"The Razor's Edge" by W. Somerset Maugham, published by Doubleday Doran & Company, Garden City, NY, 1944. First American edition after the publication of a limited edition of 750 copies. Wartime imprint, "Complete and Unabridged" on the copyright page and front flap of dust jacket. The original price of $2.75 is present on the front flap of the dust jacket.

Original dust jacket [multiple damages, fair: see photos]; the jacket is protected in clear mylar cover, hard boards [bumped upper corner]; Maugham's "sign to ward off the evil eye" is embossed on the front board, gilt lettering on spine; 5.3/4" x 8.1/4"; 258 pages, very good condition.

Written after much painstaking research into Eastern philosophy and mysticism, The Razor s Edge is Maugham s 20th-century manifesto for human fulfillment. In it he mercilessly satirizes American and European materialism, and holds up the figure of the spiritual seeker as a model for those searching for meaning in existence" (Stringer). It was twice adapted into film, first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and Herbert Marshall as Maugham and Anne Baxter as Sophie, and then a 1984 adaptation starring Bill Murray.

William Somerset Maugham [1874-1965] was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897.

Maugham was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1954, on the recommendation of the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and six years later-- along with Churchill-- he was one of the first five writers to be made a Companion of Literature. He was a Commandeur of the Legion of Honour, and an honorary doctor of the universities of Oxford and Toulouse. On his eightieth birthday the Garrick Club gave a dinner in his honour: only Dickens, Thackeray and Trollope had been similarly honoured. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Library of Congress, Washington, an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an honorary senator of Heidelberg University.

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) ----------- $14.50
Canada: Priority (c 2-6 weeks) -- $32.50
World: Priority (c 2-8 weeks) --- $48.50