30 “Qu’importe sa vie” Sibyl Colefax Collection, Bodleian.
31 “she was like a little parrot” Glenway Wescott Personally, Jerry Rosco (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), 97.
32 “The talk goes rocketing round” Basil Bartlett unpublished diaries, private collection.
33 “I have to keep my youth” Great Hostesses, Brian Masters (Constable, 1982), 137.
34 “I remember being terribly hurt” Liza Maugham conversation with Pat Wallace, Frere Family Archive.
35 “It was the most terrible shock” Ibid.
36 “There was a trace of subservience” Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, ed. Robert Rhodes James (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967), 32.
37 “A strange little gathering” The Pool of Memory, E. Phillips Oppenheim (Hodder & Stoughton, 1941), 85.
38 “J’ai un secrétaire” Adieu à mon ami anglais, Horace de Carbuccia (Éditions de France), 5.
39 “He was a gangster” Strictly Personal, 29.
40 “My dear William … During a time” I Discover the English, John Lane (The Bodley Head, 1934).
41 “It is not true” Odette Keun to WSM, January 4, 1934, HGARC.
42 “For Barbara, because she never calls” The Narrow Corner, Sotheby’s catalogue of the sale of the Villa Mauresque, November 20, 1967.
43 “Your letters are a boon” WSM to Barbara Back, nd, HRHRC.
44 “She is the least self-centred writer” WSM to Kate Bruce, nd, Berg.
45 “I think they all enjoyed themselves” WSM to Barbara Back, nd, HRHRC.
46 (“so nice, gay & easy to please”) WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
47 “Oh, Mr. Maugham” Tribulations and Laughter, S. N. Behrman (Hamish Hamilton, 1972), 302.
48 “This is the South of France” The Infirm Glory, 263.
49 “odious” Robin Maugham unpublished diaries, Lilly.
50 “Willie had told him” Alec Waugh interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
51 “Somerset Maugham may have misunderstood” Rylands, introduction by Victor Rothschild (Stourton Press, 1988).
52 “his taste appeared to me faultless” The Summing Up, 21.
53 “Lunch would have been going” Life’s Rich Pageant, Arthur Marshall (Hamish Hamilton, 1984), 88.
54 “marvellously entertaining” Arthur Marshall, New Statesman, February 25, 1977.
55 “he loved to make one laugh aloud” The Pattern of Maugham, 15.
56 “it would be idle to deny” Rebecca West, Nash’s Magazine, October 1935.
57 “It is exasperating” A Bundle of Time, Harriet Cohen (Faber, 1969), 180.
58 “Willie hated to be touched” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
59 “carping at everyone” Glenway Wescott Personally, 45.
60 “I lead a peculiarly quiet life” WSM to Gerald Kelly, December 14, 1933, HGARC.
61 “The mental domination” Beverley Nichols, Foyle’s luncheon speech, 1966.
62 “No matter how badly he behaved” Arthur Marshall interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
63 “[Maugham] venait généralement” Adieu à mon ami anglais, 8.
64 “And did you masturbate?” Arthur Marshall interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
65 “just this side of being a crook” Kenneth McCormick interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
66 “I’m p-p-perfectly aware” Conversations with Willie, 50.
67 “Thank you again for your kindness” Gerald Haxton to Bert Alanson, August 6, 1928, Stanford.
68 “He was a bad, bad, loud drunk” Jerry Zipkin interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
69 “Why do you have to drink” Conversations with Willie, 52.
70 “You do not know what it is like” The Infirm Glory, 280.
71 “At times when I’m shut up” Conversations with Willie, 20.
72 “Gerald couldn’t help resenting” Ibid.
73 “He has moods” Ibid., 21.
74 “Gerald now likes the bottle” Arthur Marshall interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
75 “I could not bear the thought” A Writer’s Notebook, 217.
76 “I don’t know about you, ducky” Escape from the Shadows, 84.
77 “[Gerald] is getting more peaceful” WSM to Barbara Back, December 22, 1930, HRHRC.
78 “It is really very pleasant here” Ibid., April 21, 1932.
79 “Wretched creature, Why don’t you write” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
80 “I am so very glad” Ibid.
81 “makes his relations with H[axton” The Letters of Lytton Strachey, ed. Paul Levy (Viking, 2005), 639.
82 “The artist should never allow” WSM to Tammy Ryan, October 26, 1946, private collection.
83 “One morning when he had been” First Person Singular, 140.
84 “After all, I am an Oriental” Ibid., 193.
85 “Though he spoke facetiously” Ibid., 204.
86 “It was a large, square building” The Narrow Corner, 111.
87 “Mainsail and foresail were hoisted” Ibid., 34.
88 “She was just aching for it” Ibid., 162.
89 “I wanted him simply frightfully” Ibid., 202.
90 “Maugham’s one and only crypto-fag novel” Sexually Speaking, Gore Vidal (Cleis, 1999), 174.
91 “a slim, comely youth” The Narrow Corner, 28.
92 “This matter, which I supposed” Plays, vol. VI, v.
93 “I live on the Continent” Daily Express, November 3, 1932.
94 “She wants a man” Plays, vol. VI, 126.
95 “The day’s long past” Ibid., 127.
96 “We were the dupes” Ibid., 164.
97 “of malevolent propaganda” Daily Express, November 17, 1932.
98 “Somerset Maugham’s new play” November 17, 1932, private collection.
99 “My dear Louis” Ibid.
100 “Sheppey: To tell you the truth” Plays, vol. VI, 300.
101 “a perfectly straightforward” WSM to Raymond Mortimer, nd, Princeton.
102 “so as to make it more palatable” WSM to Joseph Dobrinsky, August 1, 1957, Texas A&M.
103 “It seemed to be conceived” Early Stages, John Gielgud (Macmillan, 1939), 220.
104 “I almost bowed in acknowledgement” Noël Coward to WSM, nd, HGARC.
105 “[It] was the last play” WSM to Joseph Dobrinsky, August 1, 1957, Texas A&M.
106 “I cannot tell you” The Letters of Noël Coward, 227.
107 “With all its glamour” Remembering Mr. Maugham, 45.
108 “I can never get over” WSM to Alan Searle, April 8, 1944, HGARC.
109 “I want to write novels & stories” WSM to Bert Alanson, January 21, 1933, Stanford.
CHAPTER 13: THE TELLER OF TALES
1 “Beloved by unliterary, unofficial” Images of Truth, Glenway Westcott (Hamish Hamilton, 1963), 65.
2 “the mahatma of middlebrow culture” Robert Mazzocco, New York Review of Books, November 23, 1978.
3 “Mr. Maugham’s short stories” Spectator, September 29, 1933.
4 “His extraordinary knowledge” New Statesman, August 25, 1934.
5 “Maughamesque short story” The Journals: John Fowles, vol. 1, 1949–1965, ed. Charles Drazin (Knopf, 2003), 165.
6 “the transforming passion” V. S. Pritchett, New Statesman, October 8, 1949.
7 “I have never pretended” Selected Prefaces and Introductions, 69.
8 “I find it often” A Writer’s Notebook, 219.
9 “She is not mondaine” Rebecca West to WSM, nd, HGARC.
10 “sunny place for shady people” Strictly Personal, 156.
11 “He had a certain dreadful circle” George Rylands interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
12 “He was too much impressed by money” Sunday Times, December 19, 1965.
13 “It was a representative Riviera party” Collected Short Stories, vol. I, 265.
14 “It was their fat that had brought them together” Ibid., 227.
&nb
sp; 15 “an enclosure covered with glass” Ibid., 231.
16 “In front of Beatrice” Ibid., 239.
17 “The cure at Bad Gastein” WSM to Sibyl Colefax, August 28, 1934, Bodleian.
18 “We went to a lovely performance” et seq. WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
19 “easily the nicest character” Robin Maugham unpublished diaries, Lilly.
20 “JUDGE AND AUTHOR BEREAVED” Daily Telegraph, July 27, 1935.
21 “Charley’s death was expected” WSM to Gerald Kelly, August 4, 1936, HGARC.
22 “‘kinky clients’ … the only time” unpublished ms, private collection.
23 “a well-dressed attractive man” Escape from the Shadows, 26.
24 “I’m not saying I think there was incest” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
25 “This is only to say” WSM to Robin Maugham, June 5, 1934, HRHRC.
26 “We met him the first night” Escape from the Shadows, 84.
27 “I learned many things in Vienna” Ibid., 86 et seq.
28 “I had a lovely party” Liza Maugham conversation with Pat Wallace, Frere Family Archive.
29 “She was wrapped up in cotton-wool” The Scandal of Syrie Maugham, 137.
30 “What do you think” WSM to Barbara Back, March 28, 1934, HRHRC.
31 “[a] distinctive trait of the homosexual” Don Fernando, 141.
32 “St. John of the Cross” New Statesman, June 29, 1935.
33 “kind, very considerate” WSM to Barbara Back, nd, HRHRC.
34 “I have been playing golf today” WSM to Alan Searle, February 11, 1935, HGARC.
35 “Things are going very badly here” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
36 “The doctor tells me” Ibid., et seq.
37 “fantastic contracts” WSM to Alan Searle, November 18, 1935, HGARC.
38 “small, neat, impeccably dressed” Leon Edel, Saturday Review, March 15, 1980.
39 “Gerald has been behaving” WSM to Alan Searle, November 24, 1935, HGARC.
40 “The place is picturesque enough” WSM to Alan Searle, December 16, 1935, HGARC.
41 “The West Indies are disappointing” WSM to Juliet Duff, February 23, 1936, HGARC.
42 “& gave me a couple of murderers” Ibid.
43 “The guillotine is in a small room” A Writer’s Notebook, 232.
44 “[but] of all the men I questioned” WSM to Juliet Duff, February 23, 1936, HGARC.
45 “I got one very good story” WSM to Alan Searle, February 6, 1936, HGARC.
46 “I have been thinking much of you” Ibid., nd.
47 (“My happiness would be complete”) Ibid., December 22, 1935.
48 “I can quite see that the prospect” Ibid.
49 “I am only coming to see you” Ibid., February 11, 1936.
50 “Of course what I should like” WSM to Alan Searle, November 24, 1935, HGARC.
51 “Ses Laurencins étaient jolis” Marie Laurencin, Flora Groult (Mercure de France, 1987), 233.
52 “but felt it only right to remind her” Looking Back, 114.
53 “J’ai dû être remplacée” Marie Laurencin, 233.
54 “fought like a steer” Liza Maugham conversation with Pat Wallace, Frere Family Archive.
55 “I found myself positively in danger” The Lady and the Law, Ted Berkman (Little, Brown, 1976), 215.
56 “[and the] very serious rumours” Harold Nicolson: Diaries & Letters 1930–1939, ed. Nigel Nicolson (Collins, 1966), 276.
57 “I am a writer …” WSM to Juliet Duff, December 10, 1936, HGARC.
58 “I’m afraid I am not a very good partner” Boothby: Recollections of a Rebel, Robert Boothby (Hutchinson, 1978), 195.
59 “I think she had a very difficult role” WSM to Charles Towne, March 18, 1937, NYPL.
60 “I am leaving Cannes tomorrow” Wallis Simpson to WSM, March 7, 1937, HGARC.
61 “What many people did not understand” The Infirm Glory, 337.
62 “Gerald is in bed” WSM to Alan Searle, December 24, 1936, HGARC.
63 “[Alan] is being very sweet” WSM to David Horner, January 15, 1937, HRHRC.
64 “Searle was more pussy-cat” Never a Normal Man, Daniel Farson (HarperCollins, 1996), 77.
65 “So far as I am concerned” WSM to Barbara Back, March 24, 1937, HRHRC.
66 “Mon cher Lulu” Harold Nicolson to Louis Legrand, October 13, ?, Stanford.
67 “is a ghastly mess” WSM to Robin Maugham, February 9, 1935, HRHRC.
68 “You are quite attractive” Conversations with Willie, 22.
69 “It is very wonderful” WSM to Bert Alanson, March 15, 1938, Stanford.
70 “There is no reason why your father” WSM to Robin Maugham, May 6, 1938, Lilly.
71 “Well-dressed, attractive and slim” Search for Nirvana, 52.
72 “I am tired & want a change” WSM to Charles Towne, October 27, 1937, NYPL.
73 “Yesterday Anthony Blunt & a friend” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
74 “I have put into it” WSM to Charles Towne, October 27, 1937, NYPL.
75 “I caught the colloquial note” The Summing Up, 109.
76 “Never have I read an autobiography” And Did He Stop to Speak to You? G. B. Stern (Henry Regnery, 1958), 164.
77 (“There’s glory for me!”) Edward Marsh, 640.
78 “I think you must know grammar” WSM to Edward Marsh, January 27, 1937, Berg.
79 “p. 28 Has ‘massivity’ any advantage” Edward Marsh, 692.
80 “I like to think they may have adorned” WSM to Edward Marsh, October 8, 1938, Berg.
81 “immensely readable” Christian Science Monitor, March 23, 1938.
82 “continuously entertaining” Spectator, January 14, 1938.
83 “Never before were so many celebrities” Hugh Walpole unpublished diaries, HRHRC.
84 “[who has] been to pretty well” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
85 “so far as stories were concerned” WSM to Karl Pfeiffer, February 26, 1938, HRHRC.
86 “[I] only regret that the shadow of Kipling” WSM to E. M. Forster, February 24, 1938, King’s College, Cambridge.
87 “I can understand that when people say” A Writer’s Notebook, 261.
88 “I have seldom seen a sight more thrilling” Ibid., 257.
89 “[We] are living in the lap of luxury” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
90 “we are on our way to Madras” WSM to Juliet Duff, January 25, 1938, HGARC.
91 “Of course no larks” WSM to Alan Searle, nd, HGARC.
92 “as soon as the maharajas realized” My Brother Evelyn, Alec Waugh (Cassell, 1967), 285.
93 “Oh the doddering old fools” WSM to Barbara Back, March 26, 1938, HRHRC.
94 “and when I told her that I had spent” The Memoirs of the Aga Khan (Cassell, 1954), foreword, ix.
95 “I was enthralled to meet him” Enchanted Evening, M. M. Kaye (Penguin, 1999), 227.
96 “As for getting any insight” WSM to Karl Pfeiffer, February 26, 1938, HRHRC.
97 “I remained in that state for so long” A Writer’s Notebook, 252.
98 “Bhagavan [the maharshi] and Somerset Maugham sat” www.beezone.com/Ramana/somerset_maugham.html.
99 “We have been much disturbed” WSM to Alan Searle, March 15, 1938, HGARC.
100 “while Gerald painted the town red” More Memoirs of an Aesthete, Harold Acton (Methuen, 1970), 335.
101 “It really is the perfect holiday” Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930–1939, 351.
102 “I do not think there is any danger of war” WSM to Bert Alanson, May 13, 1938, Stanford.
103 “I have not waited until I received” WSM to Herman Ould, June 26, 1938, HRHRC.
104 “Alan has been an angel” WSM to Barbara Back, September 24, 1938, HRHRC.
105 “That young man holds the future” The Diary of Virginia Woolf, vol. V, ed. Nigel Nicolson (Hogarth Press, 1984), 185.
106 “like a dead m
an” Ibid., 185.
107 “Well, we’ve escaped war” WSM to Bert Alanson, October 23, 1938, Stanford.
CHAPTER 14: AN EXERCISE IN PROPAGANDA
1 “I think it an abuse” Selected Prefaces, 10.
2 “had a fearful reality” Christmas Holiday, 250.
3 “I am now advised” David O. Selznick to Daniel T. O’Shea, March 24, 1939, HRHRC.
4 “Here in Italy everyone seems convinced” WSM to Bert Alanson, June 12, 1939, Stanford.
5 “there was a feeling of gentle excitement” Strictly Personal, 26.
6 “I am hoping [to] get some sort of work” WSM to Desmond MacCarthy, September 5, 1939, Lilly.
7 “I much fear that I shall be left” WSM to Robin Maugham, October 7, 1939, HRHRC.
8 “Willie and I are … feeling very aged” Gerald Haxton to Robin Maugham, September 28, 1939, HRHRC.
9 “This raised my spirits” Strictly Personal, 60.
10 “private reports” Ibid., 136.
11 “What difference will it make” “The English Family,” unpublished typescript, Jenman.
12 “Méfiez-vous de cet Anglais” Adieu à mon ami anglais, 40.
13 “I was entertained by generals” Looking Back, 146.
14 “The officer in command told me” Strictly Personal, 88.
15 “I was determined to write” Ibid., 108.
16 “The impression I received” Ibid., 80.
17 “I cannot attempt to describe” France at War, 41.
18 “There are plenty of empty houses” Ibid., 29.
19 “These wretched people” Strictly Personal, 105.
20 “pleasantly democratic … Orders are given” France at War, 65.
21 “I had not been able to help” Strictly Personal, 115.
22 “arrived in London” Ibid., 124.
23 “It means that the second Viscount” WSM to Bert Alanson, April 4, 1939, Stanford.
24 “I am settling $25000 on you” WSM to Robin Maugham, November 20, 1939, Berg.
25 “I am very glad” WSM to Robin Maugham, February 11, 1939, HRHRC.
26 “I am told on all sides” WSM to Robin Maugham, November 20, 1939, Berg.
27 “It was very quiet on the Riviera” Strictly Personal, 137.
28 “Everyone is bored” WSM to Ellen Doubleday, nd, Princeton.
29 “It never struck any of us” Strictly Personal, 152.
30 “Don’t struggle. Open your mouth” Strictly Personal, 162.
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham Page 66