William Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham was a British writer. Born in Paris, Maugham became an orphan at the age of ten and was raised by his uncle and aunt in Whitstable, England. He began writing at the age of 15 and studied at Heidelberg University in German before returning to England to attend St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. While studying medicine, he wrote a novel inspired by his experience as a medical student and meeting people among England’s poorest working class. Maugham finished his medical studies but chose instead to focus on a writing career.

By World War I, Maugham had become famous for his plays and novels. Most of his plays were comedies, including Lady Frederick, Jack Straw, and The Constant Wife, which had 295 performances and was revived on Broadway in 2005. In addition to his plays, Maugham wrote 19 novels and several short stories. Many critics considered his short stories to be his finest work. While he was well-regarded and outsold many of his peers, he was never as highly regarded as writers like Virginia Woolf or James Joyce during his lifetime. Maugham died in 1965 at the age of 91.