Paul Harshbarger

For anyone who wishes to become a writer or regrets he hadn’t pursued that dream, Maugham’ s “The Summing Up” offers an incredible window into how a successful author has not only to adapt style and content to an evolving audience, but also how he must constantly observe and catalogue the minutiae of life as potential source material for an as yet unknown novel or play. Maugham’s vast knowledge of literature and style served him as the standard by which he judged his own efforts.