Smith: A Comedy in Four Acts.

First edition of Maugham’s Edwardian comedy Smith, a satire of fashionable London society and the merits of an honest parlourmaid. Duodecimo, in the original champagne wrappers lettered in brown. The author’s own copy, from his library at the Villa Mauresque and dispersed with the contents of the villa in November 1967. Villa Mauresque, the magnificent Moorish-style estate on the Cap Ferrat peninsula of the French Riviera, was purchased by W. Somerset Maugham in 1926 and remained his primary residence until his death in 1965, serving as the physical and social center of his later life and career. Maugham transformed the property through extensive renovation, furnishing it with an exceptional art collection encompassing works by Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec and laying out elaborate gardens that became as celebrated as the house itself. During the interwar decades the villa received a legendary succession of guests including Winston Churchill, Noël Coward, Ian Fleming, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, making it one of the most famous literary residences in Europe and the most tangible expression of the wealth, cosmopolitanism, and social preeminence that Maugham achieved at the height of his fame. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the distinguished London booksellers Bertram Rota stating that the book was the property of the author, dated December 1967. In very good condition with light toning and sunning. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box with gilt titles. From the collection of Craig V. Showalter with his bookplate to the rear pastedown of the clamshell box.