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.
William Somerset Maugham
×Close![Photo of William Somerset Maugham](http://covers.openlibrary.org/a/id/14647801-L.jpg)
English playwright and author (1874–1965)
Born | 25 January 1874 |
Died | 16 December 1965 |
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William Somerset Maugham
×Close![Photo of William Somerset Maugham](http://covers.openlibrary.org/a/id/14647801-L.jpg)
English playwright and author (1874–1965)
Born | 25 January 1874 |
Died | 16 December 1965 |
Subjects
Fiction, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Short stories, British, Description and travel, English fiction, English literature, Travel, English Short stories, Fiction in English, History, History and criticism, Authors, Fiction, general, Fiction, short stories (single author), Social life and customs, English Authors, English drama, American literature, Biography, Large type books, Literature, Manners and customs, Addresses, essays, lectures, Authors' spousesPlaces
Foreign countries, England, Spain, Paris, Andalusia (Spain), Oceania, China, Great Britain, Italy, New England, South Pacific Ocean, United States, Andalusia, Asia del Sudeste, Australia, Ballarat, Bellissime, Boscombe Pool, Boscombe Valley, Dublin, Florence, France, French Polynesia, Gro britannien, Hatherley FarmPeople
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Alice Turner, Ballarat Gang, Bill Hutchinson, Brently Mallard, Cesare Borgia (1476?-1507), Cesare Borgia (b. btwn 1474/1476 d. 1507), Charles McCarthy, Cheri, Chéri’s mother, Devil, Doctor Bonfils, Ethelred, Eugene Foster, Faith Brown, French, Goodman Brown, Goody Cloyse, Harry Graves, Inspector Lestrade, Jacqueline, James McCarthy, Joe, John H. WatsonTime
20th century, 19th century, Classical period, 1500-1700, 1516-1700, 1492-1559, 1600s, 1892-1944, 1900's, 1914, 1940's, 20e siècle, 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965, Edward VII, 1901-1910, In the late 19th or early 20th century, Siglo XX, xian daiID Numbers
- OLID: OL33585A
- ISNI: 0000000121371781
- VIAF: 66470937
- Wikidata: Q134942
- Inventaire.io: wd:Q134942
Links (outside Open Library)
Alternative names
- W. Somerset Maugham
- Somerset W. Maugham
- W Somerset Maugham
- W. Somerset MAUGHAM
- William S. Maugham
- William Maugham
- W. Maugham
- Maugham W. Somerset
- Maugham William Somerset
- Maugham. Somerset. W.
- Somerset Maugham W.
- William Somerset Aut Maugham
- W. Somerset. Maugham
- Сомерсет Моэм
July 21, 2024 | Edited by Сергей Малышев | Added new photo |
July 21, 2024 | Edited by Сергей Малышев | Edited without comment. |
February 29, 2024 | Edited by bitnapper | Edited without comment. |
February 29, 2024 | Edited by bitnapper | merge authors |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |