Books: Here & There

A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (367 pp.)—W. Somerset Maugham—Doubleday ($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...

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