THE MOON AND SIXPENCE; W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers by arrangement with George H. Doran Company, 1919. Reprint of Doran Edition. Cloth and boards. Good +/Good +. 8vo (8 1/4" x 5 5/8"), maroon cloth with black lettering on spine & front cover--both with black palms, archival mylar-protected photographic dust jacket (unclipped) depicting movie stars (George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley) from the United Artist's 1942 production of The Moon and Sixpence, [i-vi], 7-314 pages. William Somerset Maugham CH (1874 - 1965) was a British playwright, short story writer, and novelist. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. Maugham's most important novel, Of Human Bondage (1915), is sometimes considered a work of genius. His lesser though important novel, The Moon and Sixpence (1919), was Maugham's tragic fusion of a aspiring, though caddish British stockbroker-turned-painter with artist Paul Gauguin--both escaping eventually to Tahiti (hence the palms on the cloth). 1919 is the Doran copyright date but not the actual date of publication, which was on or soon after the film adaptation was released in 1942, which starred caddish George Sanders. GOOD-to-BETTER CONDITION! This is a Scarce wartime copy in remarkably tight condition. The dj has photos of the movie actors with ~ 98% of the movie dust jacket (unclipped). The dj has wrinkles; its back panel shows soil, and the extremities have nips. The pages are all quite age-toned, a typical feature of wartime paper and production methods.