A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (367 pp.)W. Somerset MaughamDoubleday ($4).
Five years ago, having reached his allotted three-score-years-and-ten, Somerset Maugham took a long look at himself, reached for his notebook, and jotted down a sort of bank balance of his mental and physical condition. It showed:
Own Teeth: Twentysix.
Wind & Limb: Perfectly "sound in."
Income: Enough to live "in comfort" and gratify "whims."
Intimations of Immortality: None ("I am content . . . that my soul . . . will dissolve into nothingness").
Intimations of Posterity: Some ("Two or three plays and a dozen short stories" may...