Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/January 25, 2024 by - Dank (push to talk) 01:14, 2 December 2023 (UTC)



W. Somerset Maugham was an English writer. He achieved national celebrity as a playwright, and by 1908 he had four plays running simultaneously in the West End of London. In 1933 he concentrated on novels and short stories. His popularity provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, and many belittled him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage as a masterpiece, and his short stories are held in high critical regard. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical commentary. During World War I Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. He married Syrie Wellcome in 1917, and they had a daughter named Liza. However, his principal partner was Gerald Haxton; after Haxton's death, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary-companion. Maugham gave up writing novels after World War II and died in 1965.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Florence Petty, a Scottish cookery writer, is scheduled for Dec. 1
 * Main editors:
 * Promoted: September 22, 2022
 * Reasons for nomination: 150th birthday
 * Support as nominator. Z1720 (talk) 22:31, 29 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Support. Gog the Mild (talk) 15:56, 12 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Support. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:44, 16 November 2023 (UTC)