Description: Maugham William



W. Somerset Maugham TLS Signed Less than a Year before His Death at Age Ninety-One

1pp TLS signed by celebrated English novelist W. Somerset Maugham as Yours sincerely, W.S. Maugham" in black felt-tip pen at center of watermarked cream stationery with "Villa Mauresque, St. Jean, Cap Ferrat, A.M." letterhead. In near fine condition with expected central paper folds, measuring 5.25" x 8.25". Several isolated areas of isolated foxing along top edge of paper. The January 9, 1965 letter is addressed to one Mrs. Lavergne E. Williams of Melbourne Beach, FL, who had sent the elderly writer birthday wishes in advance of his ninety-first and last birthday.

Also accompanied by a companion air mail envelope addressed to "Mrs. Lavergne E. Williams, 502 Riverside Drive, Box 658, Melbourne Beach, Florida – 32951, Etats Unis", postmarked from "Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, Presqu’Ile de Reve", and bearing an 85 centimes French stamp showing the northeastern French city of Vittel. A circa 1985 postcard in impeccable condition showing Maugham in a black Fedora clutching a long-haired pug as photographed by Jerry Bauer is also included.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) enjoyed an incredibly long and successful literary career set into motion with his semi-autobiographical masterpiece Of Human Bondage (1915). Like other "Literary Ambulance Drivers" such as Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos, Maugham served under the Red Cross during World War I. He was dispatched as a secret agent to Russia during the 1917 Revolution, and then traveled throughout southeast Asia completing other intelligence work. Maugham incorporated some of his real-life experiences into his many short stories, plays, essays, travel accounts, screenplays, and novels. Between 1926 and his death in December 1965, Maugham primarily resided at Villa Mauresque, or "Moorish Villa" in the Alpes-Maritimes, and it was here that he hosted a literary salon during the 1920s and 1930s. Maugham’s partner Alan Searle inherited the villa after the writer’s death.

"Mrs. Lavergne E. Williams", Maugham’s correspondent, was Eleanor Dahl Williams (1917-2009). Williams took a degree in English from the University of Connecticut; this probably explains her interest in contacting Maugham, one of the greatest twentieth-century English language writers still living. While in college, she met her husband of seventy-two years, LaVergne Edward Williams (1918-2010), who earned a degree in Engineering. The two moved to Melbourne Beach, FL in 1956.



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