For Services Rendered: A Play in Three Acts.

First edition of Maugham's popular play. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "by W. Somerset Maugham for Elsie Tritton." The recipient, Elsie Tritton, was a noted collector and friend of Maugham's who introduced him to Alan Searle. A younger man from the London slum area of Bermondsey, Searle had previously embarked upon an affair with the writer Lytton Strachey. Maugham began a relationship with him after his companion Gerald Haxton died in 1944. In 1962, Maugham attempted to adopt Searle as his son and heir when he disowned his daughter after a financial dispute, but the adoption was annulled. Following Maugham's death in 1962, Searle inherited £50,000, the contents of his Villa La Mauresque, Maugham's manuscripts, and his revenue from copyrights for 30 years. Very good in a very good dust jacket.