I envy the fact that Somerset Maugham was such a fluid and prolific writer. He seems so modern, no non-sense, just get the job done. He would take a short story and turn it into a play and if that didn’t work he would take the plot and characters from the play and turn them into another short story or novel.
He said he loved to write stories because on the page he had total control of what happens as opposed to real life.
He was a disciplined writer, blocking out the hours in the morning to write. But then he had Gerald to run his life for him. We all need a Gerald…a good wife…a person to make sure our life runs smoothly so we have time to write or create and dinner is always on the table promptly.
“It’s hard to be a writer and a gentleman” WS Maugham
Maugham did have a bad…or lazy…but I don’t think he was lazy… habit of including real people in his stories. I was surprised to learn the character Sadie Thompson from the short story Rain was based on a woman named… Sadie Thompson. You’d think he might have changed one of her names.
Maugham admits to a friend that the Marla character in Of Human Bondage is based on a young man he had known and the obsessive/destructive relationship described in the novel is something Maugham experienced years before.
His stories are all about relationships... usually marriage. Why and how they work or usually don’t work.
Maugham was an incredibly successful writer. He was Double Day's. the American publisher's, best selling author. During the 1930’s, the depression, magazine’s paid him $1.00 per word. Amazing. So why don’t we read him more today?
In the group last Friday the question was asked, who today has the celebrity and talent Maugham had in his lifetime? Any suggestions…
He said he loved to write stories because on the page he had total control of what happens as opposed to real life.
He was a disciplined writer, blocking out the hours in the morning to write. But then he had Gerald to run his life for him. We all need a Gerald…a good wife…a person to make sure our life runs smoothly so we have time to write or create and dinner is always on the table promptly.
“It’s hard to be a writer and a gentleman” WS Maugham
Maugham did have a bad…or lazy…but I don’t think he was lazy… habit of including real people in his stories. I was surprised to learn the character Sadie Thompson from the short story Rain was based on a woman named… Sadie Thompson. You’d think he might have changed one of her names.
Maugham admits to a friend that the Marla character in Of Human Bondage is based on a young man he had known and the obsessive/destructive relationship described in the novel is something Maugham experienced years before.
His stories are all about relationships... usually marriage. Why and how they work or usually don’t work.
Maugham was an incredibly successful writer. He was Double Day's. the American publisher's, best selling author. During the 1930’s, the depression, magazine’s paid him $1.00 per word. Amazing. So why don’t we read him more today?
In the group last Friday the question was asked, who today has the celebrity and talent Maugham had in his lifetime? Any suggestions…
