Have you seen the films inspired by his books?

Some of Kiffer’s collection of Somerset Maugham’s books

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With Bette Davis 1934

Of Human Bondage

with Kim Novak 1964

Of Human Bondage

A young medical student finds himself attracted to a beautiful but ambitious unfeeling waitress who ultimately may destroy them both. 

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The Razor’s Edge

with Bill Murray 1984

The Razor’s Edge 

An adventuresome young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.

He had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor’s edge.

The Moon and Sixpence debuting Lawrence Olivier  1959  Written 1919 at the end of WWI

“The Moon and Sixpence is not, of course, a life of Paul Gauguin in the form of fiction. It is founded on what I had heard about him, but I used only the main facts of his story and for the rest trusted to such gifts of invention as I was fortunate enough to possess.” W. Somerset Maugham

Maugham describes the idea for the book arising during a year that he spent living in Paris in 1904: “…I met men who had known him and worked with him at Pont-Aven. I heard much about him. It occurred to me that there was in what I was told the subject of a novel.” The idea remained in his mind for ten years, until a visit to Tahiti in 1914, where Maugham was able to meet people who had known Gauguin, inspired him to start writing.

The film adaptions of W. Somerset Maugham’s works are too lengthy to list here. However, you can find them on the IMBD and on Wikipedia.

Writing advice from Somerset Maugham

Every writer hits now and then upon a thought that seems to him so happy, a repartee that amuses him so much, that to cut it is worse than having a tooth out. It is then that it is well to have engraved on his heart the maxim:  If you can cut, cut.

Somerset Cheer by Sharon Anderson

Here is a listing of the Somerset Book Awards Hall of Fame Grand Prize winners!

The Rabbi’s Gift by Chuck Gould

Somerset Grand Prize Winner

Babylonian astrology and Jewish mysticism combine with Roman history to create a timeless story of passion and fate in Chuck Gould’s The Rabbi’s Gift.  Babylonian astrology and Jewish mysticism combine with Roman history to create a timeless story of passion and fate in Chuck Gould’s The Rabbi’s Gift.

The Ugly by Alexander Boldizar 

Words thrown as hard as boulders are easy to catch – if you’ve had practice. Just ask our hero, Muzhduk the Ugli the Fourth…In the great tradition of existentialism, Boldizar brings us a book that is hard to classify. It has aspects of the existential with a fair amount of satirical wordplay and a bit of theater of the absurd thrown in.

The Alexandrite by Rick Lenz

Marilyn Monroe, time travel, second chances – all steeped in mid-Century Hollywood history, culture, and magic.

The Manipulator by Steve Lundin

With a fast-paced storyline and a rich cast of characters, this award-winning winning novel offers a uniquely hilarious, but scary, perspective on the how the businesses of public relations and marketing can take technology to its precipice to take advantage of a media addicted public.

Individually Wrapped by Jeremy Bullian

Individually Wrapped tells us the bizarre tale of Sam Gregory’s descent over the condensed course of a couple of days. Set in a 21st-century futuristic city, technology has permeated every aspect of the city dwellers’ lives… Self-delusion is an interesting state of mind because everyone can see it except yourself, as it propels you ever deeper into oblivion, where not even technology can save you.

We would be amiss by not featuring and recognizing Judith Kirscht, our very own Pacific Northwest Somerset inspired author. Judith specializes in family sagas and societal issues.

Judith was born and educated in  Chicago during the Great Depression and then WWII. She taught school during the upheavals of the Vietnam protests and the Civil Rights movement. Later in life, she found herself in California, divorced and with two daughters. Judith taught creative writing at universities of very different cultures: University of Michigan and U of California, Santa Monica. Her novels continuously are awarded CIBA First Place Category ribbons for the Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

The Camera’s Eye  by  Judith Kirscht

In a world where too many rocks are thrown at those who represent anything other than the norm in middle-class white America, two friends decide to take matters into their own hands and stand up to the hatred with which they are targeted in order to save their home and ultimately their lives.

Hawkins Lane Cover

Hawkins Lane by Judith Kirscht