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:
“It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“He did not live, he observed life from a window, and too often was inclined to content himself with no more than what his friends told him they saw when they looked out of a window.... In the end the point of Henry James is neither his artistry nor his seriousness, but his personality, and this was curious and charming and a trifle absurd.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“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)