"The Merry-Go-Round" (1904). LOST then FOUND!!!

What a harrowing thing it is when upon arriving home from a foreign country (particularly one that has only just recently raised up from Third World country status) you realize you left something behind that you cherish. Last November (2014) I went to Seoul, South Korea. I brought some shirts I really loved, some other things, and oh yeah my true 1st edition, 1st printing of "The Merry-Go-Round" (1904). I'll admit my mind was in a muddle upon leaving - I really just wanted to get home - and in my haste I left a couple of shirts (my two favorite ones) and The Merry-Go-Round at the hotel. My wife also left her purse there with a few hundred dollars in it. We arrived home. After making phone calls, or rather asking my wife's extremely busy uncle to call the hotel we realized it was useless: the purse, the book, and the shirts were gone; so much for Korean Christian honesty. I handled it well, because once I know something is useless to go after I become resigned to the facts. I let a couple of months go by. I finally remembered the name of the hotel (we were put up in it by my wife's uncle so I never even bothered or even needed to know the name). I sent them a message through my wife's e-mail account from which was the only way to get an immediate response (it's a Korean thing). They wrote back saying they found nothing, and that even if they did they would have only held it for 30 days. I distressed over the fact that my book was either stolen or, even worse, in a landfill somewhere in Korea. So I took to the internet to find another copy. At the time I bought it a year prior to losing it, there were 3 copies available on various websites. Well I know that at least from March of '15 until just under a week ago there were absolutely NO copies available. In March I settled for a 1960's Heinemann collected edition reprint, ruefully thinking for most of the year that it was the closest thing I'd find, and that 1st edition, 1st printings of "The Merry-Go-Round" just vanished from the market forever.

Then I found this one just a few days ago. I of course immediately bargained the price down a bit and got them to include priority mail for free. And now here it is! Finally! My Maugham collection is complete!* Note the press reviews for Maugham's previous novel "Mrs. Craddock" (1902).

 

"The Lotus Eater" LP Read by Alan Howard

There are a couple of LP's out there of Maugham himself reading some of his short stories - mostly ones that appear in "Cosmopolitans" (1936) - which Columbia Records put out in the 1950's. One LP contains the stories "Gigolo and Gigolette" and "Three Fat Women of Antibes," the other contains the stories "The Happy Couple" and "The Wash-Tub." In looking for these LP's (which I now own) I came across this one of "The Lotus Eater" read by an Englishman named Alan Howard.

"The Lotus Eater" is an interesting story about how beauty can bring a man to ruin, but also a more subtle reason for this man's (quite pleasant) downfall is a part of the man's history Maugham merely mentions in passing about the man's wife and daughter.

It's very pleasantly and engagingly read by Howard. I bought this LP months ago, but finally got around to listening to it today. It was well worth the $10.00 I paid for it.

"Orientations" 1st edition (1899)

In my first go 'round of Maugham collecting back in 2001, it seemed "Orientations" was THE rarest Maugham book to find. It was also most desirable to me considering I was introduced to Maugham through his short stories and was a short story writer myself at that time. 2001 internet for rare book collecting wasn't as facilitating as it is these days. In fact you can find a copy of this 1st edition pretty easily - either on eBay or ABE. I bought mine for just over $100 a few years ago.

HOWEVER, back in 2001 it was like a treasure hunt. I found none for sale but that Princeton University had one in their library. Public libraries here in the U.S. won't sell any specific book to a patron. That patron would have to wait and see if the book they want shows up at the annual book sale, where the libraries shed certain books that haven't been borrowed in years, possibly decades. [Of course some these old books they keep for credibility.] Some university libraries are a different story. They view your offer as a contribution or donation to the University. Yale has some great early Maugham firsts.

Princeton was not one that accepted 'donations' for rare books. So, back in 2001 I drove all the way down to the University one night. I had a casual female friend at the time who was getting her master's degree there. She had convinced me to steal the book with her help - she said people do it all the time. [She would have taken the book out, then at the end of the semester would say that she had lost it.] But I backed down, embarrassed by my obsession with this book. We had a fancy dinner then I had a very long snowy commute home that night.

There is nothing on the front cover of the true first. My copy is a bit rough at the top of the spine. The adverts and the All Rights Reserved notice in parenthesis is what you should look for on a first from T. Fisher Unwin. Note that they didn't capitalize the word Reserved.

Great deal for "East of Suez" (1922) 1st edition, 1st printing

Just a quick note about a listing I saw on ABE. The bookseller is an old friend of mine. His actual store (which no longer exists) was where I (or my mother) bought all my books growing up. He has a true 1st, 1st of "East of Suez" (1922) for $25. Excellent price!
 http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=maugham&sts=t&vci=796033&x=70&y=11

Lady Frederick

This post is about the very important Maugham play, "Lady Frederick" without which this blog wouldn't exist. In 1907 after the novel "The Bishop's Apron" (1906, Chapman and Hall) failed to be a hit, and after Maugham was at the last of his money, he was going to quit writing. He was getting ready to take some brush-up medical classes and become a doctor, which is what he was trained and certified to be. Well, Fate had other ideas. A stage producer had to cancel the play he was to bring out that 1907 season and was rummaging through a myriad of manuscripts sent to him by literary agents. Among those was, of course, "Lady Frederick". He put the play on. He figured it would just be temporary until the former play got worked out. It became a huge hit. And this is how Maugham became famous. He then had 4 hit plays running in London at the same time. His old publisher William Heinemann published the novels "The Explorer" (January 1908) and "The Magician" (October 1908). The rest, as they say, is history. If it weren't for "Lady Frederick" none of us living would have ever heard of  W. Somerset Maugham. This is why I chose to purchase a true first edition of this play. While it was performed first in 1907, it wasn't published in book form until 1912. Only 500 were printed! This one was on eBay for a very long time, surprisingly. It was for a decent price, at $120. Luckily, for me, it was still available at that price. I just received it recently.

Tellers of Tales

I just purchased the 1st edition with dust-jacket of  the "Tellers of Tales" anthology put together with commentary, if I remember correctly, by Maugham. I paid $8.99. I had a copy of this book a long, long time ago which I bought at a Public Library book sale for $1.00 with no dust-jacket. Well, imagine my shock at the prices I saw on eBay and ABE! The cheapest one on eBay is without a dust-jacket and in horrible condition for $7.00. There are currently four listings on eBay with the dust-jacket for $65, $143, $195 (!!!), and $199 (!!!!) respectively. The cheapest one on ABE is $30. I found mine on good ol' Amazon. There is another cheap 1st, 1st with dust-jacket for sale at Powell's Books for $10.50 though they describe the dust-jacket as 'in poor shape'.

Another Great Deal

I found this on eBay. When it comes to Maugham's later books a 1st,1st has less value because of the large print runs. The more copies are out there, the less the value. This particular book-seller is constantly selling 1st, 1st Maugham books without knowing it. I've obtained really cheap ones from them. They don't advertise these books as firsts. You won't find any of the extremely rare ones there at World of Books (known also by World of Rare Books). They are based in the U.K, but apparently have a warehouse in Florida, U.S.A. as well. They are super-quick with their shipments.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Vagrant-Mood-Six-Essays-Maugham-W-Somerset-1952-ID-61384-/381408733703?hash=item58cdbb6a07

"On a Chinese Screen" (1922)

This is one of my prized possessions. It's the true 1st edition of "On a Chinese Screen" (1922). It was put out by Doran before the British one. It is extremely rare to find one in the original dust-jacket. As you can see the "GDH" stamp is directly underneath the copyright notice which is where it needs to be to indicate that it's a 1st printing. Doran also put a larger GDH stamp on the title pages of all his books, don't confuse that larger stamp with the one indicating a 1st printing.

The 1st printing had a run of 2000 copies. I won this at an eBay auction for $175. The trick to auctions on eBay is to get in at the last second. Sometimes you really have to fight with others doing the same. Often it comes down to luck - whose bid gets recorded in at the final half-second. It's not a pleasant experience.

Great Deal for 1st, 1st "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919)!

In between the rip-offs, and the reasonable 1st, 1st listings for sale, you'll occasionally find a really amazing deal. Here's one I found for "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919) true 1st, 1st. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=11814150841&searchurl=fe%3Don%26pics%3Don%26sortby%3D0%26kn%3Dmaugham

It has the true mark of the 1st,1st which is the four pages of publisher's ads in the back.

I paid $400 for mine a couple of years ago!

Lately I've been finding some pretty good deals, as well as other Maugham items of interest, by going to the ABE books site, typing 'Maugham' in the search field, then narrowing it down by clicking on the small boxes for '1st edition,' 'seller-supplied images' and 'not printed-on-demand' on the left of the page then arranging the list at the top right of the page to 'most recently listed.' There is a true 1st, 1st of "First Person Singular" (1931) for just $8.00! somewhere in there.

An Example of What Not To Buy

This seller on eBay [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-SUMMING-UP-BY-W-SOMERSET-MAUGHAM-FIRST-EDITION-1938-/251119251045?hash=item3a77dfae65 ] has 3 watchers fooled. This edition of "The Summing Up" is not a 1st edition, nor is it a 2nd printing. It is worth about $10-$15 maximum. I'll give this seller the benefit of the doubt and say that because he actually shows a photo of the copyright notice without the First Edition stated he doesn't know any better. But he's charging $350! The true 1st edition is the Heinemann 1st with a  rather plain, boring blue dust-jacket. I'll have a post about it sometime in the future.

Of Human Bondage

Other phrases you'll see when collecting Maugham is 1st American, 1st British, and true 1st. I mentioned that Maugham chiefly had two publishers - one (Doran then Doubleday Doran) in America, and one (William Heinemann) in England. The true 1st is whichever publisher released the book first. So, unless the seller is in error, when they list a Maugham book as a 1st American, or 1st British it's usually because the book came out first in the other country. When I first started collecting I assumed, since Maugham was British, the British 1st was always the true 1st. This is not the case with Maugham's most famous novel, "Of Human Bondage" (1915). The American 1st was released one day before the British 1st, making the Doran edition the true 1st. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was before Doran made his 1st edition, 1st printings distinguishable with his "GDH" stamp directly under the copyright notice. So, in the second photo in this post, you'll see a typo (which I highlighted in Photoshop - not on the actual book!). This typo on page 257 is what you need to see before you know you're buying a true 1st, 1st of this great novel. I have had a corrected 2nd printing (also from 1915) with the gold lettering on the spine, and gold knock-out lettering on the cover with that particular typo corrected. The 2nd printing still has other typos though, but they show up in both printings. It's not until the 2nd printing by Doran in 1919 with the spine lettering in black with black knock-out lettering on the front cover that mostly all these typos are corrected. [Thanks to "Anonymous" from the My Maugham Collection site for helping me with that research.]

The cheapest copy I see available is on eBay for $1200. [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/Of-Human-Bondage-W-SOMERSET-MAUGHAM-First-Edition-1st-Issue-1915-/321818340163?hash=item4aedde2b43 ] That copy is in better shape than mine which I got for around $700. There is one in the best possible shape for $2500 on eBay as well. If you're a serious collector, don't buy an "early" edition or the British Heinemann 1st - you'll be wasting your money. Don't be fooled that just because a seller is charging a lot of money for a book that it is valuable. If you're NOT a serious collector, you'd be better off buying one of the fine reprints put out by Grossett and Dunlap if you can find one at a decent price which you can do if you look hard enough (theirs is the one with the engraving of the man in chains on the front cover), or better yet if you can find a Sun Dial Press printing WITH the yellow dust-jacket, that one is really nice. You can find the Sun Dial one without the dust jacket for about $2.00, and with the dust-jacket maybe for around $10-$15.

1st, 1st, and what it means. Is a 1st edition, 2nd printing worth buying?

You'll see me using what may look like a typo, '1st,'1st.' No, I didn't mistakenly repeat myself. A 1st edition, 1st printing is what you want to get as a collector. How to distinguish between a 1st, 1st and subsequent printings (all under the umbrella of the 1st edition) vary with each publisher and sometimes with the same publisher during different time periods.

With Maugham's early novels, you must consult an expert. Luckily with nice people such as "anonymous" at the My Maugham Collection site, or the Norman Moore site you now don't have to track down a copy of Raymond Toole Stott's research book, "Maughamania, the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham: Being a Handlist of Works by William Somerset Maugham ." As many Maugham collectors know, the Stott research has its cracks - editions and printings of the early works that exist but go missing in the Stott book. He was only human.

With Maugham's first publisher, T. Fisher Unwin, it's pretty clear. "Liza of Lambeth" (1897) went into two printings of the 1st edition, and one printing of a 2nd edition. What distinguishes the 1st and 2nd printings of the 1st edition are the brackets around the "All Rights Reserved." "The Making of a Saint" didn't have a 2nd printing, and "Orientations" didn't have a 2nd printing per sa, but a colonial edition (a printing solely for export to the British colonies), and this will be clearly stated.

With Maugham's third publisher (we'll skip over Hutchinson who only had one print run of "The Hero" with no 2nd printing), Heinemann, it varies with time period. From 1902 ("Mrs. Craddock") to 1915 ("Of Human Bondage") they did not put their "First Published" statement on the copyright page. Only when a book went into a 2nd printing did they print anything regarding the 1st printing. For instance "The Magician" (1908) was first printed in October, 1908 but on that printing you won't see their version of "First Edition" which reads "First Published." You won't see anything except at the bottom of the page both Heinemann and the American publisher Duffield's tag. It went into a 2nd printing in November so in that 2nd printing it will read something like, "First printed October 1908, Second impression, November 1908." After "Of Human Bondage" a Heinemann 1st, 1st is clearly stated with "First Published..." then the year. Again if it goes into a second printing within the same year it will list the month of the 1st printing as well.

Maugham's American publisher, for the most part, Doran simply put his oval "GDH" stamp directly underneath the copyright statement on books printed AFTER 1921. Don't confuse it with the GDH stamp that appears at the bottom of the title page. There are three Maugham novels he published before making it easy to distinguish 1st printings; those are "Of Human Bondage" (1915), "The Moon and Sixpence," (1919) and "Mrs.Craddock (1920) which is the 1st American edition. Thankfully the "Of Human Bondage" 1st has a typo in it which tells us without question which one is the 1st printing. More on that in  my next post. The second of the three books has a change in binding to distinguish 1st and 2nd printings - green is the 1st, tan is the 2nd. "Mrs. Craddock" didn't go into a 2nd printing until after the merge with Doubleday.

In 1927 Doran merged with Doubleday. Doubleday Doran 1st edition, 1st printings are probably the most easily identifiable. They simply state "First Edition" below the All Rights Reserved statement, and in later books such as "Catalina" (1948) it is below where it states the location of the printing ("Printed in U.S.A. at the Country Life Press").

From 1927 onward, Maugham only had two publishers: Doubleday Doran in America, and William Heinemann in England. The only 1st edition, 1st printings you'll find from his books from this point forward will only be published by these two publishers. So when you see a book listed for sale that states "1st Edition Thus" don't buy it. It's worthless. Also, if you are only interested in collecting 1st, 1st books then don't buy books published by Grosset and Dunlap, Burt, Heron, Viking, and of course Penguin; these are all reprint publishers. I'll admit though, Grosset and Dunlap did print some exceptionally nice editions.

Lately I've seen Maugham books on eBay which claim to be 1st editions, however the sellers incriminate themselves when they put a photo up of a Doubleday Doran book (for instance)  copyright page clearly with no 1st edition statement. There is one I saw the other day where the seller if asking $350, and the messed up thing is that the listing has 3 watchers! It is not a 1st edition - not even close. I'll provide a link to it later on today.

The answer to the question in the title of this post is no. Only buy a 1st edition, 2nd printing if you have no way to afford a 1st, 1st. It won't ever be worth anything so definitely try to haggle the price down; don't pay a whole lot for it.

Tips on Maugham collecting.

Before I get into the 'meat and potatoes' of this site, I figured I start out with some tips about collecting. After viewing other people's Maugham collections, I see that, to an extent, they reflect on what that collector's preferences are. It might be important for one collector to have 1st editions of all of Maugham's plays, for example, while a different collector may put more value on some other aspect of Maugham-collecting and buy cheap editions - even mass-market paperbacks - of the plays. The thing that intrigued me most back in 2001, and what got me into Maugham-collecting was his early works (1897-1908). I thought it would be really cool to have those rarest 1st editions of his early novels - some only having a print-run of 1200, with no second printings! Your Maugham collection is most likely going to be a reflection of your personal tastes, knowledge about the editions (which I will help you with), and your financial well-being or at least how much you're willing to spend on a book. This brings me to my first tip:

1.) While some later 1st editions may be reasonably-priced, due to the fact they had first print-runs in the hundred-thousands, you can't expect to have a decent-to-superb Maugham collection without spending money. My friend and I have noticed the prices in general have gone up in recent years and continue to do so. This brings me to me second tip:

2.) Look for bargains. Cruise sites like ABE books, eBay, and Alibris to find the best deals. Do this weekly, or every couple of days if you're looking for something specific and are ready to buy. This can be a bit time-consuming, but that's what hobbies are. My wife and I were just looking at Maugham firsts which I bought for a fraction of what was being ASKED for them. This brings me to my third tip:

3.) You can in fact haggle the prices down in most cases. On eBay some sellers give you a chance to make them an offer for less than their asking price. But you can do this on other sites as well. Over the years I saved around a thousand dollars doing this on ABE. I once bought a 1st edition, 1st printing of "Liza of Lambeth" (1897 - Maugham's first ever published work) for $800 which was listed for $1100 on ABE.  It won't work every time of course.

4.) Never immediately trust an online seller that what you're buying is a 1st edition, 1st printing without photos of the copyright page, or in the case of Maugham's early works other '1st, 1st' identifiers (such as publisher's ads, or in Liza of Lambeth's case you want brackets around the "all rights reserved" statement, or with "Of Human Bondage the typo 'help' where it should be 'helped' on line 4 of page 257). We'll get into those in more depth as I provide information on each book in my collection individually.

5.) Either buy or build yourself a book case and dedicate it solely to your Maugham collection. You'll need it. There are so very many books to collect.

Introduction

This site will be about collecting the works of British author, W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965).  He published at least one thing (whether it was a novel, play, collection of short stories) every year from 1897-1959. His last book, "Purely For My Pleasure" came out in 1962 in England, and 1963 in America. This longevity and volume of output makes collecting his books very challenging and fun. I've been buying Maugham books since 1992, and I've been collecting 1st editions of his work, periodically, since 2001. While there are other great sites dedicated to Maugham, mine is going to focus solely on book collecting. For reviews, essays, biographical pieces, criticisms and witticisms I would suggest the My Maugham Collection blog. I will give you clear facts regarding 1st editions, and insights regarding all things collecting, for example how much you should spend on a particular edition, whether it's worth it to collect magazines containing stories by Maugham, etc. I will publicly humiliate certain eBay sellers who are either trying to rip you off or who simply don't know any better, and steer you clear of certain editions for sale at legitimate book sellers. I'll also promote some items I see for sale that are worth buying. I believe my e-mail will be up here somewhere on this site; please feel free to send any questions you may have, and I'll give you my best consultation.