His elder brother, Viscount Maugham, did become a lawyer, enjoying a distinguished legal career and serving as Lord Chancellor from 1938 to 1939. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... From the Italian Renaissance and Victorian era to India and Canterbury, delve into the lives of Dante, Isaac Asimov, and other writers. His uncle tried to find Maugham a new profession. A life in letters: W Somerset Maugham Born 25 January 1874 in Paris. Maugham himself denied any intention of doing this in a long letter to Walpole:[58] "I certainly never intended Alroy Kear to be a portrait of you. To be a good citizen, it's important to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the big picture. The writer's life allowed Maugham to travel and to live in places such as Spain and Capri for the next decade, but his next ten works never came close to rivalling the success of Liza. I wonder if that does not make the Christian uneasy to reflect that if he had been in. W. Somerset Maugham, Writer: Quartet. Maugham had begun collecting theatrical paintings before the First World War; he continued to the point where his collection was second only to that of the Garrick Club. Mae West. His family assumed Maugham and his brothers would be lawyers. Maugham wrote near the opening of the novel: "... it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue. In 1962 Maugham sold a collection of paintings, some of which had already been assigned by deed to his daughter Liza. He proved a devoted (if not a stimulating) companion. The protagonist is a disillusioned veteran of the First World War who abandons his wealthy friends and lifestyle, travelling to India seeking enlightenment. Maugham refers to this gran… "[12], Maugham entered into a relationship with Syrie Wellcome, the wife of Henry Wellcome, an American-born English pharmaceutical magnate. It was Maugham's eighth birthday. During this time he met Frederick Gerald Haxton, a young San Franciscan, who became his companion and lover until Haxton's death in 1944. Maugham apja, Robert Ormond Maugham, a párizsi angol követségen dolgozott, mint ügyvéd. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." 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. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief ..."[12], Maugham kept his own lodgings, took pleasure in furnishing them, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly while at the same time studying for his medical degree. He is the founder and director of the Good Law Project, through which he has played a key role in bringing to court a number of legal challenges to the Brexit process, which he opposes. For the next five years, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. It was a collection of essays that he had contributed to the solid magazines of the day and he issued it, as became his sense of decorum, anonymously. He is made up of a dozen people and the greater part of him is myself"—yet in an introduction written for the 1950 Modern Library edition of the work, he plainly states that Walpole was the inspiration for Kear (while denying that Thomas Hardy was the inspiration for the novelist Driffield). [10] He also wrote his first book there, a biography of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer.[11]. W. Somerset Maugham(William Somerset Maugham)novelist, playwright, and short story writerBorn: 1/25/1874Birthplace: Paris, France Although he was most well known as an author, W. Somerset Maugham had a varied professional life that included obstetrics … Maugham's mother, Edith Mary (née Snell), contracted tuberculosis, a condition for which her physician prescribed childbirth. Maugham was the fourth of six sons born in his family. Britannica now has a site just for parents! References Among his short stories, some of the most memorable are those dealing with the lives of Western, mostly British, colonists in the Pacific Islands and Asia. View the list When I'm good, I'm very good. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “ – Gore Vidal’s review in … The Moon and Sixpence, novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1919. Spouse/Ex: Syrie Maugham (m. 1917–1929) Children: Mary Elizabeth Maugham (1915–1998) Early Life. Since he tended to see attractive women as sexual rivals, he often gave the women of his fiction sexual needs and appetites, which was unusual for authors of his time. Share with your friends. [61] George Orwell said that Maugham was "the modern writer who has influenced me the most, whom I admire immensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills". William Somerset Maugham (n. 25 ianuarie 1874, Paris, Franța – d. 16 decembrie 1965, Nisa, Franța) a fost un dramaturg și prozator englez, a cărui operă s-a bucurat de notorietate internațională.. Proza sa se caracterizează prin soliditatea construcției, observația ascuțită asupra mediilor și … His work was popular for his simple style of writing, as well as his sharp and accurate understanding and judgment of human nature. Among her grandchildren is Derek Paravicini, who is a musical prodigy and autistic savant. Maugham wrote comedies, psychological novels and spy stories (although the latter part of his work is hardly ever seen as belonging to crime fiction proper). William Somerset Maugham, British playwright and novelist, was one of the most reputed and well-known writers of his era, and one of the highest-paid authors of his time. [54] In 1948 he announced that he would bequeath this collection to the Trustees of the National Theatre. Maugham's play The Letter, starring Gladys Cooper, had its premiere in London in 1927. He was among the most popular writers of his era … This changed in 1907 with the success of his play Lady Frederick. In 1951, Katherine Cornell was a great success playing the lead in Maugham's comedy The Constant Wife. [15] Maugham survived the criticism without much damage to his reputation. Later, he asked that Katharine Cornell play the lead in the 1927 Broadway version. In his 1962 volume of memoirs, Looking Back, he attacked the late Syrie Maugham and wrote that Liza had been born before they married. During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service. At last, the fascinating truth is revealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer Selina Hastings. His best efforts in this line include The Gentleman in the Parlour, dealing with a journey through Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam, and On a Chinese Screen, a series of very brief vignettes that might have been sketches for stories left unwritten. He traveled in Spain and Italy and in 1908 achieved a theatrical triumph—four plays running in London at once—that brought him financial security. W. Somerset Maugham, an eminent British playwright, novelist and short story writer is better known as a master of short and concise novels. It has been adapted as a play and as several films. Towards the end of his career he described himself as "in the very first row of the second-raters". The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography by Selina Hastings is a compelling and comprehensive review of Maugham and his works. 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