Liza of Lambeth (1947)

Liza of Lambeth (1947)

Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965

Morison, Stanley (design)

William Heinemann

1947-12-08

"To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which first appeared in September, 1897, this edition of 1,000 copies, numbered and signed by the author has been printed and made" (dust jacket front flap).

"The preface to this edition consists of the Travellers' Library edition preface, with a 4 pp. Special Supplement to the Jubilee edition. The preface to the Collected Edition contains another 14 pp., in which the author explains how he came to write not only Liza of Lambeth but also all the other novels of his youth, and why he is not including them in the Collected Edition. It is a very important, as well as revealing, disclosure of his attitude towards his own writing, and perhaps it would not be out of place to reproduce here a very beautiful letter he wrote to a stranger who out of the blue asked his advice on how to become an author. 'What I have to say,' he writes, 'is the result of my own experience and that is this. The chances of one writing anything of permanent value before one is thirty are small. And if one is a literary man who has to earn his living the probabilities are that one will waste very good themes which one realises afterwards one could have made much more of with greater knowledge and experience. My advice to you therefore is to adopt any occupation which will give you a living and keep writing for your spare time. In that spare time you will be able to write a novel in a year or two and from its result you can judge whether it is worth your while to go on. The life of the writer is extremely specialised and by following some other avocation it is likely that he will gain experience which will be of great value to him afterwards. So far as I personally am concerned I can only wish that I had remained a doctor for three or four years instead of writing books which have long been as dead as mutton'" (Stott, p. 22).

TOC:
Bibliography iv
Preface to the Collectioned Edition of 1934 vii
Preface the the Jubliee Edition xii
LIZA OF LAMBETH 1

Collation:
p. [i] half-title, p. [ii] copy number and author's signature "THIS EDITION Numbered and signed by the Author is limited to 1,000 copies for sale in Great Britain and Ireland. No. 967", p. [iii] title, p. [iv] "LIZA OF LAMBETH FIRST PUBLISHED 1897" & list of subsequent impressions and editions, p. [v] TOC, p. [vii] PREFACE, 137 pages

22.5 x 14.5 cm, hardcover

Working class -- England -- London -- Fiction.

Lambeth (London, England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction.

Stott A1f

MMC_N_LL1947WH

Text

Main text in public domain, prefaces in public domain in countries with copyright law life plus 50

en

Jubilee edition - signed (no. 967)

London

Print book

Novel

Floral decoration and Heinemann's windmill symbol on papered board with vellum, and title and author in gold on black leathered label on spine (label and vellum similar to other Heinemann limited signed edition in '40s and '50s)

Yes. Floral decoration and Heinemann's windmill symbol, same as cover's papered board

New Zealand National Library

2010

2 guineas in 1947, 1,000 copies