a–c, 1–11a, 1–22a, Act II 1–65, Act III 1–71. Bound in limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Landed Gentry: a comedy in four acts [A18].

·     Described as a Play in Four Acts this manuscript is written entirely in the author’s hand on 131 leaves of blue and white ruled paper, measuring 25.6 X 22 cm. Apart from one scene excised in Act IV, there are very few revisions or amendments. The leaves are numbered in the author’s hand Act I 1–36, Act II 1–32, Act III 1–30 and Act IV 1–29. Bound in limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Smith: a comedy in four acts [A19].

·     The first draft of this play written in 1909 entirely in the author’s hand on 133 leaves of blue ruled exercise books measuring 25.5 X 21.5 cm. The writing is uneven and sometimes illegible. There are numerous changes and interpolations, particularly in the last two acts. The leaves have been foliated by the author Act I 1–32, Act II 1–37, Act III 1–36 and Act IV 1–35. Bound into a single volume of limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Land of Promise: a comedy in four acts [A20].

·     The first draft of this play written entirely in the author’s hand on 148 leaves of school exercise books with ruled red lines measuring 25.6 X 21.5 cm. The leaves have been numbered be the author Act I 1–33, Act II 1–37, Act III 1–36 and Act IV 1–38. Bound in a single volume of limp blue morocco.

·     The author went to Canada and spent some time on a farm in the Middle West to get the background for this play which has as its theme The Taming of the Shrew in modern guise. It was one of his most popular plays.

·     [Mr Stott exaggerates a little in the last sentence. Perhaps it was because of the war, but the play run for only 76 performance in the US (with Billy Burke) and for the respectable but hardly spectacular 185 in London (with Irene Vanbrugh for whom the part of Norah was written). See F93, pp.113-4, for Maugham’s thoughts on his Canadian sojourn[17].]

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Of Human Bondage [A21]

·     Described by The Library of Congress as one of the great literary manuscripts of contemporary English literature, Of Human Bondage fills some sixteen medium sized notebooks measuring 26 X 17.4 cm. In addition to the text, it contains copious annotations and amendments in the author’s hand. The manuscript consists of 125 chapters, reduced in the printed book to 122, and the pagination of each volume runs as follows: 1–90, 1–85, 1– 85, 1–95, 1–85, 1–85, 1–87, 1–86, 1–86, 1–87, 1–86, 1–87, 1–85, 1–85, 1–87, 1–58. Bound in blue niger morocco, all edges gilt or marbled, and lettered in gold on spine MAUGHAM | OF HUMAN BONDAGE.

·     In Vol. I the title page written in the author’s hand, read: “Beauty for Ashes” by W. S. Maugham” and this was not changed until much later when the author discovered this title had recently been used. Looking around for something he hit upon the title of one of the books in Spinoza’s Ethics and called it Of Human Bondage. It was an inspired thought, and though his publishers did not much care for it, it has undoubtedly contributed in no small measure to its continuing success.

·     It will interest collectors to know that the author when writing this novel must have had beside him the manuscript of the first draft for there are many passages copied from it almost word for word.

·     The Library of Congress, through the gift of the author.

The Moon and Sixpence [A22]

·     The first draft of this novel written entirely in the author’s hand on 281 blank leaves bound into two volumes (one with loose pages) and heavily revised. It was purchased by Mr. Jerome Zipkin at the sale of Sir Gerald Kelly’s library in 1950 and obtained a record for a contemporary literary manuscript. Unlike most of Maugham’s manuscripts, this one has a date May–August 1918. Included with the manuscript is a single sheet of lined paper in which the author briefly but imaginatively demonstrates the underlying purpose behind the writing of the book. “Since some readers of this novel have found its title obscure the author ventures upon the following explanation. In his childhood he was urged to make merry over the man who, looking for the moon, missed the sixpence at his feet, but having reached years of maturity he is not so sure that this was so great an absurdity as he was bidden to believe. Let him who will pick up the sixpence, to pursue the moon seems the most amusing diversion.” The manuscript was given to his old friend Sir Gerald Kelly, but the inscription has been erased and there is now a new one to ‘Jerry’. Boxed.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Unknown: a play in three acts [A23].

·     First draft of the play written entirely in the author’s hand with only minor alterations, apart from one page which has been excised, on 108 sheets of thin white lined paper measuring 25.4 X 22 cm. Maugham has numbered the sheets Act I 1–34, Act II 1–41 and Act III 1–29. Bound in a single volume of limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Circle: a comedy in three acts [A24].

·     First draft of this play written entirely in the author’s hand with only a few alterations and deletions on 84 [sic?] sheets of lined paper measuring 33 X 231/2 cm., now considerably browned and brittle. The leaves have been numbered by the author Act I 1–27, Act II 1–33 and Act III 1–32, but another hand has added a continuous foliation 1-94 [sic?]. The manuscript has been bound into a single volume in dark blue limp morocco with stiff blue end-papers, the title on the spine in gold. Maugham says in the preface to his Collected Plays that The Circle was generally thought the best play he had written.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Trembling of a Leaf [A25]

·     The first draft of all seven [sic: six] of the stories which make up this book in the author’s hand with many corrections on sheets of lined paper now bound into a single volume of dark blue morocco and preserved in a slip case. In the manuscript the stories are differently arranged to the sequence in which they appeared in book form, and read Rain, 1–75, Red, 76–113, Honolulu, 114–155, The Pool, 156–220, The Fall of Edward Barnard, 221–270, and Mackintosh, 271–323. Mackintosh is spelt without a ‘k’ and The Fall of Edward Barnard has a separate title page. The leaves have been numbered consecutively by Maugham 1–323 but another hand has paginated each story in pencil. Pacific and Envoi were probably written when the author was rearranging the stories for book publication.

·     On the holograph title page of the volume is the inscription – “For Bertram Alanson in memory of a long friendship this book dedicated to him is presented by the author January 11, 1947.” Bertram Alanson flew from San Francisco to the Mauresque (quite an ordeal in those days) to be with Maugham on his 80^th birthday, a pact Maugham told me that they had made when they had first met in the Mauresque nearly 50 years [sic] previously.

·     In the Berg Collection is a letter from A. S. Frere, Chairman of Heinemann, which reads: “Once in San Francisco, on his way to Tahiti, where he got the material for Rain and other stories, he met a San Francisco Stock Broker, Bert Alanson, and gave him a thousand pounds to invest, and the broker turned that into a million dollars – stocks and bonds, nothing to do with writing!”

·     [Mr Stott’s chronology is very shaky indeed! Maugham’s 80^th birthday was in 1954: “nearly 50 years previously” he had neither met Alanson nor purchased the Mauresque.]

Ceasar’s [sic] Wife: a comedy in three acts [A26].

·     The manuscript of this play is written on 129 leaves of blue ruled paper measuring 25.5 X 21.5 cm. and numbered by the author Act I 1–43, Act II 1–46, and Act III 1–36. Apart from two pages which have been heavily revised, there are only minor alterations to the text. The play has two endings. The first:

V. I wish we could have a baby, Arthur. I should be so proud.

A. Well, my dear, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.

V. Put your arms around me closer.

·     The second ending on white paper, added later, and used for the printed version:

V. I want to be a good wife to you. I want your love. I want your love so badly.

A. My dear one.

V. Put your arms around me. I’m so tired.

(Her eyes are closed. He kisses her gently. In the distance there is heard again the melancholy wail of a Beduin (sic) love song.)

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

East of Suez: a play in seven scenes [A27].

·     First draft of the play written entirely in the author’s hand on 166 sheets of thin and thick ruled paper, foliated in rubber stamp and pencil but not by the author. It is made up of seven scenes written after a trip to China and was the author’s first attempt to write a play of spectacle. It was written from a scenario which may account for the few revisions, but part of Scene VI has been rewritten in red ink on three ruled leaves and inserted into the manuscript. Folios 122–166 are written on larger sized paper with ruled margins. The title page has been added late and is on different paper. Bound in a single volume of dark blue morocco with stiff blue end-papers.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

On a Chinese Screen [A28]

·     The first draft of this book written entirely in the author’s hand on 236 sheets of lined paper with many corrections and alterations in red ink. On a Chinese Screen is not a travel book written after he had returned home, but records notes jotted down during the journey of people he had met and sights he had seen and published more or less as they were. This accounts for the numbering of the sheets which were changed frequently as the author altered the sequence of the short chapters to make them conform to the pattern he had in mind for the published book. In presenting the manuscript to the Library, Mr. Maugham wrote in his letter to Mr. Donald G. Wing 22 October 1954: “I am sending you for your Library the manuscript of a book called On a Chinese Screen which I have always had a predilection for. It was written as a result to a long stay in China in 1920. I notice the manuscript hasn’t got the preface I wrote when these notes of mine were eventually published, and I suppose I wrote that separately.” Bound into a single volume of dark blue morocco, with title and author’s name stamped in gold.

·     [The preface was indeed written separately – 13 years later! See A28c.]

·     The Yale University Library, through the gift of the author.

Home and Beauty: a farce in three acts [A30].

·     Written entirely in the author’s hand on 131 leaves of ruled paper measuring 25.5 X 22 cm. with very few alterations. The play was originally called The Return. The pagination has been done by the author in ink Act I 1–40, Act II 1–47, Act III 1–53, but another hand has added a continuous pagination in pencil. Bound in limp dark blue morocco.

·     Home and Beauty was written by Maugham in a Scottish sanatorium during the last winter of the first world war. He contracted tuberculosis of the lungs through exposure to the rigours of a sojourn in Russia, where he had been on a diplomatic mission. [See B18, preface to vol. 2.]

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Unattainable: a farce in three acts [A31].

·     This is the play that Maugham wrote in 1915 in Switzerland when he was engaged in intelligence work. He had written the whole play up to a great comic scene in the last act. He obtained leave and went to London for the final rehearsals. To his dismay the climax of the great scene did not amuse him at all. He asked the producer to give him twenty-four hours, took the script home and rewrote the last act. He left out the scene that had so much disappointed him and with it the actor who had been engaged to play it. [See B18, preface to vol. 2.]

·     This is the original manuscript and the last act is as it was first written with very few revisions. There is nothing to indicate that it had been rewritten, so it would seem the revised text was left with the producer or destroyed. [According to Maugham (see end of previous paragraph), his revisions are included in the published text.]

·     The Unattainable, the title of which the producer persuaded the author to change during rehearsals to Caroline, is written entirely in the author’s hand on 144 leaves of blue ruled marginal paper measuring 25.3 X 21.7 cm. The leaves have been numbered by Maugham in ink Act I 1–41, Act II 1–59, Act III 1–48, but another hand has added a continuous foliation in pencil. There are very few revisions. Bound in a single volume of limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Loaves and Fishes: a comedy in four acts [A32].

·     The first draft of the author’s second full-length play written entirely in his own hand on 143 leaves of blue tinted bond paper measuring 25.6 X 22 cm. with some revisions especially in the earlier pages. The end of the play may also have been rewritten as the last four leaves are on white paper and appear to have replaced the original leaves. The pagination is continuous and in another hand. The acts run as follows: Act I 1–31, Act II 1–29, Act III 1–35 and Act IV 1–34. The play was originally described on the title page as A Very Light Comedy, changed to A Satire.

·     In the preface to Liza of Lambeth [1934, A1g] the author reveals that his novel The Bishop’s Apron was made out of a play that he had been unable to place. He neglected to mention that the play had been made out of a novel called Loaves and Fishes which he had put aside with the intention of rewriting. Then The Stage Society accepted his first full-length play A Man of Honour and one or two scenes in it made the audience laugh. They gave him the idea of writing a comedy, so instead of rewriting the novel, he turned it into a play and gave it the novel’s original title Loaves and Fishes.[18]  

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

[The Painted Veil (A33)]

·     [Rothschild Collection, now in the Boston University.]

The Casuarina Tree [A34]

·     The manuscript of The Casuarina Tree is written entirely in the author’s hand on 319 leaves of lined loose leaf paper with a number of corrections and alterations in red ink, now bound into a single volume of blue morocco, the title stamped in gold.

·     Lady Glendevon, through the gift of the author.

The Constant Wife: a comedy in three acts [A35].

·     The first draft of the play written entirely in the author’s hand on 156 leaves of thin ruled paper measuring 25.4 X 22 cm. with very few alterations and additions, now bound into a single volume of limp blue morocco. The author has numbered the leaves Act I 1–43, Act II 1–57 and Act III 1–53. It would appear the author was going to call the play The Painted ---- but changed his mind and crossed it out.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Letter: a play in three acts [A36].

·     First draft of the play written entirely in the author’s hand with some minor corrections in red ink to the first act, on 121 sheets of thin white paper measuring 25.4 X 21.5 cm. The author has not numbered the leaves of the first act, but the other two acts are numbered 1– 43 and 1–40. Another hand has added a pagination in pencil 1–121. Bound in a single volume of limp blue morocco.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Ashenden [A37]

·     The Bodleian Library possesses a manuscript of Ashenden which was presented to the Library by Mr. Maugham in 1952. It was written in school exercise book type paper and bound into a single volume, but although the catalogue says ‘holograph’ there appears to be some doubt whether it is in the author’s hand. There are numerous alterations and additions but again doubt has been expressed whether they were made by the author. It is believed the original manuscript was destroyed in the ‘holocaust’ in 1960 when Maugham made a clean sweep of every manuscript and letter that still survived, but Mr. Alan Searle says it was not the manuscript he destroyed but fourteen Ashenden short stories that were never published. These were the stories that he showed to his friend Sir Winston Churchill, who expressed the opinion that they should not be published, presumably because of the risk of prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. I have not seen the manuscript so I am unable to express an opinion, but consider from the information that has been vouchsafed me, it is the authentic original manuscript.

·     The Bodleian Library, through the gift of the author.

Sacred Flame: a play in three acts [A38].

·     The first draft of the play originally entitled Stella written on 131 leaves of thin lined paper with many alterations and additions throughout the manuscript. The leaves have been numbered by the author Act I 1–30 (the first two leaves not included in the pagination), Act II 1–41, and Act III 1–44, but another hand has added a continuous pagination in pencil. Bound into a single volume of limp black leather with the title on the spine in gold.

·     In this play Maugham attempted a greater elaboration of dialogue than he had been in the habit of using and this no doubt accounted for the re-writing of much of the dialogue. [See B18, preface to vol. 3.]

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

The Gentleman in the Parlour [A39]

·     The first draft written entirely in the hand of the author with numerous corrections and alterations on sheets of paper which at one time formed part of school exercise books. The author has numbered the leaves 1–322 and they are now bound in a single volume of dark blue morocco.

·     Lady Glendevon, through the gift of the author.

·     [Now in the Rothschild Collection, Boston University.]

Cakes and Ale [A40]

·     The first draft of this book written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of alterations and additions on 286 sheets of lined paper now bound into a single volume.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Breadwinner: a comedy in One Act [A41].

·     The first draft of this play originally described as a Comedy in Three Acts, but altered on the title page to “in One Act,” with a note “the action of the play is continuous… in order to rest the audience the curtain is lowered twice during the performance.” The manuscript is written entirely in the author’s hand on 126 leaves of white paper with two holes punched at the top so they could go on a file. A number of the scenes have been rewritten, and they were again revised in typescript before being finally set to the printer. Bound into a single volume of black morocco and lettered in gold on the front cover.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular [A42]

·     The first draft of all six of the stories that make up this book written entirely in the author’s hand on 382 leaves of lined paper now bound into a single volume and preserved in a box. Like all Maugham’s manuscripts these stories show evidence of considerable revision. They again underwent further changes in magazine form so that the typescript which went finally to the printer varies considerably from the manuscript. There is an inscription on the title page to ‘Jerry’.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

To Account Rendered

·     First draft of the play the title of which was changed to For Services Rendered [A45] when it was put into rehearsal, written entirely in the author’s hand with only a few minor alterations in the text, on 128 sheets of thin white ruled paper measuring 25.4 X 20.5 cm. The leaves have been numbered by the author Act I 1–41, Act II 1–43, Act III 1–42. Bound into a single volume of black morocco with lettering in gold on spine.

·     For Services Rendered was one of the four plays Maugham said he had to write before finishing his career as a practicing dramatist. He did not expect it to be successful and it was not, but he had got it off his mind and he was content.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Ah King [A46]

·     The first draft of all six of the stories plus the introduction which make up this book written entirely in the author’s hand in ruled exercise books measuring 25.9 X 22 cm. now bound into a single volume. It comprises 408 sheets numbered in pencil by the author. Two of the stories have been substantially revised in red ink. The ending of The Back of Beyond [D93] was completely re-written, and Neil MacAdam was considerably revised throughout. After appearing in magazine form the author again wrote a great deal of them anew, the text of the manuscript therefore differs greatly from that of the first edition. The manuscript is bound in full black morocco, with blue end-papers.

·     The Pierpont Morgan Library, through the gift of the author.

Sheppey: a play in three acts [A47].

·     Written entirely in the author’s hand on 175 leaves of thin white ruled paper measuring 25.4 X 20 cm. with many alterations and revisions in red ink, some considerable. Three leaves of a rewritten scene are loosely inserted. The leaves have been foliated by the author Act I 1–54, Act II 1–49, Act III 1–65, but there is no title page or list of characters. Bound in limp blue morocco.

·     After the production of Sheppey Maugham announced that he would write no more plays.

·     The National Theatre, through the gift of the author.

Don Fernando: or Variations in [sic] Some Spanish Themes [A49].

·     W. Somerset Maugham was 23 when he went to Spain and spent nine months in Seville where “it was heavenly to live in the flower of one’s youth.”[19] Some thirty five years later he incorporated in Don Fernando much of the fascination that he found there and which remained with him always. The manuscript which, except for sheets 188 to 205 typed on plain paper, is entirely in the author’s hand with many deletions, corrections and alterations in red ink on 301 sheets of lined paper. These are probably single sheets rather than line exercise books and are bound into a single volume. The inscription on the fly-leaf reads “A belated present for Lord Beaverbrook. W. Somerset Maugham. 30.12.1960.”

·     The University of New Brunswick, through the gift of Lord Beaverbrook (to be kept in his Special Collections).

Cosmopolitans [A50]

·     The stories that make up the volume Cosmopolitans were originally written on commission for the Cosmopolitan Magazine over a period of about five years. This probably accounts for the fact that the 286 sheets of lined white paper on which they were written is not quite of uniform size, measuring 26.6 or 28 X 21.5 cm. All the stories and the preface are written entirely in the author’s hand with many deletions, corrections and alterations in red ink. They are bound together in a single volume of full blue morocco in the same order in which they appeared in the printed volume, suggesting that they were bound as a manuscript at some later period. The story Mr. Know-All, however, is not present and the story Raw Material appears in the manuscript as The Imposters.

·     Cosmopolitans was one of a number of manuscripts given by their authors for a sale at Christie’s in aid of the British Red Cross Fund. The sale was on the 24^th and 25^th July 1940. The manuscript was bought by an English bookseller for £70. He sold it to Barnet B. Ruder, an American bookseller, who in turn sold it to Mr. Cranford. Accompanying the manuscript is a letter from Mr. Maugham to Ruder, in which he expressed his pleasure that it had been bought by someone interested in him and went on to say that if, after the war when things were more normal, his client would care to make an offer for any of the manuscripts remaining, he would be glad to consider it, as it was still his intention to put such monies towards the educational purpose he had always had in mind.

·     It was the bookseller Barnet Ruder, incidentally, who had offered – through Fred Bason – to buy all the Maugham manuscripts for £10 000, but had made conditions that were unacceptable to Maugham and the deal fell through and Bason lost his £1000 commission.

·     Mr Duncan Cranford.

Theatre [A52]

·     The first draft of this book on 425 sheets of lined paper measuring 25 X 33 cm. written entirely in blue ink in the author’s hand. The extensive revisions have been written in red ink on the blank reverse sides of the sheets, now bound into a single volume with the title and author’s name blocked in gold.

·     The University of Princeton, through the gift of the author.

The Summing Up [A53]

·     The first draft of this book written entirely in the author’s hand is bound into a single volume, but it is evident from the pagination and the fact that the sheets are conjugated they probably at one time comprised six separate copy-books. The sheets measuring 25.5 X 20.5 cm. have been numbered by Maugham 1–20, 1–49, 1–88, 1–84, 1–98, 1–94, later re-numbered by the British Museum 1–463. The two totals do not tally because the author substituted re-written pages with the numbering a, b, c, etc., and a few of these sheets are of different quality paper. The manuscript is bound in the author’s usual black morocco binding with the title and author’s name in gilt on the front cover.

·     The author spent more time re-writing and revising The Summing Up than any of his other works. Substantial passages have been re-written or added in red ink but even much of unaltered text has been re-written or excised at a later stage and does not appear in the printed book. Indeed, it is doubtful whether more than half of the original writing ever reached the final printing.

·     The British Museum, through the gift of the author.  

                                                    i.     Typescript. The second stage in the book evolution is the typescript of 467 loose pages with numerous deletions and alterations secured in four red paper folders and bound. Inscribed on the title page “For Gerald Haxton this typescript W. S. Maugham”. Above there is another and later inscription “This typescript once given to G. H. I now give in recollection of him to his friend and mine. W.M.” The University of Texas, Austin.

                                                   ii.     First Proof Stage. The full set of first proofs heavily corrected in the author’s hand and running to 323 pages. There is a pencilled note on the covering sheet “Author’s corrections made 23.9.1937.” The printed date 1937 appears on the title page. Bound and boxed. The University of Texas, Austin.

                                                 iii.     Second Proof Stage. Second Galley Proofs. These galley proofs which have also been heavily amended and altered in the author’s hand were run off from the type after the corrections in the first proof had been made. These proofs were cut down to page size and comprise 323 pages, which have been bound and boxed. The printed date has been altered by the author from 1937 to 1938. Tipped in at the end are 13 sheets of further revisions and notes covering both sides. The University of Texas, Austin.

Christmas Holiday [A54]

·     The manuscript of Christmas Holiday was given by Maugham for a charity sale sponsored by The League of American Writers and the Bookseller’s Guild of America. The money was to be devoted to the relief of Italian, Spanish, German and Czech writers both in America and abroad whom political regimes had made homeless. Some of those to be assisted included Leon Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, brother of Thomas Mann, Oscar Maria Graf and Egon Kish.

·     The sale was to take place on 14 January 1940 at the Hotel Pierre, and some of the writers and musicians who had made gifts of manuscripts proposed to auction off their own works. Maugham had been approached by Vincent Sheen and Louis Bromfield and in a letter dated November 16 said he was sending them the manuscript of Christmas Holiday. On the 9^th January he cabled that the manuscript would arrive by clipper. On the day of the sale, however, the manuscript was still in transit and as no one apparently had thought to inquire what type of MS it was, the bid was made two ways – one, if it was a typescript and the other if it turned out to be in the author’s hand. Of course, it proved to be in the author’s hand and Mr Cranford acquired it through the bookseller Barnet Ruder.

·     The manuscript is the first draft of the novel written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of corrections and alterations in red ink on 506 sheets of lined paper measuring 26.5 X 21.5 cm, now bound into a single volume of full blue morocco, lettered in gold and preserved in a blue morocco slip case.

·     Mr Duncan Cranford.

The Princess and the Nightingale

·     The first draft of the short story written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of corrections and alterations in red ink on 17 sheets of lined paper now bound into a single volume of full blue morocco. It was first published in Pearson’s Magazine in 1922 with a note stating that it had been written for a ‘special purpose’. This special purpose is revealed on the sheet bearing the title on which the author has inscribed “This story was written for the Queen’s Doll’s [sic] House and copied into a long volume which was afterwards bound and placed in the Library. W.M.”

·     Maugham gave this manuscript to the Personal Service League to be sold for charity, and there is a newspaper cutting accompanying the manuscript describing the event. Also included is a cutting from the catalogue of a bookseller who acquired the manuscript at the sale and sold it to the University. When Maugham decided to include the story in The Gentleman in the Parlour he must have gone to the trouble of copying it from his manuscript, for the revisions he made in it are included in the later version. The miniature edition which is in the Queen’s Doll’s [sic] House at Windsor is described below.

·     [See also A55, C3, D34.]

·     University of Texas, Austin.

·     Miniature edition. In Queen Mary’s Doll’s [sic] House in Windsor Castle there is a Library containing 200 books written in their author’s [sic] own hands and bound in exquisite bindings by such noted craftsmen as Sangorski & Sutcliffe, Robert Riviere & Son, Zaehnsdoft and Birdsall & Son of Northampton.

·     The authors approached were asked to contribute either original work or something already published and (according to the Preface in The Book of the Queen’s Doll’s [sic] House) the request was accompanied by “a little blank book in which the author was to write, as small as he could, with his own hand; or, if he could not reduce his calligraphy minutely enough he was to provide the material and it would then be inscribed professionally and he would be asked to sign it.”

·     This indeed may have been the intention, but as the Editor points out it is by no means easy to write neatly in a fat little volume about the size of two postage stamps, and in actual fact what happened was the author was sent the sheets for the miniature book already cut and folded but not bound. This is borne out by the manuscript of The Princess and the Nightingale, an examination of which reveals that the writing on some leaves has been cut into by the guillotine, establishing that the book was bound after, and not before, the author had completed writing the story.

·     The manuscript, measuring 31/2 X 3 X 1.2 cm., is written on 53 leaves entirely in the author’s hand. The writing of course is very small and it must have been physically a very exhausting task to write such a long story in such a minute hand. There is no pagination and as there are no alterations or additions, it would seem the author copied the story from the original manuscript.

·     In the Royal archives is a letter to Mr. Maugham granting him permission to publish the story in The Book of the Queen’s Doll’s [sic] House Volume II.

·     Queen Mary’s Doll’s [sic] House, Windsor Castle, through the gift of the author.

The Mixture as Before [A58]

·     The manuscript of The Mixture as Before, measuring 25 cm., is written entirely in the author’s hand in blue ink on 381 leaves on lined paper with corrections and revisions in red ink. The foreword which was probably written at a later date, is not present, and the first page of The Lotus Eater is missing. An early draft of pages 25 and 26, in that order, of A Man with a Conscience follow An Official Position. In the manuscript copy the stories are differently arranged to the printed version, An Official Position being the second story and A Man with a Conscience the ninth story. In the printed version the position of these two stories is reversed. Bound in oasis niger, with the title in gold.

·     The Lilly Library, Indiana University.

Up at the Villa [A59]

·     The first draft of the novel written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous alterations and amendments in red ink on 213 sheets of lined paper now bound into one volume. This novel was written in the form of a short story with the same characters and identical plot, but it did not find a publisher and the author put it aside for the best part of 25 years before deciding to rewrite it as a novel.

·     [The story is called “A Night in June”. It is no more than the bare bones of the novel. A typescript may be consulted in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library. It is not clear how Mr Stott decided it was written “the best part of 25 years” before the novel. See A59.]

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Strictly Personal [A60]

·     First draft of this book which was mostly written in the home of his friend Bertram Alanson after his hazardous journey from France in a small collier. It is written entirely in the author’s hand on 157 sheets of lined paper with many deletions, alterations and corrections in red ink. Bound into a single volume of dark blue morocco, with title and author’s name stamped in gold.

·     The Yale University Library, through the gift of the Author.

The Unconquered [A62]

·     The full text of this short story written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of alterations and interpolations in red ink on 44 leaves of lined paper. There is an inscription on the title page to “Jerry” Christmas 1943. This is the rewritten version of the story that appeared in Colliers’ [sic] Magazine in an expurgated form [D143].

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Razor’s Edge [A63]

·     This long novel suggested by a theme in an unproduced and unpublished play The Road Uphill (1924) is written entirely in the author’s hand in a series of exercise books which from his earliest days had been his favourite form of writing material. They comprise 540 sheets with extensive revisions written on the reverse side of the sheets and now bound into a single volume. There is an inscription on the flyleaf “For Nelson Doubleday from his deeply obliged and very affectionate friend and author. Christmas 1944.” When Maugham went to America after his flight from France it was Nelson Doubleday, his American publisher, who built him a large comfortable house called Parker’s Ferry on his plantation in South Carolina where he wrote The Razor’s Edge.

·     Princeton University Library.

Then and Now [A64]

·     The first draft of this book written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of alterations and additions on 286 sheets of lined paper now bound into a single volume.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Creatures of Circumstance [A66]

·     This book is a collection of short stories written at different times over a long period of years. It is not surprising, therefore, that when he died the manuscript was not complete. Some stories had been given away, some lost and some destroyed. The following are all that are known to have survived and are together in one place: The Author Excuses Himself – Flotsam and Jetsam – Appearance and Reality – Sanatorium – The Romantic Young Lady – A Casual Affair – The Point of Honour – [A Man from Glasgow] Robert Morrison – The Happy Couple – Episode – The Kite.

·     All these stories are written entirely in the author’s hand with a number of alterations and interpolations in red ink on lined and plain paper and number together 528 leaves. The Happy Couple was rewritten from the story in Cassell’s Magazine in 1908 [D16] and the manuscript and typed version given to Professor Karl Pfeiffer. The two versions are preserved together in the library.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Catalina [A67]

·     The first draft of the novel written entirely in the author’s hand on 381 sheets of lined paper, beautifully bound in pale blue calf. This is probably the cleanest and neatest manuscript that Maugham ever wrote. The writing is wonderfully clear and even and the whole a model of what a publisher likes a manuscript to be. There is not much revision and what there is, is equally neat and tidy. It is dated 28 January 1947, and this (I think) is the third MS. of this author’s that I have seen dated. His old school thus possesses his first novel and his last.

·     King’s School, Canterbury, through the gift of the author.

Ten Novels and Their Authors [A69b]

·     Described by the author as his first book of essays, this manuscript consists of 10 essays with an introduction and a postscript, all written entirely in the author’s hand on white lined paper not always of uniform size, now bound into a single volume in black morocco. The numerous revisions are in red ink or on leaves added to the manuscript. Each chapter is paginated separately in the author’s hand, and runs as follows: [1] Introduction 1–21, (2) Fielding 1–35, (3) Jane Austen 1-37, (4) Stendhal 1-32, (5) Balzac 1-32, (6) Dickens 1-42, (7) Flaubert 1-33, (8) Melville 1-32, (9) Bronte 1-41, (10) Dostoevsky 1-38, (11) Tolstoy 1-38, (12) In Conclusion 1-28. The Jane Austen essay is only in typescript as the original manuscript was given to Mrs. Robert Tritton (see below). As leaves have been added later either to add to or re-write the text and numbered with a letter, the pagination is only approximate. There is an inscription on the title page “For Alan, who typed all these essays their grateful Author W. Somerset Maugham. October 1955 in London.” Included with this manuscript is a typescript of the same work with alterations and lengthy additions in the author’s hand adding up approximately to 350 pp., but chapter[s] 7 and 8 are missing.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Jane Austen & Pride and Prejudice

·     The first draft of the Jane Austen essay written entirely in the author’s hand on 25 leaves of lined quarto paper, lightly revised by him in red ink. A comparison of the manuscript with the printed version reveals however that the whole essay was gone over again by Maugham in typescript and considerably rewritten and added to. Maugham wrote the essay when he was staying with Mrs. Tritton at Godmersham Park, Canterbury, which was once owned by Jane Austen’s brother. She often used to visit him when he was there.

·     Mrs. Robert Tritton, the gift of the author.

A Writer’s Notebook [A70]

·     For the best part of his life Maugham kept a notebook in which he jotted down – as he said in the preface to A Writer’s Notebook – thoughts and emotions of a personal nature with the intention of ascribing them sooner or later to creatures of his invention or when on his travels, impressions while still fresh “of such persons and places as seemed likely to be of service to me for the particular purpose I had in mind at the moment.”

·     The notebook amounted to fifteen stoutish volumes, but all that seems known to have survived are two lined tablets, one of about 90 sheets made during his journey to the South Seas and entitled Honolulu – the raw material that produced The Trembling of a Leaf – and the other a similar tablet of about 60 sheets comprising notes made on the journey from Sarawak to Macassar. With these tablets are preserved five loose sheets and the cover of a blank book from which they have been torn. It may be that other tablets still exist. All the above material was used in A Writer’s Notebook.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

                                                    i.     Another Fragment. Written entirely in the author’s hand in blue ink on 14 sheets of unlined paper with corrections in red ink and foliated in upper right-hand corner 346–360, bound in blue boards, decorated in gold. It is prefaced by a sheet of lined paper on which the author has written “For Tamie – an unpublished MS. being the last pages of a note book. Xmas 1944. W. Somerset Maugham.” This is part of the epitaph [the postscript] to A Writer’s Notebook which in book form was extended. From the collection of Grenville Cook.

                                                   ii.     Another Fragment. The preface (only) to A Writer’s Notebook, of which I have no particulars, is owned by Mr. David Randall, Lilly Librarian of the Indiana University.

Trio [script of Mr. Know-All]

·     First draft written partly in the author’s hand and partly in typescript of the dramatization of the short story Mr. Know-All with some corrections and alterations on 37 sheets of plain lined paper. This was one of the three stories filmed in Trio [A71]. Boxed.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Trio [love scenes from Sanatorium]

·     First draft of three love scenes from Sanitorium [sic] written by the author in his own hand on 8 sheets of lined blue paper. In forwarding them to Mrs. Tritton, Maugham commented: “I thought you might like the 3 love scenes I wrote for Sanitorium [sic] because they were written at Godmersham. They of course mean nothing out of the context, but as one of these days you will doubtless see them on the screen it may amuse you to think that they were written over the weekend at your house.”

·     Mrs. Robert Tritton, the gift of the author.

The Vagrant Mood

·     The Vagrant Mood is another book that comprises essays written at different periods. Reflections on a Certain Book was delivered as a lecture at the Philosophical Colloquium of the University of Columbia under the title Beauty and the Professor. The author re-wrote it and included it in The Vagrant Mood “in the hope of making it more easily readable.” Some Novelists I Have Known included the well known essay on Arnold Bennett published in Life and Letters in June 1931. Augustus was published in The Cornhill in the Winter of 1949/50. [Cf. A74.] These are the only three out of six essays that make up this book of which the whereabouts are known. They are written entirely in the author’s hand with extensive revisions in red ink on 54, 71 and 56 sheets respectively of lined paper.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Points of View [A77]

·     The first draft written entirely in the author’s hand on lined exercise books now bound in one volume of black morocco lettered in gold Points of View. The five essays are divided into sections and separately paginated in the author’s hand and add up to 314 leaves. Extensive revisions have been made by the author in red ink. The second essay entitled The Maharshi was changed to The Saint in book form. The manuscript was given by the author to Lord Beaverbrook in 1961.

·     The University of New Brunswick, through the gift of Lord Beaverbrook (to be kept in his Special Collections)

Purely for My Pleasure [A78]

·     The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., where the Beaverbrook Special Collections in the Harriet Irving Library are preserved, can find no trace of this manuscript, but Mr. Alan Searle tells me that he delivered it to Lord Beaverbrook personally at his villa in Cap Ferrat. It would appear, therefore, that it is still retained by the family.

·     Lord Beaverbrook, the gift of the author.

Looking Back

·     The notorious autobiography written during the last years of the author’s life and only appeared abridged serially in Show and The Sunday Express (D186). It is written on his usual lined paper, and was very little revised. Mr. Searle tells me it contains “some very brilliant things”.

·     Mr. Alan Searle, the gift of the author.

·     [The current whereabouts of this manuscript, if it still exists at all, are unknown.]

 

II. MISCELLANEOUS MANUSCRIPTS

The Mayfair Murder

·     The Mayfair Murder. By W. Somerset Maugham and Edward Knoblock. Typescript. (Carbon copy, autographed notes): [n.p., n.d.] Maugham m.s. corrections and additions. In 5 folders.

·     Numerous minor amendments and corrections in the author’s hand. It would appear that this film scenario was written by Knoblock, perhaps from a synopsis or short story by Maugham, but nothing ever came out of it, probably because it was a very indifferent piece of work.

·     The Berg Collection at The New York Public Library.

·     [This is probably the result of the same collaboration hilariously described in A Writer’s Notebook, “1941”:]

·     [“Years ago Edward Knoblock and I decided to collaborate on a picture. It was a hair-raising melodrama, and we piled thrilling incident upon thrilling incident, and as one thing after another occurred to us we laughed till our sides ached. It took us a fortnight and we had a grand time. It was a competent piece of work, well constructed and exciting; but we could never get anyone to produce it. The persons to whom we submitted it one and all said the same thing: "It looks as though you had written it with your tongue in your cheek." And that of course is exactly what we had done. The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced.”]

·     [This is part of a thought-provoking discussion about the sincerity of the best-selling novelist (which Maugham does not doubt) that was provoked by Pearsall Smith’s opinion that he (the best-selling novelist) is envious of writers of greater literary distinction (which Maugham disagrees with; “cool indifference” is his description of the reaction in question).]

The Razor’s Edge

·     Holograph of the film play, unsigned and undated. 51 p.

·     ------ Typescript, incomplete, with the author’s manuscript revisions, dated July 12–19 1945, unsigned. 106 p., with the above.

·     The script is in the author’s own hand, on his usual lined exercise book paper, with his opening notes:

·     ‘The following is not to be looked upon as a script and will be incomprehensible unless it is read in conjunction with Lamar Trotti’s. It should be looked upon only as a story in dialogue. To save time I have left all descriptions of the various scenes and all indication of the feelings or expressions of the various characters. I know nothing about photographic effectiveness and have left that to be dealt with by Lamar Trotti and George Cukor.’

·     The script was not used. Maugham’s instructions on p. 1 refer to Lamar Trotti’s script, a mimeographed copy of which dated 22 March 1946 is in the Theatre Collection.

·     The Berg Collection at The New York Public Library.

The Castillyons

·     Complete outline of a scenario based on an incident taken from the third story in The Merry-go-Round and written entirely in the author’s hand on four sheets of lined exercise book paper measuring 33 X 20.4 cm. This is the same provenance as the manuscript of Penelope, so it would seem that it is a very early draft, probably the period when, as the author says in The Summing Up, “from 18 to 21 I wrote down scenes from the plays I had in mind.” There is however no record that the author ever proceeded further with it.

·     There is an inscription on the first page “Given to me by W. Somerset Maugham in February 1905 partly written in my cottage at St Margaret’s Bay. – Wylford.” (The christian name is indecipherable.)

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Lotus Eater

·     The complete text of this short story from The Mixture as Before typed on 30 sheets of plain paper with many revisions in the author’s hand and notes and markings to the printer. This is apparently all that is known to survive from this manuscript.

·     [A little earlier, in Appendix I, Mr Stott says only the first page of this manuscript is missing. Doesn’t that mean the rest of it has survived?]

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Untitled essay on Chekhov

·     The draft of an unfinished essay on Chekhov written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous revisions of ten sheets of lined paper. It is, I believe, unpublished, though it may have been the notes for the essay on Chekhov in The Summing Up.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

·     [There is something about Chekhov in The Summing Up (xxxv, lvi), but nothing like an “essay”. Mr Stott might have meant the essay “The Short Story” from Points of View (A77) where Maugham goes into considerable detail about Chekhov’s life.]

Address delivered in America appealing for financial aid for the benevolent fund of R.A.F. n.d.

·     The complete text of this speech written entirely in the author’s hand with some additions and corrections on two sheets of plain paper. Included with this is an ALs to André David dated September 11 (no year).

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Broadcast of short stories

·     The complete text of the Introductory and concluding remarks made before and at the end of the broadcasts of the short stories on television. It is written entirely in the author’s hand on 19 leaves of lined paper with some amendments. Boxed. The broadcast was made on American television in 1950.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered to an unidentified audience, n.d.

·     The complete text of this speech beginning “We are living in troublous times…” typed on seven sheets of lined blue paper with several amendments in the author’s hand.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

·     [This seems to be the same address reprinted in B43 as “A Plan to Encourage Young Writers”. It was given on 30 September 1950 at the Book and Author Luncheon in Hotel Astor, NYC. See the address to the Herald Tribune forum below.]

Address delivered at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, 1950

·     The complete text of this speech written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous corrections and additions on five sheets on lined blue paper. The text was published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, No. 1, 1951 under the title The Philosopher as Man of Letters.

·     [Probably the same piece as reprinted in B43 as “On Story-Telling”. Given on 17 October 1950.]

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered before the Herald Tribune forum in New York, 1950

·     The complete text of this speech written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous corrections and amendments on ten sheets of blue lined paper. The text of this paper was published in the New York Herald Tribune on November 1 1950.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

·     [This is the same address reprinted in B43 as “A Plan to Encourage Young Writers”. It was given on 30 September 1950 at the Book and Author Luncheon in Hotel Astor, NYC.]

Address delivered before the friends of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, 1950

·     The complete text of this speech written entirely in the author’s hand with amendments and corrections on seven sheets of lined blank-book paper on the occasion of the presentation to the Friends of the manuscript of Ah King. Boxed.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., October 11, 1950

·     The complete text of this speech written entirely in the author’s hand with deletions and corrections on three sheets of blue lined paper on the occasion of the presentation to the Library of the manuscript of The Artistic Temperament of Stephen Carey.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered to an unidentified audience n.d.

·     The full text of a short speech beginning “I thank you for the great honour…” typed on one sheet of plain paper with several corrections, deletions and additions in the author’s hand.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered at the opening of the Heinemann Windmill Press extension, 24 June 1952

·     The complete text of this speech typed on four sheets of plain paper with some corrections in the author’s hand, signed. There is another typewritten copy framed in the Chairman’s office at William Heinemann Ltd.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

A Choice of Kipling’s Prose

·     The final draft of the introduction to Kipling’s short stories [C51] written entirely in the author’s hand with numerous deletions and alterations in red ink on 73 sheets of lined paper. The first draft formed the talk which he gave before the Kipling Society at a luncheon in 1951.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered at the banquet of the Royal Academy of Art in London, 1951

·     The complete text of this speech typed on five sheets of plain paper with several corrections in the author’s hand in red ink on the occasion of Mr. Maugham being invited to speak “In Response to the Toast to Literature”. His speech was reported verbatim in the News Chronicle (Lond.) on May 3 1951 under the title Somerset Maugham Tells a Story of a Lady from Poona [sic].

·     [Reprinted in B43 as “The Lady from Poonah”. Mr Whitehead also mentions that the version in the News Chronicle was “condensed”.]

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Address delivered on the opening of the exhibition of Authors as Artists at the Army and Navy Stores (London), 15 October 1956

·     The complete text of this speech typed on three sheets of plain paper with several corrections and additions in the author’s hand. This talk was later published as a pamphlet.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

The Magician: A Fragment of Autobiography

·     This is the manuscript of the seven page preface Mr. Maugham wrote for this new edition of The Magician [A11e] in which he deals with his literary career after leaving St. Thomas’s. It is written entirely in his own hand on eight leaves of plain lined paper with several corrections and alterations. With it is included a typescript revised by the author and the first page proofs with additions and corrections. There is an inscription to Jerry Zipkin giving him the manuscript as “a trifling Christmas present”.

·     The University of Texas, Austin.

Gallery Unreserved

·     Foreword to Gallery Unreserved by Fred Bason, written on four sheets and containing about 500 words. Accompanying the Maugham foreword is the typed manuscript of Gallery Unreserved, together with a proof copy in the original wrappers, and a letter from Maugham to Bason about his book.

·     Mr. Duncan Cranford.

 

Letters, Agreements

Yale University Library

·     4 ALS to Dorothy Stanley Allhusen – London, Venice. No year.

·     45 letters and cards to Lady Marion Bateman 1939–1956 – various places.

·     ALS to Mrs. Ruth Buddington [1935] – Villa Mauresque.

·     5 ALS to William Morris Colles 1899–1905 – London, Capri.

·     ALS to Mary Cadwalter Jones 1910 – Boston.

·     TLS to Mr. Knollenberg 1942 – New York.

·     38 ALS and 1 APCS to Mrs. Ada Leverson 1908–1911 – various places.

·     TLS to Sinclair Lewis 1922 – Taunggyi, Shan States.

·     ALS to Benjamin Moore n.d. – Villa Mauresque.

·     2 TLS to Miss Morse of George H. Doran 1916–1926 – Savoie, Capri.

·     19 ALS and 3 TLS to William Lyon Phelps 1938–[1943] – various places.

·     4 ALS and 9 TLS to John W. Rumsey 1924–1927 – various places.

·     7 ALS and 11 TLS to Charles Hanson Towne 1924–1926 – various places.

·     2 TLS to Carl van Vechten 1924 – New Orleans, Havana.

·     TLS to Mr. Wilensky. No year. Villa Mauresque.

·     ALS and 2 TLS to Donald G. Wing [1945] – San Francisco, Cap Ferrat.

·     Royalty Agreement – typed copy of an agreement between Maugham and T. Fischer Unwin of London about Liza of Lambeth (1897, April 6, London).

·     Royalty Agreement – typed copy of an agreement between Maugham and T. Fischer Unwin of London about The Making of a Saint (1898, April 4, London).

·      Royalty Agreement – typed copy of an agreement between Maugham and William Heinemann of London about The Merry-go-Round (1904, April 6, London).

·     Royalty Agreement – typed copy of an agreement between Maugham and Lewis Waller of the Lyric Theatre, London, about The Explorer (1907, May 24, London).

New York Public Library, Berg Collection

·     Letters etc. in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, described in the card index:

·     6 ALS (one undated as to year but fitting in with the period of the typed letters), 72 TLS, all signed, and a Telegram. Various addresses but mostly from Villa Mauresque, Cap Ferrat 1947–1954. 83 pp.

·     Characteristically succinct instructions and suggestions to Watt concerning rights and fees involved in new editions and reprint of his earlier novels and stories, stage, television and film adaptations (such as the stories used in the films Quartet and Trio), and the operatic version of The Moon and Sixpence. New works discussed frequently include Notebooks (A Writer’s Notebook), essays (particularly on Jane Austen and Dickens) which Ian Fleming was interested in securing for The Sunday Times, and his preface to the Aga Khan’s Memoirs, over which a misunderstanding as to payment had taken place. The longest letter (2 pp. 4to, 3 June 1951) and several others concern A Choice of Kipling’s Prose. In 1952 Maugham was shocked by Compton Mackenzie’s loss on a tax appeal over the sale of rights: “…the stories sold to Rank for me were regarded as capital sales, and not liable for income tax… your lawyers told us that I was perfectly safe… I am not very enthusiastic at paying over something like £30,000 if it can be avoided!” The later letters concern negotiations over the Ten Novels and Their Authors (of which [the] Jane Austen and Dickens essays were part). The last letter (4to, October 1954) comments on a Central Office of Information suggestion that he write a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill “as man and writer” to mark Sir Winston’s 80^th birthday: “…you were right in declining on my behalf… I have known Winston for over 40 years, and could only write about him from an intimate standpoint, which I should not want to do. [G.M.] Trevelyn OM. is the person indicated...” The Telegram (“Nothing Doing”) is an answer to a cable from Collier’s Magazine requesting an informal piece on lunch with Sir Winston at $2,000 for “not more than two thousand words.”

·     Brief ALS from H. H. Aga Khan to Maugham, 1 page 8vo, about the Preface to the Memoirs; 2 short TLS from Harold Macmillan concerning the Kipling selection (1951); 2 TLS from Ian Fleming, 1954, 3 pp. 4to; a lawyer’s letter concerning the dispute about payment for the Aga Khan preface, 1954; the Collier’s cablegram, 1953; the Central Office of Information letter about the Churchil article, 1954; carbon copies of 9 TLS from Watt to Maugham, 1947–1954, 9pp. 4to, 8vo, also A. P. Watt’s autograph draft of a letter of congratulations on Maugham’s 80^th birthday, 25 January 1954, and Memoranda. Together 24 pp. 4to & 8vo.

·     The majority of Maugham’s letters are written from Villa Mauresque and are characteristically business like instructions or agreements with Watt’s suggestions on serial rights, reprints and allied matters. References are to the selection of Kipling’s prose, Catalina, the Quartet and Trio stories, film rights in various works (including a reference to Isherwood having prepared a script of Up at the Villa for Warner Bros.), The Hero, The Vagrant Mood and subsequent works. The longest ALS (3 pp. 8vo) expresses sympathy at the death of one of the Watt Bros. and the death of Ellen Doubleday – “I was in some small measure able to help in the settlement of the grave disagreement that had arisen between Nelson and Ellen on one side and Doug Black and Dorothy Doubleday (as was) on the other, so that his last days were relieved of anxiety and the action has of course been dropped.”

·     There is also in the Berg Collection a large number of letters from Maugham to prominent personalities, including 9 ALS to Beverley Nichols; several to Maurice Colles; 11 ALS to Violet Hunt; Edward Knoblock, Richard Madden, Sir Edward Marsh, V. Payen-Payne, J. B. Pinker, Jane Ruben, Clement King Shorter, Fisher Unwin, Sybil Colefax, Carl van Vechten, A. P. Watt & Sons (27 folders), William Archer, Max Beerbohm and Sidney Box.

A. S. Frere Collection

·     Collection of 74 Autograph and Typewritten letters signed “Willie”, “Willie S. M.”, “W. S. Maugham”, and “WSM” to Maugham’s editor and publisher A. S. Frere (54 letters) and Mrs. Frere (17 letters) as described in the House of El Dieff Inc’s Catalogue Seventy Two.

·     This important correspondence spans about thirty years in W. Somerset Maugham’s relations with his principal publishing house, William Heinemann Ltd and with his editor, and later chairman of the firm, A. S. Frere. It includes both personal and business letters to Mr. Frere and his wife Pat (Edgar Wallace’s daughter) together with a few related pieces, and provides a first hand record in length and in depth of the intriguing, and not always smooth, course of their relationship during a period when the firm published many of his finest and most enduring works.

·     The earliest letter dated (from Ormonde House, London, November 13, 1932) is an invitation to Frere to attend “a little cocktail party for the cast of my play” (probably For Services Rendered), and the last (from Villa Mauresque, January 27, 1962) confirms Looking Back as the title of the notorious autobiography, which was about to be serialised in the American Show magazine, and later in the London Daily Express. Through the years Maugham called upon Frere for editorial advice of varying kinds. In a series of letters in 1935 he sought help with Don Fernando, and in 1944 worried about The Razor’s Edge and its likely appeal to an English audience. There are many amusing and tart comments on his own early books which he read, apparently for the first time since publication, in preparation for the collected editions. He frequently sought Frere’s opinion on financial matters and his plan for the disposal of his copyrights and the preparation of his will. In the early 1940’s a bit of what Maugham called “sharp practice” over the American rights of France at War caused a falling out, but it was apparently soon smoothed out and the letters in subsequent years maintain the same friendly tone as the earliest. There are several very interesting letters about Maugham’s reasons for giving the original manuscript of Of Human Bondage to the Library of Congress, and his trepidation about the “jollification” proposed by the librarian, Luther Evans, which would accompany the occasion.

·     Maugham spent many of the years of the Second World War in America and provided in many of his letters insights into the American character as he saw it, and reflections on our institutions. He wrote Frere in 1946 that the proposal to send Harold Laski to Washington as a British Ambassador “would be disastrous. He would have too many prejudices to overcome in too many quarters.”

·     Frere was the author’s literary executor and Maugham wrote in 1951 to remind him about his prohibition against any biography, especially by his nephew Robin. The year after Somerset Maugham’s death on December 16, 1965, Robin Maugham’s book Somerset and All the Maugham was published jointly by Longmans and William Heinemann Ltd. Maugham’s acid wit is well displayed in many of his letters. On a visit to Turkey in 1953 he summed up his reception by hordes of interviewers and photographs with the phrase: “If hell is gratifying this is.” Maugham’s gift of his copyrights to the Royal Literary Fund was supplemented by scholarships he set up for young authors and they were the subject of several letters to Frere and the correspondence between Frere and J. B. Priestley. Maugham also quietly helped pay the bills for at least one ageing author with Frere acting as agent for him. Several letters concern the publication of books about the author, including Stott’s bibliography, Richard Cordell’s biographical and critical study, and the biography by Karl Pfeiffer, which Maugham considered trying to prevent before publication. He finally decided to ignore it. The letters to Mrs. Frere are mainly charming and pleasant thank-yous for gifts and favours. At the bottom of a typed letter from one of the publisher’s staff in 1932, and on the blank verso of an attached sheet, Maugham wrote comments on a series of short stories he was judging for a contest. They contain some short but pithy observations on writing.

·     A collection of major biographical and critical importance of unpublished letters by one of the most versatile 20^th century authors.

·     House of El Dieff, Inc. New York.

·     Bertram Alanson Collection

·     In the Stanford University Library there is a collection of 600 letters written to his old friend and financial adviser Bertram Alanson. The letters date from 1921 when they met for the first time in the South Seas[20] to 1958, when Alanson died. They contain interesting comments on prominent figures both in the political and literary world, and pertinent information concerning Maugham’s works. A large number of letters relate to Maugham’s financial interests.

·     Bertram Edward Alanson, born January 6, 1877, was an investment broker and President of San Francisco Stock Exchange. He was a personal friend and stock broker of W. Somerset Maugham, and possessed a fine collection of his works, mostly inscribed, and some manuscripts. These were left to the Stanford University Library.

·     Mr. Maugham put a restriction on these letters of twenty years from the date of his death, and they may not therefore be read or examined by scholars until the expiry of this period.

·     The collection is preserved in containers, and divided up as follows:

o   1-15 – Maugham’s letters to Alanson 1921–1958

o   16 – Maugham’s letters to Alanson undated

o   19 – Letters from Sir Gerald Kelly to Alanson 1928–1956

o   20-21 – Letters from Alan Searle to Alanson 1939–1958

o   22 – Letters from Robin Maugham to Alanson 1937–1958

o   31-32 – Newspaper clippings and notices concerning Maugham

o   34 – Photographs

o   35 – Letters to Terry Bender (1958) re Maugham Exhibit – “By Way of a Preface” which Maugham wrote for the Exhibit. Speech by Maugham to the “Toast of Literature”, 1951.     

·     The Lilly Library Collection, Indiana University

·     The Lilly Library, Indiana University, possesses a collection of 32 letters written by Somerset Maugham to Richard Albert Cordell dating from December 1928 to May 1961. They contain comments on his travels to the East, political conditions in France, on critics and modern fiction and various literary matters. He also mentions his annoyance with Karl Pfeiffer’s book. In the letter in 1957 he makes known that he has instructed the executors of his Will not to assist biographers – he alone knows the facts, and adds that the best book on his work is by Papajewski. When Cordell sent him his biography, Maugham thanks him, but says that he is sorry not to have read it, but can’t read anything about himself unless forced to do so.

·     The Library also possesses 7 letters to Ian Fleming, mostly acknowledging receipt of his Bond books, turning down a suggestion that he write a piece on Sir Winston Churchill for The Sunday Times, and commenting on an article by Fleming entitled A Visit to Mr. Maugham by Atticus. “I have read your article with great amusement. I don’t see that it is undignified. There is nothing less I want than to have anyone take me for a stuffed shirt.”

·     The University of Texas Library Collection

·     In the University of Texas Library, Austin, there is a collection of some 968 letters, comprising possibly one of the most important sources of biographical material now extant. The letters date from 1909 until a year before Maugham’s death. A description is given bellow of the more important letters to specific individuals.

·     Barbara Back, 1926–1962.

·     The 149 letters to Barbara Back, wife of the famous surgeon Ivor Back, include some of the finest and most poignant letters Maugham has probably ever written. They reveal his delight in corresponding with someone for whom he has a great personal regard and whose letters obviously enchant him, and he unburdens himself to a far greater degree than is noticeable with other correspondents. He tells her about a visit to a French penal settlement [St Laurent de Maroni in 1936] where he and Gerald Haxton are looked after by a couple of murderers serving life sentences, which gave him the idea for the short story An Official Position. A number of letters report his literary progress, and of meetings with fellow authors. He tells of a visit paid him by John Van Druten, who had bought himself a ranch in the desert and was so successful as an adapter of stories for films that he could get all the work he wanted. He discusses the difficulties he has with his play Sheppey in adapting it for the New York production, and bemoans the deterioration in the quality of his Parker pens – ‘they don’t seem to hold the ink like they used to’ – and ruefully thinks that he will have to go back to the old Waterford of his youth. In a number of moving letters he unburdens himself on the subject of Gerald Haxton, his friend and secretary, and bewails his inability to influence him to lead a more upright life. He thinks that his trouble is that he hasn’t enough to do. When the breakdown comes and it is apparent that he is doomed, Maugham tells of his visit to the hospital to see him and poignantly recalls the days when they travelled the world together. He reveals how forlorn and lost he feels when it is all over, and how his grief is assuaged by the arrival of Robin, back from the war with a head wound, and later on Alan Searle, who is a great comfort to him and on whom he comes implicitely [sic] to rely. He tells an amusing story about Alan who has to undergo an operation and is nursed back to health by nuns. When Maugham comes to fetch him he is astounded to see him kiss the Mother Superior on both cheeks and if she was a bit taken aback he had the impression she liked it. Maugham makes the observation that he didn’t suppose she had been kissed for fifty years!

·     (N.B. Cecil Roberts has described Mrs. Ivor Back in his autobiography. “Slim, beautiful, intense, she was famed for her wit and common sense, which had an earthy quality.”)

·     Robin Maugham (Viscount Maugham of Hartfield), 1933–1964.

·     These letters do not in any way appear to bear out the suggestion in Robin Maugham’s autobiography that all was not well in the relationship between Uncle and Nephew. All the 99 letters are written in affectionate terms and largely in the role of literary mentor, usually beginning ‘Robin dear’ and ending ‘yours ever’ or ‘affectionately yours’. The first letter dated 23 December 1933 is an acknowledgement of a magazine produced when Robin was at Eton. It contains what was probably his first short story and his Uncle commends it, but remarks that it has a slight sentimentality ‘surprising in anyone who bears your name’. He was insistent in the early years that Robin obtained his parents’ permission before coming to stay with him. If they held the view that his house was likely to corrupt his morals, then it was not for him to say ‘stuff and nonsense’. He was equally correct when his brother came to stay with him, and though he might make some wry comments to his nephew about his behaviour, it never went further than that. There are many letters giving his opinion of manuscripts submitted to him. Occasionally, he would express disapproval of the way his nephew had treated his subject and recommend how it could be improved, and sometimes he would suggest a better ending as with The Servant. He was always encouraging and never begrudging in his admiration when a novel or a play met with success. If Maugham had any mental reservations about his nephew they were never revealed in these letters. Much of the correspondence not unnaturally deals with family matters, the effect the war was having in the South of France, and there is a fine description of the cottage his friend Nelson Doubleday built for him in South Carolina which would give him ‘a wonderful opportunity to write a thrilling book’. (He began there The Razor’s Edge.) The last letter is dated 27 April 1964 and despite the then rapid deterioration of his health, there is no change in the friendly tone that markedly prevails throughout the correspondence.

·     Collection of Reginald Turner Letters

·     A collection of 35 letters written by Somerset Maugham to Reginald Turner dated from January 18 1915 to October 24 1938. The dates are often only approximate as Maugham invariably wrote only the month and the day and not the year and the dates of the envelopes have been blocked out by heavy French, Italian or German postmarks. The majority of the letters are mostly of literary interest, discussing his books or the plays that he has in production and mentioning the people with whom he has come into contact – Beerbohm Tree, who is producing Pygmalion, Charles Frohman in New York, Billie Burke, Compton Mackenzie and many others. He tells Turner in a letter dated June 14 (1932?) that he has finished with the theatre and is so thankful that he can hardly contain himself. “I know that my decision to have done with it have cost me nothing.” In a letter dated October 24 1938 he mentions that he has been suffering from what the doctors called delayed shock – he had been involved in a car accident near Nice in which he barely escaped with his life. When Reginald Turner wrote to congratulate him on receiving the “Rosette” – the Legion of Honour – he pointed out that it made a very fine effect on the lapel of an evening coat but that he wore it with a certain diffidence because it seemed to him that the lips of various old gentlemen whom he knew would curl with scorn. But he expected to live the scandal down! Reginald Turner, who had the courage to stand by Oscar Wilde in his darkest hour, was a friend of most of the literary celebrities of his day and was trusted and liked by them. Duncan Cranford.

·     [It is not quite clear where these letters are, in the University of Texas or in possession in Mr Cranford. In these last pages of the book, punctuation and formatting are rather sloppy and often confusing.]

·     Golding Bright, theatrical agent, 1909–1928.

·     A series of 32 autograph and typewritten letters, dealing mostly with business matters but also touching on his private affairs. Writing from Brighton (no date) Maugham protests that Bright’s conclusion that he does not want money is hasty, but that he does prefer to go on pigging it in the squalor of Mount Street than sell his soul for hire. He is much irritated by the paragraph Waller had sent round to the press to the effect that he had rewritten the last act of The Explorer to accord with the views of the critics – ‘I think it is very stupid and undignified to crawl before the critics in this manner,’ and anyway it wasn’t true; his delight at the news that Lady Frederick had been accepted: ‘Your letter filled me with exaltation; now the likelihood of an early production makes me realise that the world is not hollow and foolish…’; a letter dated 2 October (no year) informing Bright that he is about to write a play which he is going to call Smith; suggestions about casting, views on theatrical machinations, and warning Bright that each play may be the beginning of the end of his career as a dramatist. The last letter touches on his position in the world of the theatre, and reminds Bright that he is no longer in need of an agent, he really only wants someone to collect the money and for that service he thinks 5% is adequate compensation.

·     Gladys Bertha Stern, 193–1954.

·     These 49 letters to a well known prolific and versatile English novelist reveal another side of Maugham – the letters are written in a half facetious, skittish vein, and begin variously ‘Peter dear’, ‘Delilah’, ‘Sweetheart’, ‘My Precious Peter Petrovina’ or ‘Dear Mr. Dick’. But they never go very deep or give anything away. They touch lightly on the literary work of both of them, on mutual friends or acquaintances, expressions of his opinions and moods, of books he has read, and places he has been to. They are friendly, lively letters tossed off to someone of whom one is very fond but who does not occupy a very important niche in one’s life.

·     Hugh Walpole, 1927–1937.

·     The 25 Walpole letters are very much as one would expect from what is known about the two men. They are mostly short and written in friendly vein. They refer to invitations to dinner, and suggestions for meeting, and one letter discusses Walpole’s visit to America, which had been a great success. There is a telegram from Maugham dated 14 May 1937 congratulating him on his knighthood. The correspondence, however, contains two letters of considerable biographical significance, the famous letter to Walpole dated 24 December 1930 denying that Alroy Kear in Cakes and Ale was a portrait of Walpole, and the other the letter replying reassuringly when Walpole sent off a disclaimer that he was not, as was rumoured, the author of the bitter diatribe Gin and Bitters.

·     Paul Dottin, 1926–1947.

·     Paul Dottin, President of the University of Toulouse, was the first critic to attempt a serious appraisal of Somerset Maugham’s work. These 46 letters, which are mostly replies to questions put to him, deal almost exclusively with various aspects of his work as a playwright and novelist, and are interesting in that they reveal his early approach to literary techniques and style.

·     Karl Pfeiffer, 1931–1958.

·     Karl Pfeiffer and Somerset Maugham were once close enough friends to exchange working manuscripts in the mid 1940’s; the relationship cooled as Pfeiffer became interested in writing Maugham’s biography. The 52 letters show the writer’s reticence about being the subject of biographical investigation.

·     The remaining letters in the Collection include the important Pinker letters (99) of which a full description appeared in my 1956 bibliography; 32 letters to William Lyon Phelps which contain a fairly extensive reference to antecedents of the characters in Cakes and Ale, and letters to numerous other correspondents who wrote to him ‘out of the blue’.

·     Royalty Agreement – typed copy of an agreement between Maugham and William Heinemann of London about The Land of the Blessed Virgin (1904, August 9).

 

III. UNPUBLISHED PLAYS

·     (Plays written or adapted by W. Somerset Maugham that have never been published. A number of these have been filed for the purpose of copyright with the Library of Congress.)

·     Mdlle. Zampa. A Play in One Act.

·     (Rome, 1900?) Produced at the Avenue Theatre as a curtain-raiser to A Man of Honour in 1904, but was taken off after 20 performances.

·     [Mr Stott was wrong. As he himself noted, the piece was published as early as 1904 (D9) under the title A Rehearsal. Mr Stott was wrong again that the latter was “based” on “Mdlle Zampa”: it was the same work under different title. It has since been published in book form as well (B43).]

Mrs. Beamish. A Comedy in three acts.

·     (n.p. 1917) A typewritten (carbon) copy is lodged with The Library of Congress, Washington. Unproduced.

Under the Circumstances. A Comedy in Three Acts.

·     (n.p., n.d.) A later and revised transcript of Mrs. Beamish, fastened into linen cover of the American Play Company in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library.

The Keys to Heaven. A Comedy in Three Acts.

·     (New York? 1917?) Typewritten (carbon) copy is lodged with The Library of Congress, Washington. Unproduced.

Love in a Cottage. A Comedy in Four Acts.

·     (New York? 1917) Typewritten (carbon) copy is lodged with The Library of Congress, Washington. Produced 27 January 1918 at the Globe Theatre with Marie Lohr and Haidee Wright in the cast.

The Camel’s Back. A Play in Three Acts.

·     (n.p. 1924) Produced 29 October 1923 at Worcester Theatre, Worcester, Mass and in London at the Playhouse 31 January 1924.

The Road Uphill. A Play in Three Acts.

·     (n.p. 1924) Unproduced. The theme of this play inspired the novel The Razor’s Edge.

The Force of Nature. A Play in Three Acts.

·     Typewritten copy is lodged with The Library of Congress, Washington. Unproduced.

The Mask and the Face. A Play in Three Acts.

·     (New York? 1933) This play by Luigi Chiarelli was translated by W. Somerset Maugham and produced in Boston at the Colonial Theatre in May 1933. A typewritten (carbon) copy is lodged with The Library of Congress, Washington.

 

IV. UNPUBLISHED PLAYS ADAPTED BY OTHER WRITERS

·     Akins, Zoe. “The Human Element”, a play in three acts; adapted from the short story of that title by W. Somerset Maugham. New York? c. 1933.

·     Ellis, Edith. “Strickland”. A Drama in Two Acts and Six Episodes, based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel “The Moon and Sixpence”. 120 leaves. First presented by Howard Wyndham and Bronson Albery at the New Theatre, London, September 24, 1925 (75 performances).

·     Brent, Romney. “Man-Hunt”, a play in three acts, based on the story “The Vessel of Wrath” by W. Somerset Maugham. New York? c. 1935.

·     Dixon, Campbell. “Secret Agent”. From the novel “Ashenden: or The British Agent” by W. Somerset Maugham. New York? c. 1932.

·     Cormack, Bartlett. W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil arranged for the stage. Produced at The Playhouse 19 September 1931 with Gladys Cooper and Lewis Casson in the cast (129 performances).

·     Jerome, Helen. “Theatre”, a comedy, made from Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name. New York? 1937. Unproduced.

·     Dietz, Howard & Mamoulian, Rouben. “Sadie Thompson”, a musical version of the play, with music by Vernon Duke, based on W. Somerset Maugham’s Rain. New York? 1944? Stamped December 13 1944 on cover. Presented at the Alvin Theatre, New York, November 16 1944 and closed January 6 1945.

·     The Berg Collection, New York Public Library.

·     Jackson, Felix. “The Letter”, adapted for television from the play by W. Somerset Maugham. New York? 1950, January 30. “Robert Montgomery presents – Your Lucky Theatre.” 62 pp. Duplicated script, signed. The University of Texas, Austin.

 

---

[1] Wife of the Vice-Consul with whom Maugham had stayed in Seville during his first extended sojourn there (some eight months starting in December 1897). The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2010, paperback, chap. 3, p. 68.

 

[2] “Above all it is through the new work of a young writer that one is made aware of the range of his abilities. It is here he tries out the genres and the different styles that best suit him, which act as directions guiding him towards his true literary self.” Translation from The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings, John Murray, 2010, paperback, chap. 3, p. 68 n.

 

[3] [Mr Stott’s original endnote:] The letters from W. S. Maugham to J. B. Pinker & Sons, his literary agents, quoted or referred to throughout Section A, are now in the possession of the University of Texas.

 

[4] [Mr Stott inserts here an interesting endnote without rhyme or reason:] Mr. Maugham had a brother, Henry Neville Maugham, who was also a novelist. He published a travel book and two novels, one of the latter Richard Hawkwood – an Italian romance in the Maurice Hewlett style – posthumously in 1908. The business arrangements for the latter were carried through his brother. Mr. Maugham’s grandmother was also a writer and made a substantial income from writing novels and children’s books in French, to the number of about 70. There is a delightful account of her in Robin Maugham’s Somerset and All the Maughams, Appendix VI.

 

[5] [Mr Stott links the following endnote to A29, but there is no cross-reference and it’s not clear at all what it has to do with Our Betters. But it’s a really charming note and I cannot resist giving it here complete:] In 1923, some students at the St Thomas’s Hospital, where Mr. Maugham studied medicine, wrote to him and asked if he would write a sketch for their Xmas show. By return he sent them a short skit, in which the characters – a doctor, a nurse, a theatre porter and a patient on a trolley – got jammed in a lift as a cry ‘fire’ was heard. My informant (now an eminent figure in the medical profession) could not recall all the details but he said there was much discussion in committee whether or not they should put it on. Eventually, despite its wit, it was decided that it was altogether too macabre and might create panic in the audience. No one now appears to know the whereabouts of the original script.

 

[6] There is one variation in the Modern Library edition that has always perplexed me in the extreme, but nobody seems to notice it, much less try to explain. It occurs in one of the most delicious passages from chapter I:

 

I had watched with admiration his rise in the world of letters. His career might well have served as a model for any young man entering upon the pursuit of literature. I could think of no one among my contemporaries who had achieved so considerable a position on so little talent. This, like the wise man’s daily dose of Bemax, might have gone into a heaped-up tablespoon. He was perfectly aware of it, and it must have seemed to him sometimes little short of a miracle that he had been able with it to compose already some thirty books. I cannot but think that he saw the white light of revelation when first he read that Charles Dickens* in an after-dinner speech had stated that genius was an infinite capacity for taking pains. He pondered the saying. If that was all, he must have told himself, he could be a genius like the rest; when the excited reviewer of a lady’s paper, writing a notice of one of his works, used the word (and of late the critics have been doing it with agreeable frequency) he must have sighed with the satisfaction of one who after long hours of toil has completed a cross-word puzzle. No one who for years had observed his indefatigable industry could deny that at all events he deserved to be a genius.

 

*The 1^st US edition and all later editions based on it do have Charles Dickens here. In the 1^st UK edition, The Collected Edition and the modern Vintage Classics edition, as well as in all other editions derived from the 1^st UK edition I suppose, the name is Thomas Carlyle!

 

[7] Not quite. There is one curious, if minor, variation in the famous opening paragraph between The Collected Edition and the Vintage Classics edition.

 

I have noticed that when someone asks for you on the telephone and, finding you out, leaves a message begging you to call him up the moment you came in, and it’s important*, the matter is more often important to him than to you. When it comes to making you a present or doing you a favour most people are able to hold their impatience within reasonable bounds.

 

*In the Vintage Classics – but not in the Vintage International – edition this is “as it’s important”. This sounds awkward to me and I suppose “and” is the original. This is indeed how the passage appears in the First edition, as confirmed by My Maugham Collection. See also the illustrated biography by Anthony Curtis (F167) where the first page of the MS is reproduced in tolerable quality; the phrase is “and it’s important”.

 

[8] In 1952, in his Preface to B19, Maugham confirmed Ray Long’s account:

 

With one exception all the stories I have written have been published in magazines. The exception is a story called “The Book Bag.” When I sent it to Ray Long he wrote to me, in sorrow rather than in anger, that he had gone further with me than with any other author, but when it came to incest he had to draw the line. I could not blame him. He published the tale later in a collection of what he thought in his long career as editor of the Cosmopolitan were the best short stories that had ever been offered him.

 

There are, of course, more than one exception. Leaving aside Maugham’s early works, at least two of his mature stories – “The Kite” and “The Judgement Seat” – are not known to have appeared in magazines at all. Others did appear in periodicals, but only after their debut in book form and are consequently omitted; see A25g, last note.

 

In the same Preface, to The World Over, Maugham admitted that the 29 “very short stories” from Cosmopolitans (A50) would not have been written had Ray Long not commissioned them. And in his Preface to East and West (B3), he paid a handsome tribute to the famous editor:

 

It is often said that stories are no better than they are because editors of magazines insist on their being written to a certain pattern. This has not been my experience. All but Rain and The Book-Bag were published in the Cosmopolitan Magazine and Ray Long, the Editor, never put pressure on me to write other as I wished. Sometimes the stories were cut and this is reasonable since no editor can afford one contributor more than a certain amount of space; but I was never asked to make the smallest alteration to suit what might be supposed to be the taste of the readers. Ray Long paid me for them not only with good money, but with generous appreciation. I did not value this less. We authors are simple, childish creatures and we treasure a word of praise from those who buy our wares.

 

[9] Cf. the description of the doctor in “The Happy Man” from Cosmopolitans (1936):

 

I looked at him. He was very fat now and bald, but his eyes twinkled gaily and his fleshy, red face bore an expression of perfect good-humour. The clothes he wore, terribly shabby they were, had been made obviously by a Spanish tailor and his hat was the wide brimmed sombrero of the Spaniard. He looked to me as though he knew a good bottle of wine when he saw it. He had a dissipated, though entirely sympathetic, appearance. You might have hesitated to let him remove your appendix, but you could not have imagined a more delightful creature to drink a glass of wine with.

 

[10] Most probably Modern Fiction by Dorothy Brewster and Angus Burrell, first published in 1934 by Columbia University Press. See also F27.

 

[11] "The characters in this novel are imaginary. The author has tried to fit them with names of his own inventions; if he has by chance hit on the name of any living person he offers his apologies for an accident which, whatever care is taken, must sometimes occur." Thanks to MMC for providing this information.

 

[12] March 1, 1943, Berg Collection, NYPL. See Selina Hastings, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham, John Murray, paperback, 2010, pp. 463 and 576.

 

[13] The whole Whitehead case as regards these early versions of “Spanish” stories is very fishy indeed! In 1984 (B43, Clarkson N. Potter, p. viii), he briefly mentions an original version of “The Point of Honour” from 1904 but says nothing more about it. In 1987 (F176, pp. 61-2, p. 78 n. 9), he retells the plots of “The Point of Honour” and “The Romantic Young Lady” and evidently considers them early stories. But he mentions no years of publication, much less months, magazines and pages. Furthermore, in a bizarre endnote, he declares that “in the case of “The Romantic Young Lady” […] its early date is only conjectural”. What is that supposed to mean and how come it doesn’t apply to “The Point of Honour”? Oddly enough, his equally unsupported speculation that “A Man from Glasgow”, because of its Spanish setting, “may also belong in this early series” has actually turned out to be true (see C65). Together with the early version of “The Mother”, of which Mr Stott was well aware (D18), this is the only evidence to support Mr Whitehead’s shaky hypothesis.

 

I daresay it is not terribly improbable. During Maugham’s maturity, largely thanks to his Far Eastern travels and espionage activities, “Spanish” stories are conspicuously absent; only a few of the “cosmopolitans” belong to this category. Knowing for sure that “The Mother” and “A Man from Glasgow” do exist in early versions and were only revised for inclusion in Maugham’s last collection some 40 years later, it does look possible, even faintly probable, that the same is true about the other two stories in this group, namely “The Point of Honour” and “The Romantic Young Lady”. But in the absence of any hard evidence – and that includes “The Point of Honour” about which Mr Whitehead looks so sure – we must assume that the early versions of these pieces, if they ever existed, took the form of rejected manuscripts or sketchy notes that have not survive. 

 

[14] It’s a little weird for Mr Stott to mention Kanin’s “delightful” book when he doesn’t even list it in Section F. In the 1966 Atheneum edition [F135a], the story is related on pp. 84-86 and dated “1958”. This is where Maugham’s words later in the same paragraph come from.

 

[15] Remarkable misquotation and misspelling! The correct phrase is “flirtatious badinage”. See The Summing Up, xxxii.

 

[16] See The Summing Up, xxxii.

 

[17] There is a little mystery here. Mander and Mitchenson claim to quote from the preface to Vol. II (1931) of The Collected Plays, but I have not found the passage in vol. I of the 1952 reprint (where the six original volumes were merged into three). Either they were wrong, or the prefaces were revised (and the passage omitted) in 1952.

 

[18] This is a most curious passage. Mr Stott is the only source about this early novel Loaves and Fishes. Strangely enough, he mentions nothing about his own sources or the whereabouts of the manuscript. He does not even have an entry about the manuscript of The Bishop’s Apron! The whole thing sounds rather improbable. A novel into a play and then into a novel again? Why not just revise the first novel and publish it? It is also possible, of course, that Maugham’s information was inaccurate and he derived The Bishop’s Apron, not from the play Loaves and Fishes, but from an early novel of the same name. In any case, I should like to see some evidence of the existence of this putative novel, or at least corroboration of Mr Stott’s words by an independent source.

 

[19] See The Summing Up, xxix.

 

[20] The year 1921 sounds unlikely. Maugham went to the South Seas in 1916/17 and never returned later but in passing. According to Selina Hastings (2010, paperback, ch. 7, pp. 211-2), Willie Maugham and Bert Alanson first met in November 1916 on SS Great Western travelling for Honolulu.