Like George Orwell, Henry James, and other untrusting souls, W. Somerset Maugham wanted no biography; but unlike them, he provided a lesson in the odium which an indiscreet account of a life can bring by composing his own. Written when he was 88, Maugham's memoir, Looking Back, was met by disgust and dismay at the venomous portrait the author drew of his deceased former wife. "Entirely contemptible" (Nöel Coward), "a senile scandalous work" (Graham Greene), "shabby, sordid, embarrassing" and "a wildly faggoty thing to have done" (Garson Kanin) were some of the responses.
