W. Somerset Maugham
25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965
William Somerset Maugham was born at the British Embassy in Paris, France, where his father was an English lawyer handling the legal affairs of the British embassy. His mother died of tuberculosis while he was young, a death which traumatized him for life. Two years later, his father died of cancer, and he was sent to England to be cared for by his uncle, Henry MacDonald Maugham, the Vicar of Whitstable, in Kent. His uncle was cold and cruel, and the boarding school he attended, The King's School in Canterbury, was also miserable for him. At sixteen, he refused to continue at The King's School and he was allowed to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University. In Germany, he wrote his first book, a biography of opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and he met John Ellingham Brooks, with whom he had an affair.
On his return to England he worked in an accountant's office for a month, then returned to Whitstable. His uncle sent him to King's College London to study medicine, although he had been writing since the age of 20 and intended to become an author. He continued writing nightly, and in 1897, he finished his second book, Liza of Lambeth. It was published in 1897, and it became so popular that Maugham, who by this time had qualified to be a doctor, dropped medicine and began writing full-time. He travelled and wrote, and in 1907 began to experience great success with plays as well as novels. In World War I he served in France as a member of the British Red Cross's "Literary Ambulance Drivers." During the war he met Frederick Gerald Haxton who became his companion and lover until Haxton's death in 1944. In 1915, he became a British agent operating in Switzerland against the Berlin Committee while posing as a writer. In 1916, he and Haxton travelled to the Pacific to research his novel The Moon And Sixpence, based on the life of Paul Gauguin. In May of 1917, he married Syrie Wellcome, with whom he had had a daughter. In June of 1917 he went to Russia for the British Secret Intelligence Service, to counter German pacifist propaganda and keep the provisional government in power, a mission which failed. In 1927-8 he and Syrie divorced. In 1928 he bought Villa Mauresque in Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera, and made it into a great literary and social salon as well as his home. In 1940, as France fell to German occupation, he fled to the United States, first to Hollywood, where he became a screenwriter. He later moved to the South. When Haxton died in 1944, he returned to England, then in 1946 to his villa in France, where he lived until his death. Alan Searle became his companion until his death in 1965.
373 works Add another?
Most Editions | First Published | Most Recent
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Of Human Bondage
78 editions - first published in 1915 Read -
The Moon and Sixpence
73 editions - first published in 1919 Read -
The Razor's Edge: a novel
44 editions - first published in 1944 Checked out -
Collected short stories
44 editions - first published in 1900 Borrow -
Cakes and Ale or The skeleton in the cupboard
36 editions - first published in 1930 Borrow -
Liza of Lambeth
33 editions - first published in 1897 Read -
The summing up
33 editions - first published in 1938 Borrow -
The narrow corner
29 editions - first published in 1932 -
The painted veil
28 editions - first published in 1925 -
Theatre: a novel
23 editions - first published in 1937 Borrow -
Ashenden: or, The British agent.
22 editions - first published in 1928 Borrow -
Ah King: six stories
20 editions - first published in 1933 Borrow -
A writer's notebook
20 editions - first published in 1949 Borrow -
Catalina: a romance.
17 editions - first published in 1948 -
Then and Now: a novel
17 editions - first published in 1900 Borrow -
Christmas holiday
17 editions - first published in 1939 Checked out -
The gentleman in the parlour: a record of a journey from Rangoon to Haiphong
15 editions - first published in 1930 -
On a Chinese screen
15 editions - first published in 1922 Read -
Creatures of circumstance
15 editions - first published in 1947 Borrow -
The collected plays
14 editions - first published in 1931 -
Great novelists and their novels: an introduction to ten novels and their authors.
12 editions - first published in 1948 Borrow -
The letter: a play in three acts.
10 editions - first published in 1925 -
Ashenden; or, The British agent
10 editions - first published in 1928 -
Points of view: five essays.
9 editions - first published in 1958 -
Cosmopolitans
9 editions - first published in 1936 Borrow -
The sacred flame: a play in three acts
9 editions - first published in 1928 -
Complete short stories
9 editions - first published in 1951 Borrow -
Ten novels and their authors
8 editions - first published in 1954 -
East of Suez: a play in seven scenes
8 editions - first published in 1922 Read -
Six stories written in the first person singular
8 editions - first published in 1931 Borrow -
The vagrant mood: six essays
8 editions - first published in 1952 Borrow -
Cakes and ale, or, The skeleton in the cupboard
7 editions - first published in 1930 -
For services rendered: a play in three acts
7 editions - first published in 1932 -
Mrs. Dot: a farce in three acts
7 editions - first published in 1912 Read -
Selected prefaces and introductions of W. Somerset Maugham
6 editions - first published in 1963 -
The Bishop's Apron: a study in the origins of a great family
6 editions - first published in 1906 -
Orientations
6 editions - first published in 1899 Read -
The noble Spaniard: a comedy in three acts
6 editions - first published in 1948 -
Strictly personal
6 editions - first published in 1941 -
Selected plays: Sheppey. The sacred flame. The circle. The constant wife. Our betters
6 editions - first published in 1963 -
El Filo De LA Navaja
5 editions - first published in 1969 -
The bread-winner: a comedy in one act
5 editions - first published in 1930 -
The Hero
5 editions - first published in 1901 -
Sheppey: a play in three acts.
5 editions - first published in 1933 -
The mixture as before
5 editions - first published in 1940 -
Princess September and the nightingale
5 editions - first published in 1939 Borrow -
The partial view
4 editions - first published in 1954 -
Andalusia, sketches & impressions
4 editions - first published in 1923 -
Books and you
4 editions - first published in 1940 -
Far Eastern Tales
4 editions - first published in 1993 -
The hour before the dawn: a novel
4 editions - first published in 1942 -
France at war
4 editions - first published in 1940 -
The selected novels: Vols 1-3.
4 editions - first published in 1953 -
The writer's point of view
4 editions - first published in 1951 -
The Maugham reader
4 editions - first published in 1950 Checked out -
Home and beauty: a farce in three acts.
3 editions - first published in 1923 -
Purely for my pleasure
3 editions - first published in 1962 -
The collected plays of W. Somerset Maugham
3 editions - first published in 1931 -
Le fil du rasoir
3 editions - first published in 1947 -
Servidumbre Humana
3 editions - first published in 1993 -
Smith: a comedy in four acts
3 editions - first published in 1912 Read -
LA Luna Y Seis Peniques
3 editions - first published in 1994 -
Six comedies
3 editions - first published in 1937 -
Plays
3 editions - first published in 1912 Read -
Mr. Maugham himself: selections.
3 editions - first published in 1954 Borrow -
Sixty-five short stories
3 editions - first published in 1905 Borrow -
Great modern reading: W. Somerset Maugham's introduction to modern English and American literature.
3 editions - first published in 1943 Borrow -
Collected stories
3 editions - first published in 2004 -
Ashenden, or: The British agent
3 editions - first published in 1941 DAISY -
Traveller's library
3 editions - first published in 1933 Borrow -
W. Somerset Maugham's Introduction to modern English and American literature
3 editions - first published in 1943 Borrow -
The Favorite Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham
3 editions - first published in 1934 Checked out -
The unattainable: a farce in three acts
2 editions - first published in 1923 -
Loaves and fishes: a comedy in four acts
2 editions - first published in 1924 -
For services rendered & other plays
2 editions - first published in 1991 -
The selected novels of W.S. Maugham
2 editions - first published in 1953 -
The Beachcomber: (The vessel of wrath)
2 editions - first published in 1931 -
Three comedies: The circle, Our betters, The constant wife.
2 editions - first published in 1969 -
Our betters: a comedy in three acts
2 editions - first published in 1924 -
The Gentleman in the Parlor: A Record Of A Journey From Rangoon To Haiphong
2 editions - first published in 2004 -
The facts of life
2 editions - first published in 1980 -
The colonel's lady
2 editions - first published in 1980 -
The three fat women of Antibes: indulge!
2 editions - first published in 1980 -
The point of honour
2 editions - first published in 1980 -
Far and wide
2 editions - first published in 1955 -
Wit and wisdom of Somerset Maugham
2 editions - first published in 1966 -
Of Human Bondage Volume I
2 editions - first published in 2007 -
Les Nouvelles complètes
2 editions - first published in 1992 -
Der Menschen Hörigkeit
2 editions - first published in 1950 -
Points of view ; five essays
2 editions - first published in 1958 -
The Perfect Gentleman
2 editions -
Teatr: romany, rasskazy
2 editions - first published in 1993 -
Maquiavelo Y La Mandragora
2 editions - first published in 2002 -
Cakes And Ale/Up At The Villa
2 editions - first published in 1930 -
Teatr: romany, rasskazy
2 editions - first published in 1993 -
La passe dangereuse
2 editions - first published in 1967 -
Iskusstvo slova: o sebe idrugikh, literaturnye ocherki i portrety
2 editions - first published in 1989 -
Manen och silverslanten
2 editions - first published in 1950 -
The unknown, a play in three acts
2 editions - first published in 1920 Read -
Lluvia
2 editions - first published in 1998
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Links (outside Open Library)
Alternative names
- W.Somerset Maugham
- William Somerset Maugham
- W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
- William Somerset MAUGHAM
- Somerset Maugham
- W.SOMERSET MAUGHAM
- Somerset maugham
- W., Somerset Maugham
- W. Somerset, Maugham
- W Somerset MAUGHAM
- Somerset W. Maugham
- W Somerset Maugham
- W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
- W. Somerset MAUGHAM
- W. Somerset(William Somerset) Maugham
- Somerset MAUGHAM
- Maugham, W. Somerset, William Somerset, 1874-1965.
- W. Somerset 1874-1965 Maugham
- Maugham, W.Somerset, William Somerset, 1874-1965.
- Maugham, William Somerset, 1874-1965.
History Created April 1, 2008 · 6 revisions
| October 8, 2010 | Edited by George | merge authors |
| August 19, 2010 | Edited by George | merge authors |
| April 12, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Added photos to author pages. |
| January 29, 2009 | Edited by caf21 | Added fuller name, added location, added to birth date, added to death date, added wikipedia link, added bio, added photo |
| April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |