WORKS
William Somerset Maugham, playwright, novelist and
short-story writer was born of British parents in Paris in 1874.
This is a bibliography of first editions of Somerset
Maugham held by the Library. Later editions are also held in some cases. Each
has an entry on the British Library Integrated
Catalogue. Links to other collections and sources of information are
also given below.
Brought up originally in France,
Maugham lost his mother at the age of eight. Two years later his father died of
cancer and Maugham the orphan was moved to Kent, where he boarded at King's
School, Canterbury. His holidays were spent with an uncle in Whitstable. About
this time Maugham developed the stammer which made it difficult for him to make
relationships and contributed to his shy and introverted manner.
Maugham studied philosophy and
literature at Heidelberg University and then in London he qualified as a
surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital. Of Human Bondage (1915) is an
autobiographical novel describing his unhappiness and anxiety in early life and
recounting his experiences as a medical student. Maugham served in the British
Intelligence Service in World Wars I and II. In 1914 he was part of a Red Cross
unit in France, later acting as a secret agent in Geneva. In Petrograd he was
involved in trying to prevent the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. These experiences
are related in Ashenden, or the British Agent (1928), a group of stories
which influenced Ian Fleming's Bond stories.
Maugham's travels fuelled his
fascination with the Orient and South Sea Islands. The Moon and Sixpence
(1919) is based on the life of Paul Gauguin, the artist who rejected France and
civilization to live in Tahiti. The Painted Veil was originally set in
Hong Kong but after threats of legal action Maugham changed the place-name to
the fictional Tching-Yen. The now rare first printing of this novel still has
Hong Kong as the colony (the British Library copy is the second printing).
Maugham became a witty satirist
of the post-colonial world and wrote over thirty plays, mainly light satiric
comedies. At one time he had four dramas running simultaneously; only Bernard
Shaw has had more plays on at the same time in London. The British Library
holds many of Maugham's published plays, and the Library's Lord Chamberlain's
collection contains a considerable number of typescripts.
Today, Maugham is probably best
known as a short story writer. His clear, lucid and economical style makes easy
reading and his short stories have been reprinted frequently in collected
editions. Maugham said himself: "I have never pretended to be anything but
a story teller." ("The Author excuses himself", preface to Creatures
of circumstance, 1947, BL: X.989/17570)
Links
Novels
Short stories
Travel Books
Essays
Periodical
Critical Studies
Bibliographies
Other sources of information
include the following:
British Library Manuscripts Catalogue
British
Library Sound Archive Catalogue
English Literature: A Guide to Resources
External Links
Caxton Club of Chicago: An Article from The Caxtonian
Cushing
Library, Texas: W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington: Maugham
Manuscript Collections
Stanford University: William Somerset Maugham Collection
UK
National Register of Archives
Liza of Lambeth. London: T. F. Unwin, 1897.
Shelfmark: Cup.410.f.310
Mrs Craddock. London: William Heinemann,
1902. Shelfmark: 012637.dd.2
The Magician. London: William Heinemann,
1908. Shelfmark: 012626.d.2
Of Human Bondage. London: William Heinemann,
1915. Shelfmark: Cup.131.e.18
The Moon and Sixpence. London: William Heinemann,
1919. Shelfmark: Cup.403.tt.25
Ashenden: or, the British Agent. London: William Heinemann,
1928. Shelfmark: NN.13962
The Painted Veil. [Second printing.] London:
William Heinemann, 1925. Shelfmark: NN.106.78
Cakes and Ale: or, the Skeleton
in the Cupboard. London: William Heinemann, 1930. Shelfmark: Cup.403.z.14
The Narrow Corner. London: William Heinemann,
1932. Shelfmark: NN.22561
Up at the Villa. London: William Heinemann,
1941. Shelfmark: NN. 32488
The Razor's Edge. London: William Heinemann,
1944. Shelfmark: NN.34836
Then and Now. London: William Heinemann,
1946. Shelfmark: NN. 36108
Theatre. Paris: The Albatross, 1947.
Shelfmark: Tauch.05295
Creatures of Circumstance. London: William Heinemann,
1947. Shelfmark: X.989/17570
Catalina. A Romance. London: William
Heinemann, 1948. Shelfmark: a.12360.g.2
The Trembling of a Leaf. Little
Stories of the South Sea Islands. London: William Heinemann, 1921. Shelfmark: NN.7339
The Casuarina Tree. Six Stories. London: William Heinemann,
1928. Shelfmark: 012208.m.1/27
Ah King. Six Stories. London: William Heinemann,
1933. Shelfmark: NN. 20927
Cosmopolitans. Very Short Stories. London, Toronto: William
Heinemann, 1936. Shelfmark: NN.25559
The Mixture as Before. London, Toronto: William
Heinemann, 1940. Shelfmark: NN.31653
Here and There. Short Shories. London: William Heinemann,
1948. Shelfmark: NN.38735
Quartet. Stories by Somerset Maugham.
Screen-plays by R.C. Sherriff. London: William Heinemann, 1948. Shelfmark:
NN.38813
Trio. Stories by W. Somerset Maugham.
Screen adaptation by W. S. Maugham, R.C. Sherriff and Noel Langley. London:
William Heinemann, 1950. Shelfmark: 11784.aaa.12
The Complete Short Stories of W.
Somerset Maugham. 3 vol. London: William Heinemann, 1951. Shelfmark: 12275.f.4
Encore. Stories by W. Somerset Maugham.
Screen adaptation by T.E.B. Clarke, Arthur Macrae and Eric Ambler. London:
William Heinemann, 1951. Shelfmark: 011781.n.42
On a Chinese Screen [Sketches of life in China.]
London: William Heinemann, 1922. Shelfmark: 10055.b.43
The Gentleman in the Parlour. A
record of a journey from Rangoon to Haiphong. London: William Heinemann,
1930. Shelfmark: 010056.ee.52
Don Fernando; or, Variations on
some Spanish themes. London, Toronto: William Heinemann, 1935. Shelfmark: 010160.g.8
The Travel Books of W. Somerset
Maugham. (On a Chinese Screen. - The Gentleman in the Parlour. - Don Fernando). London: William Heinemann, 1955.
Shelfmark: 12276.bb.13
The Summing Up [Autobiographical
reminiscences.] London: William Heinemann, 1938. Shelfmark: 10857.b.2
Of Human Bondage. With a
digression on the art of fiction. An address by W. Somerset Maugham 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. Washington, 1946. Shelfmark:
11867.ff.2
Great Novelists and their Novels.
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. Philadelphia,
Toronto: John C. Winston Co, 1948. Shelfmark: 11867.h.13
A Writers' Notebook. London: William Heinemann,
1949. Shelfmark: 10861.1
A choice of Kipling's Prose. Selected and with an
introductory essay by W. S. Maugham. London: MacMillan & Co.,
1952Shelfmark: 12631.s.12
The Partial View. London: William Heinemann,
1954. (Includes The Summing Up. A Writer's Notebook). Shelfmark:
12652.b.29
Points of View. [Essays]. London: Heinemann,
1958. Shelfmark: 011872.b.57
Essays on Literature. London: New English Library in
association with William Heinemann, 1967. Shelfmark: X.908/10987
The Venture. An annual of art and
literature. Edited by
Laurence Housman and W. Somerset Maugham. [Illustrated.] [no.1, 2.] London;
1903, 05. Shelfmark: P.P. 6701.b.
Robert Calder. Willie. The
Life of W. Somerset Maugham. London: William Heinemann, 1989. Shelfmark:
YC.1990.1.359
Bryan Connor. Somerset Maugham
and the Maugham dynasty. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1997. Shelfmark:
YC.1997.b.6400
Cecil Hewetson (Ed.) The
sayings of Somerset Maugham. London: Duckworth, 1992. Shelfmark:
YK.1994.a.3061
Philip Holden. Orienting
masculinity, orienting nation. Somerset Maugham's exotic fiction. Westport,
Conn. & London: Greenwood, 1996. Shelfmark: YC.1996.b.7741
Klaus Werner Jonas. The
Gentleman from Cap Ferrat ... [On William Somerset Maugham.] With a preface
by W. Somerset Maugham. [With portraits.] New Haven, Conn: Centre for Maugham
Studies, 1956. Shelfmark: 10864.a.22
Klaus Werner Jonas. The World
of Somerset Maugham. An anthology (of criticism) edited [and in part
written] by K. W. Jonas. [With portraits.] London: Peter Owen, 1959. Shelfmark:
011872.b.67
Raymond Mander and Joe
Mitchenson. Guide to the Maugham collection of theatrical paintings.
London: Heinemann for the National Theatre, 1980. Published to accompany a
permanent exhibition at the National Theatre. Shelfmark: X425/2169
Samuel J. Rogal. A companion
to the characters in the fiction and drama of W. Somerset Maugham.
Westport, Conn. & London: Greenwood Press, 1996. Shelfmark: YC.1996.b.5807
Samuel J. Rogal. A William
Somerset Maugham encyclopedia. London, Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 1997.
Shelfmark: 2725.g.2654
Frederick Thomas Bason. A
bibliography of the Writings of William Somerset Maugham, etc. [With a
facsimile.] London: Unicorn Press, 1931. Shelfmark: 2785.ct.13
Laurence Robert Mean Brander. Somerset
Maugham. A guide. Edinburgh & London, Oliver & Boyd, 1963.
Shelfmark: 11880.t.35
Klaus Werner Jonas. A
bibliography of the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham. Compiled by K. W.
Jonas. [With a portrait.] New Brunswick: The Compiler, 1950. Shelfmark:
2785.ct.14
Charles Sanders. W. Somerset
Maugham: an annotated bibliography of writings about him. Compiled and
edited by Charles Sanders. De Kalb, Ill: Northern Illinois University Press,
1970. Shelfmark: X.981/3822
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