From inside front flap: This kaledidoscopic portrait of Somerset Maugham grew out of a long, warm friendship between him and the famous American playwright-director Garson Kanin. Though Maugham was Kanin"s senior by nearly forty years, the two quickly established a never-flagging community of interests which produced exciting talk wherever they met- the Riviera, New York, Hollywood or London. .......Unconventional in approach, this volume gives added dimension to the life and works of an enduring literary figure.