W. Somerset Maugham Bibliography - Important Collected Editions

Important Collected Editions

The Complete Short Stories. Heinemann, 1951, 3 vols.
Reprinted in 1952. Contains 91 short stories: 84 from all collections but Orientations (1899) and 7 pieces from the travel books: two from On A Chinese Screen (1922) and five from The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930). Maugham also wrote a New Preface to each volume and arranged the order in which the stories appear.

The Complete Short Stories. Doubleday, 1952, 2 vols., First American Edition.
Reprinted by The Reprint Society in 1954. The same 91 short stories as in the Heinemann edition above but with completely different Prefaces. Vol. 1 is titled East and West, was first published in 1934, also under the English title Altogether, and contains new 26 pp preface on the art of short story. Vol. 2 is titled The World Over, was first published in 1952 and contains new 8 pp preface. Both prefaces are reprinted in Selected Prefaces and Introductions (1963) with minor omissions done on Maugham's request.

The Collected Plays. Heinemann, 1952, 3 vols.
Contain 18 plays and New Preface to each volume. First published in 1931–34 in 6 vols., as a beginning of The Collected Edition. The plays in the 1952 edition are identical, the prefaces were only slightly adjusted.

I. Lady Frederick - Mrs. Dot - Jack Straw - Penelope - Smith - The Land of Promise.
II. Our Betters - The Unattainable - Home and Beauty - The Circle - The Constant Wife - The Breadwinner.
III. Caesar`s Wife - East of Suez - The Sacred Flame - The Unknown - For Services Rendered - Sheppey.

The Selected Novels. Heinemann, 1953, 3 vols.
Contain 9 novels and New Preface to each volume.

I. Liza of Lambeth - Cakes and Ale - Theatre
II. The Moon and Sixpence - The Narrow Corner - The Painted Veil
III. Christmas Holiday - Up at the Villa - The Razor's Edge

Note. The prefaces to the first two volumes are taken almost verbatim from the corresponding pieces Maugham wrote for The Collected Edition nearly two decades ago; the exception is Cakes and Ale, the preface to which is similar to the one Maugham wrote for the Modern Library edition in 1950. The third volume, however, is another matter: this is the only place where Maugham wrote about these three novels.

The Partial View. Heinemann, 1954.
Contains The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949) in one volume with new 5pp preface.

The Travel Books. Heinemann, 1955.
Contains On A Chinese Screen (1922), The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930), Don Fernando (1935) in one volume with new preface. The parts about the first two books are copied from the prefaces for The Collected Edition, but the part about Don Fernando is unique in Maugham's oeuvre.

Selected Prefaces and Introductions. Doubleday, 1963. Reprinted by Heinemann in 1964.

The Art of Fiction from Ten Novels and their Authors (1954) - Preface to A Writer's Notebook (1949) - Foreword to Of Human Bondage (1915) - Excerpt from the Preface to Vol. III of The Collected Plays (1931) - Prefaces to both volumes of the First American edition of The Complete Short Stories - General Introduction to Traveller's Library (1933) - Introduction to Tellers of Tales (1939) - Introduction to A Choice of Kipling's Prose (1952)

Note.
The date given for the Foreword to Of Human Bondage is incorrect. It was written in 1936 for the First Illustrated Edition by Doubleday.

Collected Short Stories, 4 vols, paperback. The same 91 short stories as above. The order is slightly modified, the prefaces are virtually the same as in the definitive Heinemann edition from 1951. Published numerous times: Penguin, 1963; Mandarin, 1990; Vintage, 2000–2002, to name but a few. The Vintage edition is the only one still in print, but all others can easily be found second hand, often at embarrassingly cheap prices.

Tha Maugham Reader, Doubleday, 1950.
With Introduction by Glenway Wescott and Frontispiece portrait of portrait by Graham Sutherland. Pagination: xxxvi, 1217 pp. . Contains 2 novels, 2 plays, 14 short stories, 1 essay and the complete The Summing Up (1938), all previously published but some under very different titles:
The Painted Veil - Jane - The Opium Addict - The Facts of Life - Rain - The Treasure - The Outstation - The French Governor - Our Betters - The Summing Up - The Constant Wife - Red - A String of Beads - The Door of Opportunity - September's Bird - The Alien Corn - The Round Dozen - The Vessel of Wrath - Christmas Holiday - El Greco

September's Bird, The Opium Addict and The French Governor are alternative titles for Princess September, Mirage and A Marriage of Convenience, respectively; the latter can be found in The Complete Short Stories editions as well, occasionally with very slight textual changes; all three stories also appeared in The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930), as chapters XXXII, XLIII and XXXIV, respectively. So far as can currently be ascertained, the alternative titles in The Maugham Reader were never used before or since in any other volume with Maugham's works.

El Greco is reprint from Don Fernando (1935; Revised, 1950) where the piece is not titled. The version here was most probably taken from the revised edition.

Mr. Maugham Himself, Doubleday, 1954.
Selected and with Introduction by John Beecroft. Pagination: x, 688 pp. . Contains 1 novel, 2 short stories, 2 essays, excerpts from A Writer's Notebook (1949) and the complete The Summing Up (1938), all previously published:
Of Human Bondage - Some Novelists I Have Known - Mr Harrington's Washing - The Book Bag - El Greco - The Summing Up - Excerpts from 'A Writer's Notebook'.

The so-called Excerpts from A Writer's Notebook are actually the two postscripts that Maugham wrote in 1944 and 1949; both are of course part of the original edition of the book. Remarkably, this reprinting of The Summing Up contains a unique postscript which is actually a condensed version of Maugham's preface for The Partial View (1954).