William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
CHILDHOOD
William Somerset Maugham was a popular novelist, playwright and short story writer. Was born on December 25th in 1874 at the British Embassy in Paris, William Somerset Maugham speak French as his mother language. William is the son of Robert Ormond Maugham and Edith Mary and stands as the forth son. As the youngest child who survived to keep himself alive, he was treated by his parents as the one and only child because his elder brothers were already enrolled in boarding school in England. When his mother died in her 41, William was just reached the age of 8 and when he was 10 his father also took the chance to follow his mother. William never had a single chance to healed his pain of his mother’s death which followed by his father’s and he had the hard time in his life ever since by the trauma. After his parents died and being the orphan in age ten, he lives with his Aunt Sophia and Uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham in England. He found his tormented moment while in England, beside he had to face his temperament uncle, he also had to face the hard time in school where he was bullied by his classmates for his bad English. In his buried life, he found his sexual disorder. William himself actually is a homosexual and he had his first love affair with John Ellingham Brooks, his senior when he was a student of literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, German.
CAREER
When he went back to England, we worked in accountant’s office which found by his uncle. But William felt no sense of working as the accountant and he also rejected his uncle suggestion to work as the lawyer just like his father and brothers. As the final, he studied medicine in St Thomas’s Hospital in London and by the brain he accepted as the member of the Royal College of Surgeon and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in London, 1897. William actually already realized his passion in writing since he was 15 and never thought to get rid of his passion. When he was studied medicine, in spite of stop writing and focus on his study, William could merge his hobby and study all together. His experiences as the student of medicine gave him the chance to saw the world wide like the low class, how he felt to saw the men died and all the pity life of another turned into the great writing of him in his second work, Liza of Lambeth. By the success of Liza of Lambeth, William found his self-confidence in writing and continue to wrote another story, even another few works did not even close to Liza of Lambeth achievement. He also got the critics from another writer, Crowly who said that William’s The Magician (1908) is a plagiarism practice. But with all the critics, William kept moving his hands and produce another works instead of took care of the critics. Besides, all critics did not impact him well.
As the famous writer who already produced twenties works and qualified physician, in 1914 William accepted as the volunteer of the Motor Ambulance Corps when the World War I broke out and kept working on his Of Human Bondage. After the successfulness Of Human Bondage in 1915, William kept moving from one country to another to find inspiration. He travelled in India, Spain and another reachable place and obviously produced so many works such novels, plays and short stories which published in periodicals.
When he went back to England in 1915, his wife introduced him to one of the British Intelligence’s high rank agent and started to work in Switzerland as the network agent to against the British Committee. In 1916 he travelled to India, China, Pacific, and Southeast Asia and produced the famous novel The Moon and Sixpence. By his good record as the network agent, in 1917 he was recruited as the British Secret Intelligent Agent (MI6) and sent to Russia as the spy. As always, William could turn his experienced into the good writing in Ashenden: Or the British Agent. William states as the most productive writer of 20th century which so many of his writings played in Broadway and also adapted into the movie like The Letter and The Constant Wife.
Being popular as the famous writer of the time did not make William to stay in England, he moved to French Riviera in 1928. William had no single capacity to hold his popularity, when World War II broke out he spent his time in United States to worked together with the film director. Most of his works were adapted in movie while he was in United States and gained a very pleasant life until the death of his companion, Gerald Haxton in 1944. Later he went back to England and spent about two years and went back again to his villa in French Riviera. In his career, he got so many honors in the world’s sake such Queen’s Companion of Honour in 1954, Fellow of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Toulouse, France, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In his villa, he spent his full day to write and produce many works until he died in France, Nice in 1965.
LOVE
Know as a homosexual writer, William actually never had a brave to write about his sexual orientation in one of his book or publicly show the world about his sexual orientation. John Ellingham Brooks was his first love affair when he was sixteen and studied literature and philosophy in Heidelberg, German. After he went back to England and studied medicine and later qualified as a member of the Motor Ambulance Corps when the World War I broke out, he met his second love affair who became his secretary, Gerald Haxton. They spent their life together as a writer and a secretary until Gerald Haxton died in 1944.
Even know as a homosexual, it did not make William cut off his relationship with women. He also accounted as the womanizer and had lots of affair with women. The remarkable woman who ever had a relationship with him is the wife of Sir Henry Wellcome, Gwendolyn Maude Syrie Barnado who later being his wife. In his marriage with Syrie then he had a daughter Elizabeth Mary Maugham but still it did not could bear the family. Syrie could not bear to live with a homosexual husband, they were divorced in 1929. After he was divorced by his wife, he continued his life his Haxton and when Haxton died in 1944, he went back to England and met Alan Searle and in 1946 they went back to his villa and started his relationship together as the lovers and also the writer and secretary until William died nine years later.
WORKS
As long as he live, William already worked on 16 books, 20 novels, 189 articles, 16 collections, 25 plays, 19 book edited, 11 unpublished plays, and 22 collected editions. He accounted as one of the most productive writer in his lifetime. Few of his works also noted as the masterpiece like Liza of Lambeth, the story about a girl from the slum area who struggles to find her true love and ended with the desperation. Liza of Lambeth also put beside the Emil Zola’s Nana, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Another masterpiece of William is Of Human Bondage. As the realist writer, in his Of Human Bondage William vividly showed the life the main character that has to face the cruel world without any one to hold. This novel also stated as the semiautobiographical novel which showed the buried life of William in his childhood and also his sexual orientation in blur way. Another remarkable works after Of Human Bondage are The Moon and Sixpence and Cake and Ale that also talked about historical people; Paul Gauguin and Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole.
As the writer who also gains the successfulness in film, William listed as the first success writer who most of his works were adapted in movie and serial, and his plays were showed in around the world. The success film that adapted from his works is The Letter (Nominee of Oscar) and The Constant Wife.
References
Abrams, M. H, et, al. 1968. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Norton & Company, Inc. United States of America.
McDonnell, Hellen, et, al. 1979. England in Literature. United States of America.
Samekto. 1974. Ikhtisar: Sejarah Kesusasteraan Inggris. PT. Gramedia: Jakarta.
Wikipedia. William Somerset Maugham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Accessed on October 10th 2014.
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