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Ah, King! Signed by W. Somerset Maugham first edition 1933

Ah, King! Signed by W. Somerset Maugham first edition 1933

£750.00Price

London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1933

 

Thick 8vo., original navy cloth lettered in gilt with device in black to upper board; gilt lettering to spine, with publisher’s name in black to foot; publisher’s device in black to lower board; pp. [viii], 339, [v]; corner of upper board bumped; edges of board and spine rubbed; compression to head; a little toning, particularly to the prelims, with light foxing to the first and last few pages; very good. 

 

First edition, inscribed by Maugham to the front free endpaper “For T. J. Kealy/ this volume of the last/ short stories the author/ will ever write about the/ East/From/ W. Somerset Maugham/ Grateful for much/ Kindness & help.” 

 

A collection of short stories which include Footprints in the Jungle, The Door of Opportunity, The Vessel of Wrath, The Book-Bag, The Back of Beyond and Neil MacAdam.  Set in Southeast Asia in the 1920s, they are loosely based on Maugham's experiences travelling with his companion Gerald Haxton in 1921 and 1925. The title, as Maugham recounts in his introduction, refers to a servant Maugham hired in Singapore to help on his travels. “He was with me for six months” the author writes, “He could cook, he could valet, he could pack, he could wait at table. He was quick, neat and silent. He was imperturbable. Nothing surprised him, no catastrophe dismayed him, no hardship ruffled him, no novelty took him unawares.” The man’s name was Ah King, and Maugham recounts the moment they took leave of each other at the end of the trip, the man bursting into tears at the departure. “It is for these tears that I now give his name to this collection of stories” he concludes. 

 

Although Maugham would go on to publish a series of collected stories including The Mixture as Before and Creatures of Circumstance, he was true to his word in the inscription, and didn’t write any further collections of short stories specifically on the theme of the East. Before the present volume, he had penned On a Chinese Screen, which was based on his travels through China and Hong Kong, as well as other tales dealing with the lives of British and other colonial expatriates in the Pacific Islands and Asia.  

 

Although we have been unable to trace the recipient of this particular inscription, T. J. Kealy appears to be a close associate of the author, and this remains a charming work to find with such a fond note. 

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