6 “I was not satisfied” The Summing Up, 111.
7 “There is no reason to suppose” Saturday Review, March 5, 1904.
8 “I can see now the shy young author” Theatrical Companion, by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, 20.
9 “Harry told me that my plays” Conversations with Willie, 56.
10 “He needed a lot of understanding” Somerset and All the Maughams, 163.
11 “Very much homosexual” Rebecca West interview with Robert Calder September 14, 1976, Jenman.
12 “I’m sure it wasn’t only failure” Somerset and All the Maughams, 165.
13 “pale and grave” unpublished ms, private collection.
14 “violently pessimistic” The Summing Up, 27.
15 “perhaps they had insulated” unpublished ms, private collection.
16 “Times are very hard” WSM to Huyshe, nd, HRHRC.
17 “If you hear of anyone” WSM to Maurice Colles, nd, HGARC.
18 “Behold three short stories” WSM to Maurice Colles, July 3, 1904, Berg.
19 “an honourable condition” The Magician, vi.
20 “The whole thing was, of course” The Unexpected Years, Laurence Housman (Cape, 1937), 202.
21 “chiefly, I think, because it was called” WSM to Edward Marsh, April 1, 1943, Berg.
22 “She combined a masculine intelligence” The Moon and Sixpence, 12.
23 “If she had been beautiful and sane” Henry James, Leon Edel (Collins, 1987), 226.
24 “didn’t quite come off” WSM to David Cecil, September 1957, Jenman.
25 “you, my boy, are not one” Saturday Review, April 4, 1908.
26 “He little knew” Plays, vol. I, vii.
27 “a strong man, of no very easy temper” The Merry-Go-Round, 35.
28 “Most of what one writes” WSM to Violet Hunt, nd, Cornell.
29 “because I was at the time much taken” The Summing Up, 164.
30 “quite the most dazzling figure” Odd Man Out, Douglas Goldring (Chapman & Hall, 1935), 54.
31 “We took a great liking to each other” Harry Philips to Joseph Dobrinsky; September 16, 1966, Texas A&M.
32 “She had a certain hold over him” The Merry-Go-Round, 171.
33 “Money was like a sixth sense” The Summing Up, 112.
34 “I see that you have charged me” WSM to Maurice Colles, August 28, 1904, Lilly.
35 “[Mr. Maugham] has his pen well under control” Times Literary Supplement, May 26, 1905.
36 “I wrote with jealousy gnawing” Liza of Lambeth, xiii.
37 “It was all very nice” The Magician, vi.
38 “When I am with my brother” WSM to Violet Hunt, nd, Berg.
39 “his whole face was just one colour” Sunday Times, January 24, 1954.
40 “Both of us obstinately refused” Ibid.
41 “to my shame” The Magician, vii.
42 “I am very sorry, though by no means surprised” WSM to Gerald Kelly, July 26, 1905, HGARC.
43 “Willie was a duck” Times, March 18, 1969.
44 “who has the ingenious idea” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
45 “I cannot say that I was his secretary” Harry Philips to Joseph Dobrinsky, September 16, 1966, Texas A&M.
46 “He was exceedingly kind” Ibid.
47 “I suspect he was a tragic figure” Old Friends, Clive Bell (Chatto & Windus, 1956), 164.
48 “but unfortunately he took an immediate dislike” Looking Back, 28.
49 “coldly and bitingly virulent” The Vagrant Mood, 183.
50 “After a moment’s hesitation” Looking Back, 28.
51 “a bed bug, on which a sensitive man” The Spirit of Solitude: An Autohagiography, vol. II, Aleister Crowley (Mandrake Press, 1929), 243.
52 “I took an immediate dislike to him” The Magician, viii.
53 “like a managing clerk” The Vagrant Mood, 183.
54 “Willie—with his impeccable French accent” Sunday Times, January 24, 1954.
55 “I am dreadfully afraid of being ridiculous” WSM to Arthur St. John Adcock, May 14, 1908, Lilly.
56 “I’ve told her about you” The Vagrant Mood, 186.
57 “a very lovable man” Ibid., 183.
58 “I never saw Maugham moved” Violet, 116.
59 “I was somewhat ashamed” Harry Philips to Joseph Dobrinsky, September 16, 1966, Texas A&M.
60 “I miss you sadly” WSM to Gerald Kelly, April 15, 1905, HGARC.
61 “I think I have got you a new client” Arnold Bennett to J. B. Pinker, June 11, 1905, HRHRC.
62 “I think we must agree to differ” WSM to Maurice Colles, July 29, 1905, Beinecke.
63 “& I imagine they will” WSM to J. B. Pinker, July 9, 1905, HRHRC.
64 “We have been here nearly a week” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
65 “In the process of making a complete failure” Final Edition, E. F. Benson (Longmans Green, 1940), 106.
66 “I’m sure a lot of people will think you” WSM to Gerald Kelly, September 19, 1905, HGARC.
67 “It was there I decided” Harry Philips to Joseph Dobrinsky, September 16, 1966, Texas A&M.
68 “one places all one’s love” A Writer’s Notebook, 42.
69 “By the time I received the money” The Summing Up, 164.
70 “Has The Lady’s Realm” WSM to J. B. Pinker, July 3, 1906, HRHRC.
71 “I do not like it” WSM to Violet Hunt, April 10, 1907, Berg.
72 “The people were too heroic” WSM to Gerald Kelly, March 25, 1907, HGARC.
73 “[and] Maugham told me afterwards” Whatever Goes Up, George C. Tyler (Bobbs-Merrill, 1934), 208.
74 “feeling pretty melancholy” Ibid., 209.
75 “I began to think” Plays, vol. I (Heinemann, 1931), viii.
76 “Your letter filled me with exultation” WSM to Golding Bright, September 16, 1907, HRHRC.
77 “I went to Cook’s” Plays, vol. I (Heinemann, 1931), ix.
78 “[I was] very short of money” A Bibliography, Raymond Toole Stott, 274.
CHAPTER 5: ENGLAND’S DRAMATIST
1 “The years between the beginning” A Short View of the English Stage 1900–1926, James Agate (Herbert Jenkins, 1926), 68.
2 “I reflected upon the qualities” Plays, vol. I, vii.
3 “Now for the delicate soft bloom” Ibid., 73.
4 “D’you suppose I don’t know” Ibid., 89.
5 “Exhilarating entertainment” Times, October 28, 1907.
6 “a delicious evening” Academy, November 2, 1907.
7 “as an accomplished dramatist” Twenty-Five, Beverley Nichols (Penguin, 1935), 233.
8 “ate crow” Whatever Goes Up, 210.
9 “I happened to look up” The Summing Up, 115.
10 “My success was spectacular” Ibid., 115.
11 “I was much photographed” Ibid., 116.
12 “I thoroughly enjoyed myself” Looking Back, 36.
13 “Great ladies cultivate those” Plays, vol. III, viii.
14 “Who is Edgar Wallace?” The Vagrant Mood, 197.
15 “When the ladies retired” Cakes and Ale, 3.
16 “One has to go back” Sunday Times, May 3, 1908.
17 “the hero of the year” Saturday Review, June 20, 1908.
18 “light as a feather” Sunday Times, March 29, 1908.
19 “suddenly became much sought after” Harry Philips to Joseph Dobrinsky, September 16, 1966, Texas A&M.
20 “I tried to get a small part” WSM to Gerald Kelly, February 20, 1908, HGARC.
21 “she had the most beautiful smile” Looking Back, 30.
22 “I have often acted a passion” The Summing Up, 77.
23 “a woman of whom I had been extremely fond” “Somerset Maugham,” Graham Young, Daily Mail, January 27, 1953.
24 “came of common family” For Love of Painting: The Life of Sir Gerald Kelly KCVO, PRA, Derek Hudson (Peter Davies, 1975), 51.
25
“had a very happy love affair” Gerald Kelly to Richard Cordell, August 20, 1959, Lilly.
26 “the most perfectly realized woman” Gerald Kelly to WSM, nd, HGARC.
27 “I opened the door” Cakes and Ale, 139.
28 “desperately in love” For Love of Painting, 51.
29 “She posed beautifully” Gerald Kelly interview with Robert Calder, February 4, 1970, Jenman.
30 “Noticed in myself” Journals, vol. I, 287.
31 “D’you know him at all?” The Summing Up, 117.
32 “I regularly wrote one act” WSM to Dobrinsky, August 1, 1957, Texas A&M.
33 “I hated poverty” A Writer’s Notebook, 73.
34 “the great, the insinuating” Two Made Their Bed, Louis Marlow (Gollancz 1929), 9.
35 “Sometimes after an evening with Willie” Books and Bookmen, May 1980.
36 “Practically nothing remains” WSM to Maurice Colles, November 29, 1907, Jenman.
37 “I have always thought that publishers” Liza of Lambeth, xii.
38 “I, as you know, make a point” WSM to Gerald Kelly, March 25, 1907, HGARC.
39 “I wanted to consult you” WSM to J. B. Pinker, October 5, 1906, HRHRC.
40 “[The Magician] would never” Liza of Lambeth, xx.
41 “I hear that Maugham has crucified us” Roderic O’Conor, Jonathan Benington (Irish Academic Press, 1992), 95.
42 “an appreciation of my genius” The King of the Shadow Realm: Aleister Crowley, His Life and Magic, John Symonds (Duckworth, 1989), 129.
43 “I had never supposed” The Spirit of Solitude, 242.
44 “the many things in the East” The Magician, 35.
45 “I daresay you are quite right” WSM to Violet Hunt, December 31, 1906, Berg.
46 “with the title SON OF A BITCH” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
47 “a real thrill of horror” Spectator, December 12, 1908.
48 “I am amorous of thy body” The Magician, 98.
49 “You are a perfect dear” Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde’s True Love, Jonathan Fryer (Constable, 2000), 200.
50 “The most amusing man” The Vagrant Mood, 173.
51 “I didn’t want to hurt his feelings” WSM to David Cecil, nd, Jenman.
52 “I received the impression” The Vagrant Mood, 174.
53 “They were very gay parties” WSM to David Cecil, nd, Jenman.
54 “Her conversation was artificial” Noble Essences, 130.
55 “Write a light comedy at once” Wonderful Sphinx: The Biography of Ada Leverson, Julie Speedie (Virago, 1993), 166.
56 “My dear Sphynx, It is too kind” WSM to Ada Leverson, July 2, 1909, Beinecke.
57 “a great honour” Ibid., April 23, 1908.
58 “[Maugham’s] visits were looked forward to” The Sphinx and Her Circle: A Biographical Sketch of Ada Leverson 1862–1933, Violet Wyndham (Deutsch, 1963), 77.
59 “I wish you would ask me” WSM to Ada Leverson, nd, Beinecke.
60 “‘something nice’ … because the author” The Sphinx and Her Circle, 167.
61 “My dear Sphinx, I am very sorry” Ibid.
62 “I want to tell you how glad I am” WSM to Charles Frohman, January 28, 1909, HRHRC.
63 “the hurried lunch at a restaurant” The Summing Up, 101.
64 “I tried to go to my own first nights” Ibid., 105.
65 “I read that I had neither decorum” Plays, vol II, vi.
66 “I have never been able” The Summing Up ms, HRHRC.
67 “she was not a particularly good actress” Looking Back, 48.
68 “the stoic and impeccable maid” Sunday Times, January 10, 1909.
69 “All my friends had been to bed with her” Looking Back, 49.
70 “[was] the only man she ever really loved” For Love of Painting, 51.
71 “There was no one I liked better” Looking Back, 49.
72 “He behaved like anybody else” The Limit, Ada Leverson (Grant Richards, 1911), 51.
73 “who is coarse and common” Ibid., 219.
74 “I am neither so happy” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
75 “Really it is with the greatest difficulty” Ibid., April 23, 1909.
76 “the fantastic conventions and prejudices” Gerald Kelly to Reginald Pound, Janury 26, 1953, Berg.
77 “To me England has been a country” The Summing Up, 95.
78 “An amiable person has offered” WSM to Gerald Kelly, March 25, 1907, HGARC.
79 “I met an Egyptian pasha” Ibid., September 9, 1907.
80 “a living link with Oscar” Louis Wilkinson to Llewellyn Powys, March 8, 1939, private collection.
81 “If light comedy is the only form” Saturday Review, January 9, 1909.
82 “They were just cynical enough” William Somerset Maugham: The English Maupassant, Desmond MacCarthy (Heinemann, 1934), 4.
83 “The critics accused me” The Summing Up, 116.
84 “The intelligentsia, of which” Ibid.
85 “I am tired & bored” WSM to Golding Bright, October 20, 1909, HRHRC.
86 “I was happy, I was prosperous” Of Human Bondage, 2.
87 “one of London’s wittiest bachelors” The Celebrity Circus, Elsa Maxwell (W. H. Allen, 1964), 20.
88 “[He] had started to dress himself” The Pleasant Years, 135.
89 “You will not know 6 Chesterfield Street” WSM to Charles Frohman, nd, HRHRC.
90 “with the reserve and detachment” William Somerset Maugham: The English Maupassant, 4.
91 “still talked as though” The Summing Up, 2.
92 (“My dear Mrs. Allhusen, You are a faithless woman”) WSM to Dorothy Allhusen, nd, Beinecke.
93 “Thank you so much” Ibid., nd, Garrick.
94 “I want to make a compact with you” Looking Back, 36.
95 “My dear Sphynx, Pray thank your friend” WSM to Ada Leverson, February 21, 1910, Beinecke.
96 “during the dreary time of public mourning” WSM to Violet Hunt, nd, Berg.
97 “is one of the greatest successes” WSM to J. B. Pinker, February 12, 1909, HRHRC.
98 “I am sailing by the Caronia” WSM to Charles Frohman, October 9, 1910, HRHRC.
99 “like Christopher Columbus” WSM to Golding Bright, October 16, 1909, HRHRC.
CHAPTER 6: SYRIE
1 “host of social entertainments” New York Times, November 5, 1914.
2 “We were not members” With a Feather on My Nose, Billie Burke (Peter Davies, 1950), 91.
3 “there was never the least frankness” Continual Lessons, 93.
4 “The great novelists, even in seclusion” The Vagrant Mood, 168.
5 “I protested that I was perfectly capable” Ibid., 166.
6 “I think it possible” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
7 “I shall still be able” Ibid.
8 “Howard has been very kind” Ibid.
9 “one of the best things you have done” Ibid.
10 “I have never been so comfortable” Ibid.
11 “I have half a mind to join you in Burmah” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
12 “After submitting myself for some years” Of Human Bondage, 2
13 “I had all that stuff choking me” WSM to Joseph C. Smythe, nd, Jenman.
14 “It is a great satisfaction” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
15 “He simply couldn’t believe” Robin Maugham unpublished diaries, Beinecke.
16 “The teeming memories” Of Human Bondage, 2.
17 “His insignificance was turned to power” Ibid., 603.
18 “it was absurd to care” Ibid., 309.
19 “Willie used my stuff” Gilbert Clark, May 1914, Jenman.
20 “he exercised peculiar skill” Of Human Bondage, 259.
21 “I am aware that in the past” WSM to William Heinemann, August 6, 1914, Random House.
22 “I am sorry to have been so fussy” Ibid.
23 “Were I given freedom of choice”
Chronicles of Barabbas 1884–1934, George H. Doran (Harcourt, Brace, 1935), 148.
24 “Here is a novel” New Republic, December 25, 1915.
25 “partly on account of the weather” Charles Frohman, 407.
26 “I want a new play from you” Ibid., 270.
27 “I well remembered the shock” Plays, vol. II, xiii.
28 “a good deal of discomfort” WSM to Gerald Kelly, June 1, 1913, HGARC.
29 “that curious and intense life” Plays, vol. II, xiii.
30 “My God, what a life they lead” WSM to Mabel Beardsley, December 29, 1912, Jenman.
31 “I give her board and lodging” Plays, vol. II, 247.
32 “For God’s sake take it” Ibid., 298.
33 “the audience of course knew nothing” WSM to Gerald Kelly, December 3, 1913, HGARC.
34 “the leading part loses” Ibid.
35 “was a beautifully written but dreary” With a Feather on My Nose, 98.
36 “No Canadian man would dream” Daily Bulletin (Edmonton), April 10, 1914.
37 “If I meant to marry” The Summing Up, 190.
38 “I’ve come to ask you” Looking Back, 48.
39 “My schemes for going round the world” WSM to Gerald Kelly, December 3, 1913, HGARC.
40 “I guessed at once” Looking Back, 48.
41 (“I knew how careless she was”) Ibid.
42 “It happened that I had nothing” Ibid., 56.
43 “I wish we didn’t have to go” Ibid.
44 “She hoped I would come” Ibid., 57.
45 “After that I saw Syrie” Ibid., 58.
46 “a courtesan just past her prime” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
47 “the most charming man in London” Ibid.
48 “It was all very delightful” Looking Back, 61.
49 “Uncle Willie brought Mrs. Welcome” Kate Bruce unpublished ms, private collection.
50 “I didn’t want to tell you” Looking Back, 61.
51 “I have got a great deal to tell you” WSM to Gerald Kelly, May 4, 1914, HGARC.
52 “they had tastes in common” Always Afternoon, Faith Compton Mackenzie (Collins, 1943), 90.
53 “The bundle of papers that arrived” As Much As I Dare, Faith Compton Mackenzie (Collins, 1938), 269.
54 “treated poor Brooks very badly” Compton Mackenzie to Grenville Cook, May 1, 1966, Lilly.
55 “He had fine perceptions” Final Edition, 243.
56 “I don’t know what I shall do” My Life and Times: Octave Four 1907–1915, Faith Compton Mackenzie (Chatto & Windus, 1965), 233.
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham Page 63
