W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) is best known as a playwright and short-story writer. He was born in Paris, orphaned at ten, and abruptly transported first to the house of a provincial English clergyman uncle and then to the harsh environment of a British boarding school.  A closeted homosexual moving in bohemian circles in London and Paris, Maugham took his revenge on his past suffering and present insecurities through fiction.