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Cakes And Ale; Or The Skeleton In The Cupboard
by Maugham, W. Somerset
- Used
- near fine
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near fine/very good
- Seller
-
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc, 1930. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth. Near fine/very good. Signed first edition of Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham.. Octavo, 308pp. Black cloth, title in gilt on spine and front cover. Stated "First Edition" on copyright page. Solid text block, bumped corners and edges, a near fine example. In the publisher's dust jacket, $2.00 retail price on front flap, tape repairs to verso, soiling to edges and spine, a very good example. Signed by the author on half-title, "For H.L. Barlow / Thanking him for wishing me to write my name in my favorite book. W. Somerset Maugham." William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English writer with a myriad of plays and novels published by the start of his popular success in 1914. He served in World War I as a member of the British Red Cross driving ambulances, and he wrote his best-known piece Of Human Bondage (1915) in his spare time. In 1950, when the Modern Library's edition of Cakes and Ale was published, Maugham wrote "I am willing enough to agree with common opinion that Of Human Bondage is my best work ... But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale ... because in its pages lives for me again the woman with the lovely smile who was the model for Rosie Driffield.
Synopsis
W. Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He afterwards walked the wards of St. Thomas's Hospital with a view to practice in medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), won him over to letters. Something of his hospital experience is reflected, however, in the first of his masterpieces, Of Human Bondage (1915), and with The Moon and Sixpence (1919) his reputation as a novelist was assured. His position as one of the most successful playwrights on the London stage was being consolidated simultaneously. His first play, A Man of Honour (1903), was followed by a procession of successes just before and after the First World War. (At one point only Bernard Shaw had more plays running at the same time in London.) His theatre career ended with Sheppey (1933). His fame as a short-story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf , sub-titled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands , in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. W. Somerset Maugham's general books are fewer in number. They include travel books, such as On a Chinese Screen (1922) and Don Fernando (1935), essays, criticism, and the self-revealing The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949). W. Somerset Maugham became a Companion of Honour in 1954. He died in 1965.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The First Edition Rare Books, LLC
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 12487
- Title
- Cakes And Ale; Or The Skeleton In The Cupboard
- Author
- Maugham, W. Somerset
- Illustrator
- Signed first edition of Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham.
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Near fine
- Jacket Condition
- very good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, First Printing
- Publisher
- Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc
- Place of Publication
- Garden City
- Date Published
- 1930
- Keywords
- signed book Maugham, first edition Somerset Maugham, liza of lambeth, belles lettres, a man of honour, Of Human Bondage, The painted veil, cakes and ale, the razor's edge, the moon and sixpence, up at the villa, the moon and sixpence, ashenden, the
Terms of Sale
The First Edition Rare Books, LLC
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- Items lost or damaged during shipping will be refunded by the shipper.
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- Sales tax will be added to purchase price where applicable and noted on your invoice.
- Deferred billing available upon request.
About the Seller
The First Edition Rare Books, LLC
Biblio member since 2017
Cincinnati, Ohio
About The First Edition Rare Books, LLC
The First Edition offers collectors the finest assortment of rare and notable books from around the world.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
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