Books: Reticent Writer

THE SUMMING UP — W. Somerset Maugham—Doubleday, Doran ($2.50).

In London in 1907, at the age of 33, William Somerset Maugham became a success. Four of his plays were produced, and three of them ran for a year. He has remained successful ever since. "In my twenties," he says, "the critics said I was brutal, in my thirties they said I was flippant, in my forties they said I was cynical, in my fifties they said I was competent and now in my sixties they say I am superficial." Last week, in The...