MAUGHAM, W. Somerset.
Lady Frederick: A Comedy in Three Acts.
London: William Heinemann , 1912.
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First Edition of Lady Frederick; Inscribed by W. Somerset Maugham
First edition of the comedy that launched W. Somerset Maugham’s career as a dramatist, its 1907 London premiere running for an extraordinary 422 performances. Duodecimo, original red cloth lettered in black on the upper cover and spine, with the Heinemann windmill device to the front board. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Roy Carruthers, W. Somerset Maugham.” In very good condition with light soiling and sunning to the spine. From the collection of Craig V. Showalter with his bookplate to the rear pastedown.
Lady Frederick, a comedy in three acts, was W. Somerset Maugham’s first major success in the theatre. After years of struggling to place his plays, Maugham saw Lady Frederick produced at the Royal Court Theatre in 1907, where its witty portrait of a charming, debt-ridden widow, who disenchants a young admirer by letting him watch the artifice behind a fashionable woman’s beauty, captivated London audiences and ran for 422 performances. Its success made Maugham famous almost overnight, and at the height of the vogue he had four plays running simultaneously in the West End. The triumph established him as one of the most popular dramatists of the Edwardian stage and launched the theatrical career that would run alongside his celebrated work as a novelist and short-story writer.
Lady Frederick: A Comedy in Three Acts.
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