Somerset Maugham's Unwritten Story

Yuri Nagibin (1920–1994, Moscow) is a successful prose writer, journalist, and screenwriter.

In his youth he was passionate about football, where they predicted a great future for him. He studied at a medical institute, and at VGIK in the scriptwriting faculty. His first story was published in 1940.

His impressions and observations from frontline life became the basis of his war stories: in 1943 a collection of prose works titled “A Man from the Front” was published. Later came collections of short stories inspired by Meshcherya: “The Chase. Meshcherya Tales” (1963), “The Green Bird with a Red Head” (1966).

In the 1980s, Nagibin writes a cycle of stories—its heroes include Goethe, Bach, Tyutchev, Leskov…

According to the literary scholar Greta Ionkis, “Yuri Nagibin was perhaps the only Soviet writer who was fortunate enough to be accepted at Somerset Maugham’s villa ‘Morisk’ on the Riviera, where more than half of Maugham’s life passed and where he died in complete solitude. ‘Morisk’—where celebrities, princes of blood, and prominent political figures visited (Maugham was friends with Churchill)—is part of the legend of the writer. The villa was his fortress, but he hid there only for a short time. Maugham did not belong to writers who observe life from a window.

Nagibin was struck by the dandyism of a ninety-year-old old man, but even more by the contrast between the man’s frail body and the strength and liveliness of his mind. The Russian guest was amazed by the rare combination of calm dignity, the boyish excitement, and the poisonous sarcasm with which Maugham talked about the writing matters that still continued to concern him.”

Probably it was this meeting that prompted “The Unwritten Story of Somerset Maugham.”