A Writer’s Notebook.

MAUGHAM, W. Somerset. [William Safire].

$2,250.00

Item Number: 127338

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1949.

First trade edition of Maugham’s semi-autobiographical confessional. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles and raised bands to the spine, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “by W. Somerset Maugham For Bill Safire in recollection of a pleasant chat.” The recipient, William Safire, was an important American author, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign in the 1960 Presidential race, and again in 1968. Following Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a presidential speechwriter for both Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was a frequent guest on Meet The Press, describing himself as the voice of “libertarian conservatives” and authored several political columns, most notably his weekly column “On Language” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death in 2009. He authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. With Safire’s bookplate to the pastedown and his gilt initials to the front panel. In near fine condition.

A Writer's Notebook "shows [Maugham] at his best, as detached, observant, and affecting a pose of worldliness even in his apparent private thoughts" (Drabble 631).