MAUGHAM, W. Somerset. The Casuarina Tree. 311, [1] pp. 8vo., bound in recent half blue morocco, red morocco spine label. London: William Heinemann, 1926.

First Edition. Maugham's second short story collection, which contains six stories evoking the ambience of the colonial world of the 1920s, in the remote Malay outpost of the British Empire. The stories are: Before the Party; P.& O; The Outstation: The Force of Circumstance; The Yellow Streak and The Letter.

The collection contains the first appearance of The Letter which has been twice been made into a film, in 1929 with Jeanne Eagels and Herbert Marshall, and then in 1940 with Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall. In 1969 it was televised with Eileen Atkins and Peter Bowles, and again in 1982 with Lee Remick and Ronald Pickup.

Stott. A Bibliography of the Works of W. Somerset Maugham. Connolly. The Modern Movement.