My Maugham Collection

W. Somerset Maugham. An Appreciation. By Richard Aldington -- Review

Aldington, Richard. Somerset Maugham. An Appreciation (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1939)
Recently I read Richard Aldington's old panegyric pamphlet on W. Somerset Maugham’s work as a whole up to the year 1939.

It is a brave and welcoming effort of the critic to revindicate Maugham’s worthiness to be considered a serious writer of literature.

However, it would take more than Aldington’s moral indignation, genuine enthusiasm, and facile arguments against some equally ill supported c…

Orientations (1899) by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition First Issue

Orientations (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899)
Not long ago, I discovered that I held a treasure on my shelves without knowing it. Orientations, the first collection of short stories published by W. Somerset Maugham in 1899, just two years after his initial success with his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897). This is a third book with T. Fisher Unwin, which also marks the end of their collaboration.

Orientations - First Edition First Issue
Four years ago I wrote a post about Orientations, but th…