An English playwright, novelist, editor, and essayist W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) became one of the most popular authors of his era and reputedly the highest paid of his profession during the 1930s. The most successful novels by the author included Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor's Edge (1944). As a dramatist he produced 29 plays, many of which achieved theatrical acclaim.  

Of Human Bondage (1915) is the longest and most well-known work in prose by Maugham. The American critic and writer Theodore Dreiser referred to it as a work of genius and compared Of Human Bondage to a Beethoven symphony. Although Maugham himself insisted it was more invention than fact, the novel appeared to be closely autobiographical; Maugham's life experiences of attending a private school, suffering from a stammer, and obtaining a medical degree found their way into the narrative of the main character Philip Carey, an orphan with a club foot.

The American painter John Sloan (1871-1951) was one of a group of artists, including Robert Henri, William Glackens, and Maurice Prendergast, who became known as the Ashcan School for their gritty depictions of urban life. While Sloan remains more famous for New York scenes, he was also an able landscapist and portraitist, as well as a prolific printmaker. The etchings for Of Human Bondage, lively and intimate, show that Sloan's concept of the big city could be translated to the novel's London setting with as much vitality as seen in his images of New York.

Sloan personally admired Maugham's masterpiece and read the novel three times. The etchings communicated Sloan's own sense of the interest in the joy of existence, his love of humankind, his liberality and zest. Sloan's works pleased Maugham so much that he planned to use them to decorate his new house in South Carolina where he lived from 1940 to 1946 during the Nazi invasion of Europe. For Sloan's illustrations had "caught wonderfully the tang of the period," said the author, and made readers "eager to know more about the people whose image the artist has shown."

The exhibition features objects from the collections of the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, University of Richmond Museums, and the University of Richmond's Boatwright Memorial Library. Organized by the University of Richmond Museums, the exhibition was co-curated by Richard Waller, Executive Director, University Museums, and Dina Zhurba, MLA'08, graduate student, University of Richmond, and 2007 Harnett Summer Research Fellow in the University Museums.