Drawn From His Experience In The British Secret Intelligence Service

ASHENDEN : OR THE BRITISH AGENT

By Somerset Maugham

1928

First edition, first impression of Maugham's collection of interrelated stories about a writer employed as a spy in World War I, drawing from the author's personal experience in the British Secret Intelligence Service.

Near-fine in like jacket.

Price: $6,000.00

ASHENDEN : OR THE BRITISH AGENT

"There's just one thing I think you ought to know before you take this job... If you do well, you'll get no thanks and if you get into trouble you'll get no help."

Unlike most of the spy literature that was birthed out of 20th-century warfare, Maugham's perspective is influenced by his own experience in intelligence service, emphasizing the everyday tasks – watching, listening – that make up intelligence work, which remains a particularly important insight today. According to his biographer Selina Hastings, Maugham burned fourteen additional stories after Winston Churchill read them and insisted they would be a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Scarce in such a brilliant 1920s-era dust jacket.

The Object

London: William Heinemann, Ltd, 1928. Octavo. 7.25'' x 5''. Original full teal cloth, boards and spine lettered and stamped in gilt and black, In original pictorial dust jacket. [8], 304 pages. Bookseller ticket of the Holliday Bookshop in New York on rear pastedown. Slight spine lean. Jacket with tiny chip to foot of spine and single short tape repair to verso of jacket, else barest edgewear and gentle toning to spine.

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