Friday, March 3rd., Rue de Calais, Paris.
Somerset Maugham came up for tea. He has a very calm almost lethargic demeanour. He took two cups of tea with pleasure and absolutely refused a third; one knew instantly from his tone that nothing would induce him to take a third. He ate biscuits and gaufrettes very quickly, almost greedily, one after the other without a pause, and then suddenly stopped. He smoked two cigarettes furiously, in less time than I smoked one, and solidly declined a third. I liked him. He said he had sold a play to Liebler through Fred Kerr, on the terms of £300 down, and £100 every quarter until they produced it - in advance of royalties. I asked him if he liked the quartier Montparnasse and he said, "Yes: the atmosphere of it is rather like Oxford." He said that as soon as he could he should spend three years in travel.
For more on Maugham see'Woman'
No comments:
Post a Comment