Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Another "The Greatest Author I've Never Heard Of" story.

So, if someone asked you who was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s, who would you say?

You're correct: William Somerset Maugham, better known as W. Somerset Maugham.

Okay, truth be told, I've never heard of him until today. 

Evidently did a lot of great stuff I've never read.  His last novel, The Razor's Edge (1944) was his most "well-known."   The book was twice adapted into two films, first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and Herbert Marshall, and Anne Baxter as Sophie, and then a 1984 adaptation starring Bill Murray (sounds familiar). 

And this fact sort of interests me:   Too old to enlist when the First World War broke out, he served in France as a member of the British Red Cross's so-called "Literary Ambulance Drivers", a group of some 24 well-known writers, including the Americans John Dos Passos, E. E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway (perhaps a future blog).

Back to today.  I was introduced to Mr. Maugham in a roundabout way. 
My blog, in many ways, is an autobiography.  If a blog critic were to actually review my work, he or she might quip, "I found nothing really wrong with his autobiography except the poor choice of subject."

Maugham once wrote of his writing -- again, this is a guy reputed to be among the most popular and highest paid authors of his era:

I knew I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabulary, little gift of metaphor.  The original and striking simile never occurred to me.  Poetic flight . . . were beyond my powers.  On the other hand, I had an acute power of observation . . .  I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as my natural defects allowed.

Thank you, Mr. Maugham, for teaching us that whether it's writing a blog post, an attempt at prose or poem, song or chord progression, or even a doodle. . . to be thankful for abilities and talents.   I know I will never be popular or paid highly, but at least I'm unique -- defects be damned!

Carpe diem Life,
D. Alan Kuhn   










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