After his death, the reputation of Somerset Maugham suffered the inevitable decline of renowned writers, the decline that especially follows a long career that has been lived much in the public eye and in tune with its times. In the 1960s the times were rapidly changing, and few cared to read then of the old order, of the days of Empire, of District Officers in the jungle or the wiles of wives in repressive Edwardian marriages. Maugham would not have been surprised. “The first little splutter of interest92 that follows a person’s death in the case of a writer is followed by some years of neglect,” he wrote in 1946. “Then if there is in his work anything of enduring value, interest in him is renewed. But the dead period may well last twenty or thirty years.” This was prescient, for the last couple of decades have seen a remarkable revival of the work of this extraordinary man. Maugham learned very young to be wary and secretive in his personal life, which was full of pain, but in his writing he found happiness and release. He described the act of creation as “the most enthralling of human activities,”93 the one place where the writer can find solace, “can tell his secret yet not betray it.”94 His love for his art, his single-minded dedication, made him one of the most popular and prolific writers who ever lived, and it is safe to say now that he will again hold generations in thrall, that his place is assured: Somerset Maugham, the great teller of tales.
* Searle did, however, manage to keep back several dozen letters written to him by Maugham.
* In a letter to The Times more than thirty-five years later, on January 16, 1999, Nicolas Paravicini recalled that “my mother’s repeated attempts to see or even speak to her father when he became ill were continually thwarted by Alan Searle, thus making any reconciliation impossible, to my mother’s lasting sadness.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• • •
I am enormously grateful to the many people and institutions who have helped me during the writing of this biography. I would like in particular to express my gratitude to the Royal Literary Fund, holders of the copyright and executors of the literary estate of Somerset Maugham, and also to the trustees of the literary estate, for allowing me to quote freely from Maugham’s work and correspondence. Second, I would like to put on record my heartfelt thanks for the generosity of Neil and Reiden Jenman, who offered me the most warmhearted hospitality while allowing me unrestricted access to their extensive Maugham collection. I also thank Harry Frere for his kindness in making available the transcripts of his mother’s conversations with Liza Maugham.
I owe sincere thanks to the following for their contributions to this book: Kate Amcott-Wilson, Mark Amory, Alan Anderson, Prof. William Baker, Frith Banbury, Nicolas Barker, Jonathan Bates, Michael Bloch, Adrian Bridgewater, Katherine Bucknell, Michael Burn, Peter Burton, John Byrne, Comtesse Chandon de Briailles, Aleid Channing, Anne Channing, Colette Clark, John Clay, Lisa Cohen, John Coldstream, Sally Connely, Bryan Connon, Robert Conquest, Anthony Curtis, Caroline Cuthbert, Timothy D’Arch-Smith, Lady Daubeny, Richard Davenport-Hines, Mary Dawson, Winton Dean, Nelson Doubleday, Jr., Charles Duff, Lord Dunluce, Sue Fox, David Freeman, Jean Frere, Lord Glendevon, the Earl of Gowrie, John Haffenden, Nicholas Haslam, Doreen Hawkins, Peter Haxton, Tim Heald, Belinda Hollyer, Jonathan Hope, Glenn Horowitz, Barry Humphries, Bruce Hunter, Paul Hunter, Alan Judd, Zbigniew Kantorosinski, P. J. Kavanagh, H. K. Kelland, John Kenworthy-Browne, Alice Leader, Andrew Lycett, Diana Marr-Johnson, Chris Maxse, James McDonnell, Joan Morley, Patrick O’Connor, Nicolas Paravicini, June Pearson, Paul Pollak, Tom Sargant, Prof. Lewis Sawin, Tony Scotland, David Shackleton, Stella Shawzin, Craig V. Showalter, Malcolm Sinclair, Tom Stacey, James Stourton, David Twiston-Davies, Hugo Vickers, C. M. Vines, Michael Watkins, Vivienne Waugh, Christopher Wilkinson, Lindy Woodhead, Howard Woolmer, David Worthington, and Samantha Wyndham.
Among the following libraries and archives I would like to single out for special thanks the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
I also thank:
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Barnardo’s, London
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Berg Collection, New York Public Library
Bodleian Library, Oxford University
British Library
Cornell University, New York
University of Delaware Library
Eton College Library
Fales Library, New York University
Garrick Club
Jacob Rader Center of American Jewish Archives
Keble College, Oxford University
Kent County Council Centre for Kentish Studies
King’s School, Canterbury
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
London Library
Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection, Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts, Trinity College of Music, Greenwich
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California
University of Maryland Libraries
McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa
National Trust
New York Public Library
Princeton University Library
Public Record Office, the National Archives, Kew
Random House Group Archive
Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
St. John’s College Library, Cambridge University
Stanford University Library
University of Sussex Library
Texas A&M University
Victoria & Albert Museum Theatre Collections
Wake Forest University Library, North Carolina
Warburg Institute
Wellcome Library
Whitstable Museum
I am immensely grateful to Julie Kavanagh for her kind support during the writing of this book and for her unfailing editorial eye. I would also like to give warm thanks to Professor T. F. Staley and Professor R. F. Foster for their invaluable criticism, encouragement, and advice.
Every effort has been made to trace the holders of copyright, and I very much regret if inadvertent omissions have been made; these can be rectified in any future editions.
SOURCE NOTES
• • •
ABBREVIATIONS
Bancroft: Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Beinecke: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Berg: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
Bodleian: Bodleian Library, Oxford
Cornell: Cornell University, New York
Delaware: University of Delaware
Fales: Fales Library, New York University
Garrick: The Garrick Club, London
HGARC: Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University
HRHRC: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Jenman: Neil and Reiden Jenman Collection, New South Wales, Australia
KSC: The King’s School, Canterbury
Lilly: Lilly Library, University of Indiana
Margaret Herrick Library: Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California
Maryland: Glenway Wescott Collection, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries
NYPL: Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
Princeton: Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library
PRO: Public Record Office, National Archives, Kew
Random House: Random House Group Archive, Northamptonshire
Stanford: Department of Special Collections and
University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Maugham (William S.) Collection 1921–1979 (M0013)
Texas A&M: Texas A&M University, Texas
Wake Forest: Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
CHAPTER 1: A BLACKSTABLE BOYHOOD
1 “une femme charmante” Gil Blas: Hebdomadaire Illustré (Paris), February 6, 1882.
2 “[The servant] took the child” Of Human Bondage, 5.
3 “cher papa, chere maman” Somerset Maugham, Jeffrey Meyers, 10.
4 “My father was a stranger” Somerset and All the Maughams, 110.
5 “It was the end of a home” At the End of the Day, 19.
6 “[the] one link” Somerset and All the Maughams, 118.
7 “I shall never forget the misery” Ibid., 117.
8 “He had had so little love” A Writer’s Notebook, 261.
9 “he was very narrow-minded” At the End of the Day, 19.
10 “The vicar, having said grace” Ibid., 17.
11 “I’ll hear you say it at tea time” Looking Back, 10.
12 “His aunt was not sorry” Of Human Bondage, 29.
13 “His guardians would rigidly take care” letter of Hubert Collar to Robert Cordell, August 2, 1961, Texas A&M.
14 “There was a long queue” Somerset and All the Maughams, 121.
15 “the most delightful habit in the world” Of Human Bondage, 38.
16 “He did not know” Ibid., 38.
17 “Tell him I stammer, Uncle” Looking Back, 11.
18 “His heart beat so” Of Human Bondage, 45.
19 “I have never forgotten the roar of laughter” Somerset and All the Maughams, 117.
20 “that engaging come-hitherness” The Summing Up, 46.
21 “that he seemed for a moment” Of Human Bondage, 78.
22 “He began his work,” Ibid., 68.
23 “got a cup of coffee” Ibid., 60.
24 “I adored him” The Cantuarian, December 1965.
25 “There was a wonderfully cobwebbed feeling” The Vagrant Mood (Mandarin 1998), 192.
26 “In fact, I did not like either” Cakes and Ale, 64.
27 “accepted the conventions” Ibid., 87.
28 “We thought London people vulgar” Ibid., 36.
29 “He prayed with all the power of his soul” Of Human Bondage, 57.
30 “someone I went to bed with” Alan Searle interview with Robert Calder, March 16, 1977, Jenman.
31 “I chose the name Ashenden” WSM to Mollie Ashenden, February 2, 1954, KSC.
32 “I made up my mind” Looking Back, 13.
33 “I was small for my age” Ibid., 13.
34 “His school-days were over” Ibid., 13.
CHAPTER 2: AT ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL
1 “He did not much like me” The Summing Up, 58.
2 “the delights of those easy” Ibid., 187.
3 “the glitter of cheap restaurants” Ibid., 85.
4 “a good deal of gossip” The Gentleman in the Parlour, 189.
5 “I tried to persuade myself” Escape from the Shadows, Robin Maugham, 232.
6 “I complained of the abnormality” The Summing Up, 67.
7 “[I] made few friends there” Ibid., 60.
8 “I was writing” WSM to The Academy, September 13, 1997, Princeton.
9 “[James] was greeted with such an outburst” The Vagrant Mood, 163.
10 “I can never forget how kind” WSM to Wentworth Huyshe, August 30, 1997, HRHRC.
11 “treated like a crowned head” WSM to Norman Horne, March 19, 1937, Lilly.
12 “I was bitterly disappointed” Purely for My Pleasure, 6.
13 “I lived laborious days” The Painted Veil, viii.
14 “such was my innocence” Ibid.
15 “The other day I went into the theatre” A Writer’s Notebook, 31.
16 “the most enchanting spot” The Summing Up, 96.
17 “I thought it all grand” Ibid., 96.
18 “Its reputation as a decomposer” Extraordinary Women, Compton Mackenzie (Secker, 1929), 25.
19 “dear companion of my lonely youth” A Bibliography of the Writings of William Somerset Maugham, Frederick T. Bason, 9.
20 “woman is an animal that micturates” A Writer’s Notebook, 13.
21 “up stinking alleys” Liza of Lambeth, vi.
22 “There is some ability in this” Edward Garnett, July 20, 1996, Berg.
23 “I had at that time a great admiration” Liza of Lambeth, vii.
24 “I described without addition” The Summing Up, 161.
25 “the first of the realistic descriptions” WSM to Paul Dottin, September 14, 1926, HRHRC.
26 “A very clever realistic study” W. Somerset Maugham: The Critical Heritage, ed. Anthony Curtis and John Whitehead, 22.
27 “Unwin is indeed a most troublesome person” Charles Scribner, June 14, 1997, Princeton.
28 “The whole book reeks of the pot-house” Daily Mail, September 7, 1997.
29 “great and well-deserved success” The St. Thomas’s Hospital Gazette, June 1898.
30 “I’ve just finished reading Liza” July 20, 1997, The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, vol. I, 1861–1897, ed. Frederick R. Karl and Laurence Davies (Cambridge University Press, 1983), 361.
31 “I have not yet had an opportunity” WSM to Academy September 13, 1997, Princeton.
32 “a most unpleasant book” private collection.
33 “He had no feeling for the old man” Of Human Bondage, 626.
34 “I learned pretty well everything I know” WSM to Barbara Kurz, April 1961, HGARC.
35 “I am sorry I abandoned medicine” The Merry-Go-Round (Penguin, 1976), 126.
36 “I told him that I was throwing up medicine” Liza of Lambeth, viii.
37 “I was no longer interested in the slums” The Summing Up, 161.
CHAPTER 3: A WRITER BY INSTINCT
1 “Life was before him” Of Human Bondage, 671.
2 “I came to it after weary years” The Land of the Blessed Virgin, 51.
3 “In Spain the blood of youth is very hot” Ibid., 48.
4 “But when I write of Spanish women” Ibid., 84.
5 “a young thing with green eyes” The Summing Up, 98.
6 “life was too pleasant” Ibid.
7 “[Unwin] did me thoroughly in the eye” WSM to J. B. Pinker, September 22, 1909, HRHRC.
8 “Seduced by this bad advice” The Summing Up, 163.
9 “So far as we can see” Edward Garnett readers’ reports, Berg.
10 “[Mr. Maugham] has written a good novel” Spectator, August 6, 1898.
11 “He [Payne] was very good-looking” Looking Back, 25.
12 “I had a natural lucidity” The Summing Up, 22.
13 “It is true that ‘Stephen Carey’” WSM to Maurice Colles, November 10, 1898, Berg.
14 “are all a little flat” Edward Garnett readers’ reports, Berg.
15 “at the time was not very familiar” Liza of Lambeth, xvi.
16 “an average book, fairly readable” London Bookman, July 1899.
17 “The best writing we have yet seen” Athenaeum, June 17, 1899.
18 “Mr. Maugham begins to be interesting” Academy, July 1, 1899.
19 “The world is an entirely different place” A Writer’s Notebook, 221.
20 “almost continuously in love” WSM to Kate Bruce, April 3, 1929, Berg.
21 “He is a fearfully emotional man” Violet: The Story of the Irrepressible Violet Hunt, Barbara Belford (Simon & Schuster, 1990), 116.
22 “a little strong” WSM to Maurice Colles, November 10, 1898, Berg.
23 “too indecent for publication” Colles v. Maugham in the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division, 1908, HRC.
24 “finally I have erased” WSM to Maurice Colles, July 31, 1899, Berg.
25 “I should have lost a subject” The Summing Up, 187.
26 “as
merely an insignificant curiosity” speech to the Library of Congress, 1950.
27 “the most interesting and consistently amusing” The Summing Up, 4.
28 “I never ceased to be fascinated” The Moon and Sixpence, 10.
29 “a curious little home life” The Water Beetle, Nancy Mitford (Hamish Hamilton, 1962), 41.
30 “He was not what people call a man’s man” The Vagrant Mood, 28.
31 “innately and intensely frivolous” WSM to Dean, February 10, 1950, Maryland.
32 “I prefer to call the conveyance” The Vagrant Mood, 39.
33 “Do you like cigars?” Ibid., 38.
34 “Often it turned out to very pleasant” Raymond Mortimer interview with Robert Calder, November 2, 1972, Jenman.
35 “You were different” Looking Back, 27.
36 “the first rent” A Choice of Kipling’s Prose, xx.
37 “The touch of her fingers” The Hero, 40.
38 “is ugly and beastly” Ibid., 208.
39 “Maugham will doubtless” The Maugham Enigma, 141.
40 “Women are like chickens” Mrs. Craddock, 88.
41 “My recollection lingers with most pleasure” Books and Bookmen, May 1922.
42 “[Gerald] was certainly not at all shy” Mrs. Craddock, 224.
43 “[If] you are afraid to look life in the face” Bookman, December 1902.
44 “a substantial success” Liza of Lambeth, xviii.
CHAPTER 4: LE CHAT BLANC
1 “it seemed less difficult” The Summing Up, 109.
2 “The shriek of execration” Ibsen, by Michael Meyer (Penguin 1985), 686.
3 “Went to the first night” Kate Bruce unpublished ms, private collection.
4 “Not for a long time” Sunday Special, March 1, 1903.
5 “[The second act] is admirably conceived” Saturday Review, February 28, 1903.
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham Page 62