Maugham, (William) Somerset (1874-1965)

English writer. His work includes the novels Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), and Cakes and Ale (1930); the short-story collections Ashenden (1928) and Rain and Other Stories (1933); and the plays Lady Frederick (1907) and Our Betters (1917). There were new editions of Collected Stories in 1900 and Selected Plays in 1991. A penetrating observer of human behaviour, his writing is essentially anti-romantic and there is a vein of cynicism running through his work.

Maugham was born in Paris. He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, London. He drew upon his medical experiences in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), and the success of that novel, and of Mrs Craddock (1902), made him decide upon a literary career. Of Human Bondage is once again set in the familiar world of the medical student; The Moon and Sixpence is partly based on the life of the artist Paul Gauguin; Cakes and Ale is about a famous novelist; and The Razor's Edge (1944) is the story of a young US war veteran. During World War I Maugham was a secret agent in Switzerland and Russia, and his Ashenden spy stories are based on this experience. Of his numerous other volumes of short stories, those with a Malayan or Pacific background are particularly well known.

In 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. His works for the theatre include Loaves and Fishes (1911), Caesar's Wife (1919), The Unknown (1920), The Circle (1921), East of Suez (1922), The Sacred Flame (1929), and For Services Rendered (1932). His autobiography The Summing Up, notable for its self-revelations, was published in 1938 and A Writer's Notebook in 1949. The Novels and Their Authors appeared in 1954.