RAZOR’S EDGE by Maugham W. Somerset - 1944

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., 1944. First Edition, First Issue, Numbered and Signed by Maugham on the limitation page. The True First Edition, published prior to the American trade issue and the first English edition which was released some four months later than the American printings. 8vo, publisher's original salmon coloured buckram, with black spine label gilt lettered and decorated, blind stamped tooling to the upper cover, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, in the original coloured slipcase. (1), (6), 343 pp. An especially fine copy, essentially pristine in slightly aged slipcase. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, SIGNED BY SOMERSET MAUGHAM. One of Maugham's most sought after titles in first edition form. THE RAZOR'S EDGE tells the story of an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. Maugham was remarkably prescient, anticipating an embrace of Eastern culture by Westerners almost a decade before the Beat writers were to popularize the culture in America.