Box

Maugham Manuscripts

7 folders

1/1: Strictly Confidential (typescript, 48pp). 1930
Strictly confidential [Los Angeles]: Metro­Goldwyn-Mayer, 12 April 1930. Quarto. Mimeographed typescript, printed on rectos only, brad bound into mimeographed wrappers. A Dialogue Cutting Continuity script for this adaptation by Sylvia Thalberg and Frank Butler of Maugham's play, The Circle. While DCC scripts are, by definition, post­production, examples such as this, from an early sound film, are very uncommon. And when they record literary adaptations such as this which are generally not accessible, they are very important. This film does not turn up in several of the major printed and electronic references and may just be non-extant.

1/2: "A Human Element" (typescript with corrections and page proofs, 59pp-6pp-4pp, 4to-long folio-4to) circa 1930s
A bound volume containing the carbon typescript for Maugham's short story "A Human Element". No place, no date with several pencil annotations in Maugham's hand and that of the printer. Also present is a set of corrected galley proofs (6pp, long folio) with numerous corrections in red ink in Maugham's hand; the original page layout, in pencil (dated 1930), for the title-page of this story which includes a blue-line reproduction of the opening illustration (by Leon Gordon): a complete set of page proofs (4pp, 4to) of the story, with a few corrections in red ink in Maugham's hand; and an autograph lettercard signed (with initials) from Maugham, to Mr. Coster, writing: "I only rec'd these proofs last night. On the chance that it is not too late I have looked through them. W.S.M.".

1/3: Sheppey. A Play in Three Acts manuscript pages (5pp, 4to). circa 1933
Original manuscript of five numbered pages from the death scene and last act of Maugham's Sheppey. A Play in Three Acts. No place, no date, with a few deletions in Maugham's hand. This manuscript consists of the dialogue between three characters, Mrs. Miller, Sheppey and Cooper, and begins: "(Mrs. Miller draws the blinds & is just about to go out) Sheppey (with a stare of surprise) 'Who's that woman standing there? I never see 'er come in. Mrs. Miller 'What woman, Sheppey? There's no one there. Sheppey: Yes, there is .... 'er face all shining".
Sheppey. A Play in Three Acts was first published in London by William Heinemann in 1933. This play was "written in 1932. It was produced at Wyndham's Theatre on 14 September 1933... After the production of Sheppey, Mr. Maugham announced that he would write no more plays."

1/4 "The Colonel's Lady" (40pp, 4to) December 1945
Original holograph manuscript, signed, of Maugham's short story "The Colonel's Lady." The story itself is written in black ink, with corrections in red ink, on the rectos only of 32 leaves; extensive corrections and additions, in red ink on the versos make up the remainder. High Perch Farm, Georgetown, Connecticut, no date. Bound in full blue Morocco gilt, with an autograph titlepage, and an autograph presentation leaf, inscribed by the author: "For Tammie & Ellen this little story written at High Perch. Christmas 1945". Together with the original mailing envelope (worn and torn) addressed by Maugham, written from South Carolina, "To the Occupants of High Perch Farm". The Colonel's Lady was first published in Good Housekeeping (New York, March 1946), and later included in Creatures of Circumstance (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1947).

1/5: Autobiographical sketch (2pp, 4to). July 1950
Original holograph autobiographical sketch, no place, no date, with several little corrections in Maugham's hand in the text. Written in response to a request from Irita Van Doren, Editor of the Weekly Book Review at the New York Herald Tribune (whose letter, dated 19 July 1950 is still present), Maugham writes: "I was born a long time ago, in 1874, & on the death of my parents who lived in Paris I was taken to England. I went to school & then after spending some time in Heidelberg to learn German, I became a medical student. All this I have told in Of Human Bondage & there is no object in repeating it. I began writing when I was eighteen & have been writing ever since. It was ten years before I achieved sufficient success to earn my living. Then I had the unusual experience of having four plays running in London at the same time. I played an inconsequential part in the First World War... I think the turning point of my life came when I was forty. It was then that I began to take the long journeys that gave me the material for many of my stories & for several of my novels.... When I grew tired of traveling I bought a house in the South of France, & I Have lived in it ever since, but never for very long at a time, for after a while I grow restless...."
In her letter (one-page TLS), Van Doren mentions that "The Herald Tribune Book Review is planning what I suppose might be called an Authors' Number late in September or early October. It will concern itself with some of the outstanding authors of the 1950 fall season," asks for "a brief autobiographical sketch... which we may use in whole or in part: with an account of how you write or how you play, where you live, where you work, your tastes in reading... or any other things about you and your ways that come to mind.:

1/6: Screen adaptation introductions (3pp, 4to). circa 1952
Original holograph manuscripts of Maugham's brief introductions for the screen adaptations of three of his stories which were included in his book Encore, together with the manuscript draft of his primary introduction to the film. No place, no date, with numerous alterations, additions, and deletions by the author.

1/7: Point of View (typescript, 30pp, 4to). circa 1950s
Corrected carbon typescripts of thirty leaves from Maugham's book Points of View, published in London by Heinemann in 1958. No place, no date, with numerous autograph alterations, deletions and corrections throughout in Maugham's hand in his characteristic red ink. In addition, Maugham has added a half page of notes to each of the versos of three leaves. The last two leaves in this group are entirely in Maugham's hand, and the first leaf contains the manuscript, plus a draft (crossed through), for a third person note which reads: "Mr. Maugham has announced that this is the last book he will ever publish & since he seems to have a way of doing what he says he is going to do, he may safely assume that with this last volume of essays he will take his leave of the reading public & so put an end to a relationship that with Liza of Lambeth began just over sixty years ago." The last page contains Maugham's notes and page numbers for his corrections and stating that these pages need to be re-typed.