Books and Manuscripts

Maugham, W. Somerset
The Narrow Corner
Garden City: The Sun Dial Press, Inc., 1937. Hampton Court Edition. 8vo. (iv), 314, (1) pp. Presentation copy, inscribed by Maugham on half-title to his friend, the writer Karl G. Pfeiffer: “by W. Somerset Maugham / for Karl Pfeiffer / This island described in this / book is Banda Neira.” Publisher's dark blue cloth, stamped in orange and in gilt, spine and gilt faded; orange endpapers; scattered annotations underling in pencil to text, presumably by Pfeiffer; in red cloth fall-down-back box. 

A fine presentation copy, inscribed by Maugham to his friend and frequent correspondent, the writer and professor Karl G. Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer and Maugham first met in Washington, D.C. in 1923, when Pfeiffer, then a 19-year-old college student, was recruited to make up a foursome at a bridge game. The two lost track until 1937, when Pfeiffer wrote Maugham to inform him that he was now a professor of literature at Chapel Hill in North Carolina. Maugham invited Pfeiffer to meet him in the French Riviera, and a 20-plus year friendship and correspondence ensued between the two men. “From the moment he saw Maugham again he began taking notes on what the great man said, wore, ate, and looked like, with a view to writing a book about him someday.” (Morgan, Maugham: A Biography, pp. 460-61) During World War II, when Maugham spent the war years in America, Pfeiffer saw him often, and penned several magazine articles about the author--to Maugham's increasing consternation. Their friendship ended bitterly in 1959 when Pfeiffer published, against Maugham's wishes, a biography of the author, W. Somerset Maugham: A Candid Portrait. 

It is presumed that Maugham gifted this book to Pfeiffer upon the resumption of their relationship in 1937.