My Maugham Collection

Cakes and Ale (1950) With a Special Introduction - W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale 1950, Modern Library
Cakes and Ale (New York: The Modern Library, 1950)
I realize that though I have mentioned this edition in a previous post, I haven't talked about it. This is the 1950 Modern Library edition of Cakes and Ale, with a subdue but pleasant dust jacket. What is special about it is the new introduction in which W. Somerset Maugham "confessed" that he based the character Alroy Kear on Hugh Walpole, which I discussed in details before.

For some reasons th…

Cakes and Ale 1954 Limited Edition by W. Somerset Maugham: Prefaces and Hugh Walpole

Cakes and Ale (1954) Limited Edition
Cakes and Ale (London: Heinemann, 1954)
Yes, another Cakes and Ale...

Before I got this beautiful limited edition for the celebration of W. Somerset Maugham's vulnerable eightieth birthday I already possessed five copies of this delightful novel.

This is the 1930 first UK edition. I got the dust jacket later, from another copy that is in quite a bad shape, stains probably from tea or coffee that had been knocked over it. The catch is evidently that it w…

Analysis: "As Mean As Cat's Meat" and W. Somerset Maugham in OED

After talking about the "blue bag" in my last post on W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, I think I better discuss another curious phrase before I forget about it.

As Mean As Cat's Meat - "The Voice of the Turtle"
In the short story "The Voice of the Turtle," first published in 1935 and later incorporated in The Mixture As Before, Maugham tells the story about a young rising writer, Peter Melrose, who goes to stay with the narrator for a few days in the…