Willie, the Life of W. Somerset Maugham

by Robert Calder

Book Overview

Williie: The Life Of W. Somerset Maugham, by Calder, Robert This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312039549
• ISBN13: 9780312039547
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 429 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Latest Complete Bio on Maugham

This is a very good book that will probably rank second only to Ted Morgan's,"Maugham" as the difinitive biography on the writer who was popular beyond imagination in a world where writers were the Stephen Spielbergs of the world. Maugham was perhaps only the third English writer after Dickens, and Kipling to make a fortune on writing alone. (With a little help from the stock market)This is a book that would have been much better if it could have been longer. The subject was so complicated and had such a variety of experiences. The writer obviously has a great deal of love for his subject, so it must have been the publisher and editor who kept it at 398 pages. Maugham was a Doctor, Ambulance Driver on the Western Front, Spy, Propagandist, Novelist, Short Story writer, Playwright with 4 plays running at once at the West End in London, and much more. The author is critical of Ted Morgan's Bio on the great subject for being unsympathetic of personal side of Maugham. This is a pleasure to read for any true Maugham fan or world traveller.