W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham (/ˈmɔːm/ MAWM), CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.
After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle, who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become an attorney like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a doctor. The first run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full time.
During World War I, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia; all of these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.
Read more about W. Somerset Maugham: Childhood and Education, Marriage and Family, Intelligence Work, Achievements, Significant Works, Influence, Portraits of Maugham, Film Adaptations
Famous quotes containing the words somerset maugham, somerset and/or maugham:
“If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him.... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)