William Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), an English author, was one of the most popular and highly paid writers of the 1930s. He achieved great success with his plays and became renowned for his short stories. Born in Paris, he lost his parents at the age of ten and was raised by an emotionally distant uncle. The commercial success of his first novel, "Liza of Lambeth," published in 1897, prompted him to devote himself entirely to writing. During World War I, he served in the Red Cross and later in the British Secret Intelligence Service. He traveled extensively, including to India and Southeast Asia. His travels enriched his short stories and novels, as well as his purely travel-related works. Among his most significant novels are "Of Human Bondage" (1945), "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919), and "The Razor's Edge" (1945). His short stories, particularly those depicting the lives of Western, mainly British, colonists in the Far East, stand out. "Rain," "Footprints in the Jungle," and "The Outstation" are among the best of their kind, expressing the emotional burden of their characters due to their isolation. Maugham wrote during a period when the modernist writing of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf was gaining ground and supporters. For this reason, he was criticized for his straightforward prose style. Nonetheless, the widespread appeal of his work makes him a charismatic figure, and according to The Times, the "only writer of his generation who brought acclaim and brilliance to English literature." He passed away in Nice, Southern France, in 1965.