Sheppey: A Play in Three Acts.

MAUGHAM, W. Somerset.

$750.00

Item Number: 133056

London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1933.

First edition of Maugham’s final play. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “The author’s last play for Elsie Tritton W. Somerset Maugham.” The recipient, Elsie Tritton, was a noted collector and friend of Maugham‘s who introduced him to Alan Searle. A younger man from the London slum area of Bermondsey, Searle had previously embarked upon an affair with the writer Lytton Strachey. Maugham began a relationship with him after his companion Gerald Haxton died in 1944. In 1962, Maugham attempted to adopt Searle as his son and heir when he disowned his daughter after a financial dispute, but the adoption was annulled. Following Maugham’s death in 1962, Searle inherited £50,000, the contents of his Villa La Mauresque, Maugham’s manuscripts, and his revenue from copyrights for 30 years. Very good in a very good dust jacket.

Maugham's final play, Sheppey is the dramatic story of hairdresser Joseph "Sheppey" Miller, who, after working at the same establishment for 15 years, wins a subsidiary prize in the Irish Lottery of £8,500. The play was written in 1932 and first produced at the Wyndham's Theatre London on September 14, 1933 with a cast that included Ralph Richardson, then aged 31, and Laura Cowie. After the production of Sheppey, Maugham announced publicly that he would write no more plays and kept to his word until his death in 1965. He did, however, write numerous other short stories, novels, and articles.