Liza of Lambeth

London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd, 1923. Later printing. Signed presentation copy from Maugham to Harpo Marx. Inscribed by the author: “For Harpo Marx in memory of the swimming pool from W.S. Maugham.” From the library of Harpo Marx, the great clown of the Marx Brothers comedy team, and his wife actress Susan Fleming Marx, former member of the Ziegfeld Follies and star of early talking films like Million Dollar Legs with W.C. Fields. Very good copy with a trace of darkening to the endpapers, slight fading to the cloth at the spine, and minor signs of use without dust jacket. With a charming bookplate illustrated by Susan Marx with a drawing of Harpo in his comic character which reads: “FROM THE LIBRARY OF HARPO & SUSAN MARX.” Harpo Marx first became friends with Maugham in the late 1920s when Alexander Woollcott took Harpo to Maugham’s home, the Villa Mauresque, on the French Riviera. Maugham’s inscription refers to an incident from that visit recorded in Marx’s memoirs, ‘Harpo Speaks,’ where during a tour of Maugham’s upstairs master bedroom Harpo stripped off his clothes and dove off the balcony into Maugham’s pool. Woollcott, a bit startled looked to Maugham’s reaction. Maugham then proceeded to take off his clothes and dove in to join him. Harpo also records a time a the Broadway premiere of the play Dead End, in 1936, he spotted Maugham seated several rows behind him in the audience. “I crawled on on all fours, monkey-fashion, across the tops of the seats...when Maugham said, ‘Terribly sorry I haven’t a banana for you, Harpo.’”