Somerset maugham biography
Somerset Maugham
Maugham lived a long and very productive life ( – ), so his writings spanned many changing literary trends and authors. He knew from a young age that he wanted to be a writer. And he also knew that he had to gather life experience. For this he studied at medical school for four years in order to witness life in the raw; his novel “Liza of Lambeth” is based directly on his training. He also travelled extensively – first in Europe and as he became richer the entire globe. Maugham found success first as a play-write – and only later as a novelist.
Maugham was a homosexual. I use that term instead of the word gay because it was not used during Maugham’s era, or for that matter when this book was published in Of great significance was the trial of Oscar Wilde which forced Maugham to camouflage his sexuality. His homosexuality set him apart from “normal” society. Maugham always saw himself as an outsider – and his homosexuality undoubtedly contributed to this. There are other factors as well. Maugham was born in France and he only came to England when he was 10 years old. His first language was French (his published output was all in English). Also, he had a stammer.
Maugham married to present a “respectable” façade. His marriage produced one child (a daughter), but as to be expected this marriage ended in divorce.
As mentioned, Maugham travelled widely. After the First World War he set off for several months with his friend Gerald Haxton (leaving his wife and daughter) to visit British colonies in the Far East, like Malaysia and some Pacific Islands.
Page (my book)
“I [Maugham] was fortunate enough to have on my journeys a companion who had an inestimable social gift. He had an amiability of dispositio
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham
The definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.
For nearly sixty years Somerset Maugham () was one of the most famous writers in the world. An enormously successful playwright and the author of over a hundred short stories and twenty-one novels several of which are now established classics Maugham expertly concealed a private life. Predominantly homosexual, and deeply in love with the charming but dissolute Gerald Haxton, he made a disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome which he would escape by travelling and writing extensively in the Far East. A talented linguist, during both world wars Maugham worked for British Intelligence. In between he moved in literary and theatrical circles in London, New York and Hollywood and entertained lavishly at his luxurious villa in the south of France. Outwardly his life was richly rewarding, but privately he suffered anguish from an unrequited love affair and a shocking final betrayal.
Acclaimed biographer Selina Hastings has had access to Maugham s extensive private correspondence as well as to important family testimony, which sheds a fascinating new light on this complex and extraordinary man.
W. Somerset Maugham
English playwright and author (–)
William Somerset MaughamCH (MAWM; 25 January – 16 December ) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in , after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories.
Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (), The Moon and Sixpence (), The Painted Veil (), Cakes and Ale () and The Razor's Edge (). His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree () and The Mixture as Before (); many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema and television. His great popularity and prodigious sales provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, many of whom sought to belittle him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage – a book with a large autobiographical element – as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical comment.
During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the s. Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day. After a three-year affair with Syrie Wellcome which produced their daughter, Liza, they married in The marriage lasted for twelve years, b He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widely read authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the most famous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own true story has never been fully told. At last, the fascinating truth is revealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer Selina Hastings. Granted unprecedented access to Maugham’s personal correspondence and to newly uncovered interviews with his only child, Hastings portrays the secret loves, betrayals, integrity, and passion that inspired Maugham to create such classics as The Razor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage. Hastings vividly presents Maugham’s lonely childhood spent with unloving relatives after the death of his parents, a trauma that resulted in shyness, a stammer, and for the rest of his life an urgent need for physical tenderness. Here, too, are his adult triumphs on the stage and page, works that allowed him a glittering social life in which he befriended and sometimes fell out with such luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Charlie Chaplin, D. H. Lawrence, and Winston Churchill. The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham portrays in full for the first time Maugham’s disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome, a manipulative society woman of dubious morality who trapped Maugham with a pregnancy and an attempted suicide. Hastings also explores Maugham’s many affairs with men, including his great love, Gerald Haxton, an alcoholic charmer and a cad. Maugham’s courageous work in secret intelligence during two world wars is described in fascinating detail—experiences that provided the inspiration for the groundbreaking Ashenden stories. From the West End to Broadway, from China to the South Pacific, Maugham’s restless and remarkably productive life is thrillingly recounted as Hastings uncovers the real stories behind such classics as “Rain,” The Painted Veil, Cakes & Ale, and other well-known tales. An epic biography of a hugely talented The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham