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CAKES AND ALE, OR THE SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD.
(London: William Heinemann Ltd., [1954]). 233 x 155 mm. (9 1/8 x 6 1/8"). 4 p.l., xii, 255 pp. ONE OF 1,000 COPIES SIGNED BY AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR.
STRIKING VERY DARK GREEN MOROCCO BY SALLY LOU SMITH (stamp-signed SLS on rear pastedown) covers with large inset frame of teal suede edged with red morocco and surrounded by blind-stamped jagged lines, this decorated with a dozen twists of morocco in hues of pink, peach crimson, mahogany, dusty rose, olive green, and jade that resemble freeform flowers, each "bloom" with a gilt circlet at center, smooth spine with gilt lettering, pastedowns of matching dark green paper framing a panel of lighter green paper edged with a strip of tan paper, free endpapers of the lighter green, flyleaves of the tan, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed and UNOPENED. House in a felt-lined green cloth clamshell box backed with matching morocco. With a lithograph portrait frontispiece of Maugham and 15 decorative tailpieces by Graham Sutherland. With a four-page facsimile of the first and last two pages of Maugham's manuscript of "Cakes and Ale." Martin S. Day, "History of English Literature, 1837 to the Present," pp. 372-3. Frontispiece (on a different paper) a little darkened, otherwise a very fine copy--clean, fresh, bright, and unread, in an as-new notable binding.
This limited, signed edition of William Somerset Maugham's satirical jab at the literary world features an imaginative and delightful binding by the celebrated Sally Lou Smith. Maugham (1874-1965), is called by Day "the most popular English novelist of this [i.e., the 20th] century and the outstanding naturalistic writer in Britain," as well as someone whose "mood has paralleled that of readers during recent decades--a cynical contemplation of human unpredictability and the painful or ludicrous entrapment of a man by his passions." Those themes abound in "Cakes and Ale," which follows the production of an author's biography shortly after his death. The unflattering portrayals of the author, his biographer, and other literary contemporaries led to great speculation, as Maugham's novels had a tendency toward thinly veiled autobiography. The popular belief that the character of Alroy Kear was based on Hugh Walpole (which Maugham initially denied but later admitted), led to a falling out between the two writers. Although Maugham ranked "Of Human Bondage" as his best novel, he always claimed that "Cakes," first published in 1930, was his personal favorite. Our binding's clever impressionism, with its bright swirls of gathered morocco forming a wreath around the covers, suggests, like the novel, that not everything is as it seems at first glance (are the swirling onlays meant to suggest flowers or leaves or turbulent indecision or what?). Our binder, American-born Sally Lou Smith (1925-2007), spent four and a half years learning bookbinding under John Corderoy at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts before beginning to work out of her own bindery in 1963. Her work has been widely honored both in her early days (she won the bookbinding award given by Major J. R. Abbey in 1965) and for many years since--among others, she has won three Thomas Harrison Competition prizes. In the catalogue for the "Modern British Bookbinding" exhibit held in Brussels and The Hague in 1985, five of the 50 bindings pictured were executed by Smith, who is listed in the catalogue as one of the 20 Fellows of Designer Bookbinders, the principal bookbinding society in Great Britain. (ST20628)
Price: $7,000.00