Abstract

Maugham was one of the twentieth century’s most productive and popular writers, but he is widely claimed to have described himself as “second-rate.” This putative admission of mediocrity has been used by biographers, literary critics, and book reviewers to disparage the quality of Maugham’s work, his status as a writer, and his literary legacy. This article evaluates the evidence for claims that he described himself as a “second-rate” or mediocre writer, drawing on a comprehensive search of a large body of literature by and about Maugham. The fact becomes clear that for nearly seventy years a spurious admission of mediocrity by Maugham has been used to diminish his literary legacy. Maugham’s writing deserves to be judged entirely on its own merits, as does his legacy as one of the most prolific and popular writers of modern times.

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