The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus bears his name: the award is to be spent on foreign travel. The total fund for each year is £12,000 .
Since 1964, multiple winners have usually been chosen in the same year. In 1975, the award was not given. The award has twice been won by the son of a previous winner: Kingsley Amis (winner in 1955) was the father of Martin Amis (1974), and Nigel Kneale (1950) the father of Matthew Kneale (1988).
Read more about Somerset Maugham Award: Full List of Winners
Famous quotes containing the words somerset maugham, somerset, maugham and/or award:
“If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him.... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)