Don Fernando. MAUGHAM (W. Somerset).

WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM MAUGHAM

Or Variations On Some Spanish Themes.

First Edition. 8vo. [208 x 153 x 35 mm]. [2]ff, 268, [2] pp. Bound in the publisher's original black cloth, the front cover lettered in gilt within a decorative frame with a gilt device, the rear cover with a blind device, elaborately gilt spine. (Headcaps bumped and a few minor marks).
London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1935.

Occasional spotting and light foxing to first and last few leaves. With a Times Book Club label at the rear. With the ink signature of Kate Syrett dated 1935. There is a loosely inserted autograph letter signed by Maugham to Kate Syrett, on Ritz-Carlton Hotel New York paper, dated 30th June 1944, in the original hand-addressed envelope (with examiner's tape). He wrote: "I shall be glad to have a memento of my long friendship with Netta. As you know that was a thing of forty years standing. I knew from her last letter to me that she did not expect we should meet again. I knew her life had grown hateful to her & I cannot be sorry that she has to cope with it no longer. When one has reached my age one cannot but see that one has lived long enough & has had enough of this world".

Kate Syrett (b.1873) was a younger sister of Netta, who wrote about her fondly in The Sheltering Tree (1939): "Kate, who when we were first in town was at Bedford College, did not begin her art career till the London flat was given up, and she went to Paris, where for many years she lived. Before the war, and until the slump in trade which followed it, she was one of the best artists, working for a wealthy firm in England. Her designs for fabrics better judges than I consider remarkable, and if talent always received its deserts, she should still be making an excellent living". She remained unmarried and looked after Netta in her old age, living close by at Patching, near Worthing.

Stock no. ebc8065