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January 25, 1874– W. Somerset Maugham:
“At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, & talk well but not too wisely.”
Maintaining the habit of writing for several hours each morning, Maugham produced 30 plays, 24 novels, & more than 100 magazine articles. With his cynical wit & straightforward style, he was more popular among masses than the literary set, & he always felt like an outsider to the establishment.
His best known novel is the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915), which has never gone out of print since it was first published. The main female character in Of Human Bondage was actually based on a feckless young man who had humiliated Maugham over and over again in Paris and in London, breaking what there was of Maugham’s heart.
Born at the British Embassy in Paris, Maugham’s first language was French, and he was later teased for his bad English by his classmates. They also bullied him for being short, and Maugham developed a stammer that stayed with him his entire life.
When he was just 32 years old, Maugham had 4 plays running at the same time in London. When he turned 42 years old, he was world-famous, having produced 10 hit plays and ten bestselling novels. He was so prolific and successful that he became extremely wealthy from his books. Charming, cultivated and courtly, Maugham always dressed in tailored clothing of the highest order. He employed a chauffeur, cook & butler.
During WW1, he served with the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and the British Secret Intelligence. While driving an ambulance in Flanders he met 21 year old American Gerald Haxton, who became Maugham’s partner for the next 30 years. The couple traveled to India and Southeast Asia, experiences that are reflected in his Maugham’s books. They lived part-time on the island of Capri, a popular spot for gay men who pursued their artistic careers and one another.
Yet, somehow, Maugham carefully avoided homosexual themes and gay characters in his writing. Gay men of his generation lived in fear of the Oscar Wilde trial, which had taken place when Maugham was 21 years old. Haxton had been deported from England in 1919 after being caught having sex with a guy. In order to be together without risking jail, the men had to travel outside England. And travel they did.
“I was a 1/4 normal & 3/4 queer, but I tried to persuade myself it was the other way round. That was my greatest mistake.”
Knowing that being exposed as a gay man could ruin his chances of continued success; Maugham had a child with Syrie Wellcome, whose husband sued for divorce over their affair. He was already involved with Haxton and Maugham was reticent to actually marry Wellcome, who then tried to kill herself. They did end up get married shortly after her divorce in 1917. Syrie Maugham went on to become a very famous interior designer of high society clients. The couple had nothing in common in taste, temperament or sex.
She loved being “Mrs. Somerset Maugham,” but she eventually agreed to a divorce in 1929, finding her husband’s relationship with Haxton too tough to take. Syrie received the house in London and all its contents, a Rolls Royce, plus alimony and child support. Syrie never remarried and died in 1955. She was 76 years, and rich and famous when she left this world.
In the divorce, Maugham kept the couple’s 19th century villa on the French Riviera. While Maugham described the French Riviera as “a sunny place for shady people”, it was his home for most of the rest of his life, avoiding the taxes at home.
The villa was the scene of one of the greatest salons of the 1920s- 1930s. It was also the spot for all-male nude swim parties with plenty of cocaine and champagne. Guests were astonished at the degree of debauchery. I should have been there.
Maugham spent most of WW2 in Hollywood, where he worked writing scripts, becoming one of the first literary writers to make serious money from film adaptations.
Haxton lived with Maugham in California. But, he suffered from pneumonia and checked out from this life in 1944, at just 52 years old.
The grief stricken Maugham, in his 70s, took up with the much younger Alan Searle whom he had first met in 1928. A “rough trade” bloke, Searle had already been kept by older men. Friends described the difference between Haxton and Searle: “Gerald was vintage, Alan was vin ordinaire.” They had both been hired to be Maugham’s “secretary”, a charming euphemism of the times.
In 1962, Maugham sold a collection of 25 valuable paintings which had been purchased in his daughter Liza’s name as a valuable inheritance. Maugham was convinced that Liza only wanted money and property and Searle prevented Liza visiting her father during his final years. She sued her father for selling her paintings and won an enormous monetary judgment.
Maugham publicly disowned Liza, claiming she was not his biological daughter, since Syrie Maugham had been married to her former husband at the time of Liza’s birth. Maugham sued his daughter for the return of all the gifts he had ever given her. He then legally adopted Searle and changed his will making him the heir to his estate. Liza contested the will, won the case and had Searle’s adoption nullified by the French government. Searle encouraged Maugham to publish an additional volume of his memoirs, vilifying his former wife and daughter.
Maugham was shunned by even his best friends. His reputation was ruined, and he lived his last years tortured by guilt and remorse.
Maugham left this world in 1965, just weeks before his 92nd birthday. He had been hospitalized in Nice after coming down with pneumonia. Searle stole the body and took it to the villa where he announced to the world that Maugham had passed away in his bed at home, avoiding the autopsy required by French law.
When Maugham’s will was read, it was revealed that Liza was to inherit the Villa, but not the contents. Reports in the press essentially outed Maugham after his death.
Searle still ended up with a fortune, the contents of the villa, Maugham’s manuscripts, and a lifetime of revenue from royalties. He lived out the rest of his life years wealthy and lonely, traveling from luxury hotel suite to luxury hotel suite with his own butler. He spent the money he had inherited on boys and clothes. On his deathbed in 1978, he confessed that he regretted having caused the trouble between Liza and her father. Liza lived a happy life, married well as a titled lady, the Baroness Glendevon. She died in 1996. In 2005, the villa was made into a luxury hotel.
Although Maugham’s highly acclaimed novels including Of Human Bondage, The Constant Wife (1927), and The Razor’s Edge (1944) made him the most famous & wealthiest author of his era, he never received the honor of a knighthood, probably because he was gay.
There are over 50 film and television adaptations of Maugham’s work, even into this new 21st century with the excellent The Painted Veil (2006), Being Julia (2004), Up At The Villa (2000). Try Of Human Bondage (1934) with Bette Davis or Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford.
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