This slim (34 page) volume was printed in 1939 by W. Somerset Maugham’s publisher to highlight the author’s work. In this regard, it is like the 1925 book W. Somerset Maugham, Novelist, Essayist, Dramatist, and will mainly be of interest to avid collectors of Maugham material. This volume was reprinted in the 1960s and 1970s, and various editions are readily available from sellers of used books.

W. Somerset Maugham: An Appreciation contains the following:

a brief (9 page) essay by the British writer and poet Richard Aldington (pp. 5-13);
the essay “Sixty-Five” by Somerset Maugham (pp. 14-20);
“appreciations” (excerpts from recent reviews of Maugham’s works) (pp. 21-26);
a bibliography (pp. 27-31); and
an index to Maugham’s short stories (pp. 32-34).

Aldington’s essay praises the quality and success of Maugham’s work, and rails against critics who assume that the two qualities cannot go hand-in-hand. In Maugham’s contribution (written at the age of 65) the author reflects on writing and his own career. It is available in the 1984 collection A Traveller in Romance (edited by John Whitehead). The “appreciations” are excerpts from highly positive reviews of Maugham’s works. The bibliography is bare-bones, and lists first editions of his works of fiction and non-fiction by title, date, and publisher. The list of Maugham’s stories is even less useful; it indicates the collection where each was reprinted, with no mention of the original dates or sites of publication. Given that Maugham’s essay has appeared elsewhere, contents of this work are of little value. The bibliography and list of short stories have long since been superceded by works of professional quality. ( )