W. Somerset Maugham
Maugham photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1934
Born	William Somerset Maugham (1874-01-25)25 January 1874 UK Embassy, Paris, France
Died	16 December 1965(1965-12-16) (aged 91) Nice, France
Occupation	Playwright, novelist, short story writer
Notable work(s)	Of Human Bondage The Letter Rain The Razor's Edge

William Somerset Maugham (/ˈmɔːm/ MAWM), CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.^[1]

Childhood and education[link]

Maugham's father Robert Ormond Maugham was an English lawyer who handled the legal affairs of the British embassy in Paris, France.^[2] Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, technically on British soil.^[3] His grandfather, another Robert, had also been a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the English Law Society.^[4] It was taken for granted that Maugham and his brothers would follow in their footsteps. His elder brother Viscount Maugham enjoyed a distinguished legal career and served as Lord Chancellor from 1938 to 1939.

Maugham's mother Edith Mary (née Snell) had tuberculosis, a condition for which her doctor prescribed childbirth.^[5] She had Maugham several years after the last of his three older brothers; they were already enrolled in boarding school by the time he was three. The youngest, he was effectively raised as an only child.

Edith's sixth and final son died on 25 January 1882, one day after his birth, on Maugham's eighth birthday. Edith died of TB six days later on 31 January at the age of 41.^[6] The early death of his mother left Maugham traumatized; he kept his mother's photograph by his bedside for the rest of his life.^[7] Two years after Edith's death, Maugham's father died of cancer.

Maugham was sent to England to be cared for by his uncle, Henry MacDonald Maugham, the Vicar of Whitstable, in Kent. The move was damaging, as Henry Maugham proved cold and emotionally cruel. The boy attended The King's School, Canterbury, which was also difficult for him. He was teased for his bad English (French had been his first language) and his short stature, which he inherited from his father. Maugham developed a stammer that would stay with him all his life, although it was sporadic and subject to mood and circumstance.^[8]

Miserable both at his uncle's vicarage and at school, the young Maugham developed a talent for making wounding remarks to those who displeased him. This ability is sometimes reflected in Maugham's literary characters. At sixteen, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School. His uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University. During his year in Heidelberg, Maugham met and had a sexual affair with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior.^[9] He also wrote his first book there, a biography of opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.^[10]

On his return to England, his uncle found Maugham a position in an accountant's office, but after a month Maugham gave it up and returned to Whitstable. His uncle set about finding Maugham a new profession. Maugham's father and three older brothers were all distinguished lawyers, and Maugham asked to be excused from the duty of following in their footsteps. A career in the church was rejected because a stammering minister might make the family seem ridiculous. His uncle rejected the civil service, not because of the young man's feelings or interests, but because his uncle concluded that the civil service was no longer a career for gentlemen; a recent law required applicants to pass an entry examination. The local doctor suggested the medical profession and Maugham's uncle agreed. Maugham had been writing steadily since the age of 15 and fervently wished to become an author, but as he was not of age, he refrained from telling his guardian. For the next five years, he studied medicine at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth, London.

Career[link]

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Early works[link]

W. Somerset Maugham.

Some critics have assumed that the years Maugham spent studying medicine were a creative dead end, but Maugham felt the contrary. He was living in the great city of London, meeting people of a "low" sort whom he would never have met otherwise, and seeing them at a time of heightened anxiety and meaning in their lives. In maturity, he recalled the value of his experience as a medical student: "I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief ..."

Maugham kept his own lodgings, took pleasure in furnishing them, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly while at the same time studying for his medical degree. In 1897, he wrote his second book, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. It drew its details from Maugham's experiences as a medical student doing midwifery work in Lambeth, a London slum. Maugham wrote near the opening of the novel: "...it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue."^[11]

Liza of Lambeth's first print run sold out in a matter of weeks. Maugham, who had qualified as a doctor, dropped medicine and embarked on his 65-year career as a man of letters. He later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water."^[12]

The writer's life allowed Maugham to travel and live in places such as Spain and Capri for the next decade, but his next ten works never came close to rivalling the success of Liza. This changed in 1907 with the success of his play Lady Frederick. By the next year, he had four plays running simultaneously in London, and Punch published a cartoon of Shakespeare biting his fingernails nervously as he looked at the billboards. Maugham's supernatural thriller, The Magician (1907), based its principal character on the well-known and somewhat disreputable Aleister Crowley. Crowley took some offence at the treatment of the protagonist, Oliver Haddo. He wrote a critique of the novel, charging Maugham with plagiarism, in a review published in Vanity Fair.^[13] Maugham survived the criticism without much damage to his reputation.

Popular success, 1914–39[link]

Maugham early in his career.

By 1914 Maugham was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 novels published. Too old to enlist when World War I broke out, Maugham served in France as a member of the British Red Cross's so-called "Literary Ambulance Drivers", a group of some 23 well-known writers, including the Americans John Dos Passos and E. E. Cummings. During this time, he met Frederick Gerald Haxton, a young San Franciscan, who became his companion and lover until Haxton's death in 1944.^[14] Throughout this period Maugham continued to write. He proofread Of Human Bondage at a location near Dunkirk during a lull in his ambulance duties.^[15] Maugham also worked for British Intelligence in mainland Europe during the war, having been recruited by John Wallinger; he was one of the network of British agents who operated in Switzerland against the Berlin Committee, notably Virendranath Chattopadhyay. Maugham was later recruited by William Wiseman to work in Russia.^[16][17]

Of Human Bondage (1915) initially was criticized in both England and the United States; the New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist Philip Carey as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". The influential critic and novelist Theodore Dreiser rescued the novel, referring to it as a work of genius and comparing it to a Beethoven symphony. His review gave the book a lift and it has never been out of print since.^[18]

The book appeared to be closely autobiographical: Maugham's stammer is transformed into Philip Carey's club foot, the vicar of Whitstable becomes the vicar of Blackstable, and Philip Carey is a doctor. Maugham insisted it was more invention than fact. The close relationship between fictional and non-fictional became Maugham's trademark, despite the legal requirement to state that "the characters in [this or that publication] are entirely imaginary". In 1938 he wrote: "Fact and fiction are so intermingled in my work that now, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the other."

Although Maugham's first and many other sexual relationships were with men, he also had sexual relationships with a number of women. His affair with Syrie Wellcome, daughter of the orphanage founder Thomas John Barnardo and wife of American-born English pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome, produced a daughter named Liza (born Mary Elizabeth Wellcome, 1915–1998).^[19] Henry Wellcome sued his wife for divorce, naming Maugham as co-respondent. In May 1917, following the decree absolute, Syrie and Maugham were married. Syrie became a noted interior decorator who in the 1920s popularized the all-white room.

Maugham returned to England from his ambulance unit duties to promote Of Human Bondage. With that completed, he was eager to assist the war effort once more. As he was unable to return to his ambulance unit, Syrie arranged for him to be introduced to a high-ranking intelligence officer known only as "R." In September 1915, Maugham began work in Switzerland, secretly gathering and passing on intelligence while posing as himself — that is, as a writer.

In 1916, Maugham travelled to the Pacific to research his novel The Moon and Sixpence, based on the life of Paul Gauguin. This was the first of those journeys through the late-Imperial world of the 1920s and 1930s which were to establish Maugham forever in the popular imagination as the chronicler of the last days of colonialism in India, Southeast Asia, China and the Pacific, although the books on which this reputation rests represent only a fraction of his output. On this and all subsequent journeys he was accompanied by Haxton, whom he regarded as indispensable to his success as a writer. Maugham himself was painfully shy, and Haxton the extrovert gathered human material that Maugham steadily turned into fiction.

In June, 1917, he was asked by Sir William Wiseman, an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (later named MI6), to undertake a special mission in Russia^[20] to keep the Provisional Government in power and Russia in the war by countering German pacifist propaganda.^[21] Two and a half months later the Bolsheviks took control. The job was probably always impossible, but Maugham subsequently claimed that if he had been able to get there six months earlier, he might have succeeded. Quiet and observant, Maugham had a good temperament for intelligence work; he believed he had inherited from his lawyer father a gift for cool judgement and the ability to be undeceived by facile appearances.

Never losing the chance to turn real life into a story, Maugham made his spying experiences into a collection of short stories about a gentlemanly, sophisticated, aloof spy, Ashenden, a volume that influenced the Ian Fleming James Bond series.^[22] In 1922, Maugham dedicated On A Chinese Screen, a book of 58 ultra-short story sketches collected during his 1920 travels through China and Hong Kong, to Syrie, with the intention of later turning the sketches into a book.^[23]

Dramatised from a story which first appeared in his collection The Casuarina Tree published in 1924, Maugham's play The Letter, starring Gladys Cooper, had its premiere in London in 1927. Later, he asked that Katharine Cornell play the lead in the 1927 Broadway version. The play was later adapted for film in 1929 and again in 1940. Later, Cornell would play the lead in his comedy, The Constant Wife in 1951, and was an enormous success.^[24]

Syrie and Maugham divorced in 1927–8 after a tempestuous marriage complicated by Maugham's frequent travels abroad and strained by his relationship with Haxton.

In 1928, Maugham bought Villa Mauresque on 12 acres (49,000 m²) at Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera, which was his home for most of the rest of his life, and one of the great literary and social salons of the 1920s and 30s. His output continued to be prodigious, including plays, short stories, novels, essays and travel books. By 1940, when the collapse of France forced Maugham to leave the French Riviera and become a well-heeled refugee, he was already one of the most famous and wealthiest writers in the English-speaking world.

Maugham's talent for the dramatic was demonstrated in his 1933 retelling of the ancient Babylonian myth An Appointment in Samarra, where Death was both the narrator and a central character.^[25][26] Maugham's retelling was then credited by John O'Hara as a creative inspiration for his own novel Appointment in Samarra.

Grand old man of letters[link]

Maugham, by now in his sixties, spent most of World War II in the United States, first in Hollywood (he worked on many scripts, and was one of the first authors to make significant money from film adaptations) and later in the South. While in the US he was asked by the British government to make patriotic speeches to induce the US to aid Britain, if not necessarily become an allied combatant. Gerald Haxton died in 1944, and Maugham moved back to England, then in 1946 to his villa in France, where he lived, interrupted by frequent and long travels, until his death.

The gap left by Haxton's death in 1944 was filled by Alan Searle. Maugham had first met Searle in 1928. Searle was a young man from the London slum area of Bermondsey and he had already been kept by older men. He proved a devoted if not a stimulating companion. Indeed one of Maugham's friends, describing the difference between Haxton and Searle, said simply: "Gerald was vintage, Alan was vin ordinaire."^[27]

Maugham's love life was almost never smooth. He once confessed: "I have most loved people who cared little or nothing for me and when people have loved me I have been embarrassed... In order not to hurt their feelings, I have often acted a passion I did not feel."

In 1962 he sold a collection of paintings, some of which had been assigned to his daughter Liza by deed. She sued her father and won a judgment of £230,000. Maugham responded by publicly disowning her and claiming she was not his biological daughter; adopting Searle as his son and heir; and launching a bitter attack on the deceased Syrie in his 1962 volume of memoirs, Looking Back, in which Liza discovered she had been born before her parents' marriage. The memoirs lost him several friends and exposed him to much public ridicule. Liza and her husband Lord Glendevon contested the change in Maugham's will in the French courts, and it was overturned. Nevertheless, in 1965 Searle inherited £50,000, the contents of Villa Mauresque, and Maugham's manuscripts and copyrights for 30 years. Thereafter the copyrights passed to the Royal Literary Fund.

There is no grave for Maugham. His ashes were scattered near the Maugham Library, The King's School, Canterbury. Liza, Lady Glendevon, died aged 83 in 1998, survived by Somerset Maugham's four grandchildren (a son and a daughter by Liza's first marriage to Vincent Paravicini, and two more sons to Lord Glendevon). One of the next generation is the autistic savant and musical prodigy Derek Paravicini.

Achievements[link]

Commercial success with high book sales, successful theatre productions and a string of film adaptations, backed by astute stock market investments, allowed Maugham to live a very comfortable life. Small and weak as a boy, Maugham had been proud even then of his stamina, and as an adult he kept churning out the books, proud that he could. Yet, despite his triumphs, he never attracted the highest respect from the critics or his peers. Maugham himself attributed this to his lack of "lyrical quality", his small vocabulary and failure to make expert use of metaphor in his work. In 1934 the American journalist and radio personality Alexander Woollcott offered to Maugham this bit of language advice: "The female implies, and from that the male infers." Maugham responded: "I am not yet too old to learn."^[28]

Maugham wrote in a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as "such a tissue of clichés that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way".^[29]

For a public man of Maugham's generation, being openly gay was impossible. Whether his own orientation disgusted him (as it did many at a time when homosexuality was widely considered indefensible as well as illegal) or whether he merely took a stance to cover himself, Maugham wrote disparagingly of the gay artist. In "Don Fernando", a non-fiction volume about his years living in Spain, Maugham pondered a (perhaps fanciful) suggestion that the painter El Greco was homosexual: "It cannot be denied that the homosexual has a narrower outlook on the world than the normal man. In certain respects the natural responses of the species are denied to him. Some at least of the broad and typical human emotions he can never experience. However subtly he sees life he cannot see it whole ... I cannot now help asking myself whether what I see in El Greco's work of tortured fantasy and sinister strangeness is not due to such a sexual abnormality as this".^[30]

But Maugham's homosexual leanings did shape his fiction in two ways. Since, in life, he tended to see attractive women as sexual rivals, he often gave the women of his fiction sexual needs and appetites, in a way quite unusual for authors of his time. Liza of Lambeth, Cakes and Ale, Neil MacAdam and The Razor's Edge all featured women determined to service their strong sexual appetites, heedless of the result. Also, the fact that Maugham's own sexual appetites were highly disapproved of, or even criminal, in nearly all of the countries in which he travelled, made Maugham unusually tolerant of the vices of others. Readers and critics^[who?] often complained that Maugham did not clearly enough condemn what was bad in the villains of his fiction and plays. Maugham replied: "It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me."^[31]

Maugham's public view of his abilities remained modest. Towards the end of his career he described himself as "in the very first row of the second-raters".^[32] In 1954, he was made a Companion of Honour.

Maugham had begun collecting theatrical paintings before the First World War and continued to the point where his collection was second only to that of the Garrick Club.^[33] In 1948 he announced that he would bequeath this collection to the Trustees of the National Theatre, and from 1951, some 14 years before his death, his paintings began their exhibition life. In 1994 they were placed on loan to the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden.^[34][35]

Significant works[link]

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Maugham's masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage, a semiautobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle. Philip's clubfoot causes him endless self-consciousness and embarrassment, echoing Maugham's struggles with his stutter and, as his biographer Ted Morgan notes, his homosexuality. His later novels were based on historical people: The Moon and Sixpence fictionalizes the life of Paul Gauguin; and Cakes and Ale contains thinly veiled characterizations of the authors Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole. Maugham's last major novel, The Razor's Edge, published in 1944, was a departure for him in many ways. While much of the novel takes place in Europe, its main characters are American, not British. The protagonist is a disillusioned veteran of World War I who abandons his wealthy friends and lifestyle, traveling to India seeking enlightenment. The story's themes of Eastern mysticism and war-weariness struck a chord with readers as World War II waned. It was quickly adapted as a movie.

Among his short stories, some of the most memorable are those dealing with the lives of Western, mostly British, colonists in the Far East. They typically express the emotional toll exacted on the colonists by their isolation. Some of his works in this genre include "Rain", "Footprints in the Jungle", and "The Outstation". "Rain", in particular, which charts the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert the Pacific island prostitute Sadie Thompson, has kept its status. It has been adapted as a play and as several films. Maugham said that many of his short stories were inspired by accounts he heard during his travels in the outposts of the Empire. He left behind a long string of angry former hosts. Maugham's restrained prose allows him to explore the tensions and passions without appearing melodramatic. His The Magician (1908) is based on British occultist Aleister Crowley.

Maugham was one of the most significant travel writers of the inter-war years, and can be compared with contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh and Freya Stark. His best efforts in this line include The Gentleman in the Parlour, dealing with a journey through Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam, and On a Chinese Screen, a series of very brief vignettes which might almost be notes for short stories that were never written.

Influenced by the published journals of the French writer Jules Renard, which Maugham had often enjoyed for their conscientiousness, wisdom and wit, Maugham published selections from his own journals under the title A Writer's Notebook in 1949. Although these journal selections are, by nature, episodic and of varying quality, they range over more than 50 years of the writer's life and contain much that Maugham scholars and admirers find of interest.

Influence[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In 1947 Maugham instituted the Somerset Maugham Award, awarded to the best British writer or writers under the age of thirty-five for a work of fiction published in the past year. Notable winners include V. S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. On his death, Maugham donated his copyrights to the Royal Literary Fund.

Other writers acknowledged his work. Anthony Burgess, who included a complex fictional portrait of Maugham in the novel Earthly Powers, praised his influence. George Orwell said that Maugham was "the modern writer who has influenced me the most."

Portraits of Maugham[link]

Maugham was the subject of this caricature by David Low.

Many portraits were painted of Somerset Maugham, including that by Graham Sutherland^[36] in the Tate Gallery, and several by Sir Gerald Kelly. Sutherland's portrait was included in the exhibit Painting the Century 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900-2000 at the National Portrait Gallery.

Bibliography[link]

Film adaptations[link]

• The Land of Promise (1917) directed by Joseph Kaufman and starring Thomas Meighan. Based on the 1913 play of the same name.
• Smith (1917) directed by Maurice Elvey, based on the 1913 play of the same name.
• The Circle (1925) Directed by Frank Borzage, based on the 1921 play of the same name.
• The Canadian (1926) directed by William Beaudine. Based on the 1913 play, "The Land of Promise," this was a remake of the 1917 film of that name, with Thomas Meighan reprising his role as protagonist Frank Taylor.
• The Magician (1926) Based on the 1908 novel of the same name.
• Sadie Thompson (1928), a silent movie starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore. Based on the short story "Miss Thompson", which was later retitled "Rain".
• The Letter (1929) featuring Jeanne Eagels, O. P. Heggie, Reginald Owen and Herbert Marshall. Based on the play of the same name.
• Rain (1932), the first sound version of the short story "Miss Thompson" (retitled as "Rain"), with Joan Crawford and Walter Huston.
• Of Human Bondage (1934) starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Based on the book of the same name.
• The Painted Veil (1934) featuring Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall. Based on the novel of the same name.
• Secret Agent (1936) with John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on Ashenden.
• The Vessel of Wrath (1938) starring Charles Laughton; released in the USA as The Beachcomber. Based on the novella of the same name.
• The Letter (1940) featuring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort and Gale Sondergaard. Based on the play of the same name.
• Too Many Husbands (1940) featuring Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the play "Home and Beauty".
• The Moon and Sixpence (1942) with George Sanders. Based on the novella of the same name.
• Christmas Holiday (1944) starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, based on the novel of the same name.
• The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) starring Veronica Lake, based on the novel of the same name.
• Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.(1946). Unauthorized film version of "Miss Thompson" with an all-black cast, directed by Spencer Williams.
• The Razor's Edge (1946) featuring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney. Based on the book of the same name.
• Of Human Bondage (1946) version starring Eleanor Parker.
• Quartet (1948) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. Based on four of his short stories.
• Trio (1950) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. Another collection based on short stories.
• Encore (1951) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. A third collection of Maugham short stories.
• Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), a semi-musical version in 3-D, featuring Rita Hayworth and José Ferrer.
• The Seventh Sin (1957) with Eleanor Parker. Based on the novel The Painted Veil.
• The Beachcomber (1958). Based on the novella The Vessel of Wrath; not to be confused with the 1938 film.
• Du bist zauberhaft (1962) starring Lilli Palmer and Charles Boyer. Based on the novel Theatre.
• Of Human Bondage (1964) with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak.
• The Letter (1969) starring Eileen Atkins. Based on play of the same name. (made for television)
• Theatre (1978) starring Vija Artmane. Based on the novel of the same name.
• The Letter (1982) featuring Lee Remick, Jack Thompson and Ronald Pickup. Based on play of the same name. (Made for television)
• The Razor's Edge (1984) with Bill Murray. Based on the novel by the same name.
• Up at the Villa (2000) starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, directed by Philip Haas. Based on the novella of the same name.
• Being Julia (2004) featuring Annette Bening. Based on the novel Theatre.
• The Painted Veil (2006) with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Based on the novel of the same name.

References and notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Hastings, Selina, 2009 The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham - A biography. London, John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6554-0
• Hastings, Selina, 2009 "A blackstable boyhood"
• Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe, 1955 The Artist and the Theatre. William Heinemann Ltd
• Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe, 1980 Guide to the Maugham Collection of Theatrical Paintings. Heinemann & the National Theatre
• Maugham, Robin, 1970, Escape from the Shadows. Wiedenfeld and Nicholson Publishers.
• Maugham, Robin, 1977, Somerset and all the Maughams. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-8371-8236-0
• Maugham, Robin, 1977, Search for Nirvana. W.H. Allen.
• Maugham, W. Somerset, 1938, The Summing Up. Garden City Publishing Company.
• Maugham, W. Somerset, 1962, Looking Back. As serialised in Show, June, July & August.
• Meyers, Jeffrey, 2004, Somerset Maugham: A life. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-41475-6
• Morgan, Ted, 1980, Somerset Maugham Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-01813-2
• Morgan, Ted, 1984, Maugham Touchstone Books. ISBN 0-671-50581-5.
• Vidal, Gore, 1 February 1990, The New York Review of Books.
• Popplewell, Richard J. (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904–1924., Routledge, ISBN 0-7146-4580-X, http://www.routledge.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=071464580X&parent_id=&pc= .
• Woods, B. F. (2007), Neutral Ground: A Political History of Espionage Fiction., Algora Publishing, ISBN 0-87586-535-6 .
• Epstein, Joseph (1991), Partial Payments, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-30716-0 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: William Somerset Maugham

Wikisource has original works written by or about: William Somerset Maugham

• The British Library
• Caxton Club Biography
• The British Empire, Biographies, Authors
• Works by W. Somerset Maugham at Project Gutenberg
• Works by W. Somerset Maugham at LibriVox (audiobooks)
• Works by or about W. Somerset Maugham in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• W. Somerset Maugham at the Internet Movie Database
• W. Somerset Maugham at the Internet Broadway Database
• W. Somerset Maugham at Internet Off-Broadway Database
• National Theatre, Maugham's Theatrical Collection
• National Theatre, Shakespearean Characters
• Maugham's The Razor's Edge
• William Somerset Maugham's stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore
• W. S. Maugham: correspondence, contracts & manuscripts in Indiana University
• W. Somerset Maugham at the Internet Book List
• W. Somerset Maugham and Beaufort County, South Carolina – Beaufort County Library
• "The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham" – A Biography of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings.

Wang Yihan
Personal information
Birth name	王仪涵
Born	(1988-01-18) January 18, 1988 (age 24) Shanghai, China
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Country	China
Handedness	Right
Coach	Zhang Ning
Women's singles
Highest Ranking	1 (October 29, 2009)
Current Ranking	1 (May 24, 2012[2])
Medal record Competitor for  China Women's badminton World Championships Gold 2011 London Women's singles Sudirman Cup Gold 2009 Guangzhou Team Uber Cup Gold 2012 Wuhan Team World Cup Gold 2006 Yiyang Women's singles
BWF Profile

Wang Yihan (Chinese: 王仪涵; pinyin: Wáng yí hán; born January 18, 1988 in Shanghai^[3]) is a professional female badminton player from China and the reigning women's singles world champion. Wang started her career with her coach Wang Pengren at only nine years of age. She was selected for the junior team in 2004, and after being promoted to the senior team in 2006 she began to shine in major tournaments.^[4] By October 2009 she was the top ranked Women's singles player in the world. She is currently coached by Zhang Ning, twice Olympic gold medalist.

Career[link]

Wang appears to be one of China's rising badminton stars. She won girl's singles at both the Asian Junior and the World Junior Championships in 2006.^[5] In open international competition she captured the Badminton World Cup in 2006, and the Bitburger and Russian Opens in 2007. In September 2008 she defeated the Chinese-Hong Kong "veteran" Zhou Mi in the final of the Japan Open.^[6] The tourney is one of the Badminton World Federation's Super Series events which carry the highest level of prize money in the sport. In 2009 she won the Yonex German Open^[7] singles competition against fellow countrywoman Zhu Lin, and just one week later, at the age of 21, the prestigious All-England Championships against Denmark's Tine Rasmussen. Wang then went on to win the Wilson Swiss Open^[8] against compatriot Jiang Yanjiao (21–17, 17–21, 21–13). Wang won the Macau Open [7] for the first time in August 2009 when she again beat Jiang Yanjiao (16–21, 22–20, 21–12). In September 2009, Wang won her second YONEX Open Japan ^[9] title by beating Wang Xin (21–8, 21–9). Wang then won the French Super Series^[10] in November when she emphatically beat top seed, and defending champion, Wang Lin (21–9, 21–12). Wang won her second title in a row, and her 5th BWF Super Series tournament of the year, when she beat Jiang Yanjiao (21–13, 21–15) in the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open.^[11] This was also her 7th title overall in 2009.

Record Against Selected Opponents[link]

Achievements[link]

Individual titles (21)[link]

Year	Tournament	Opponent in final	Score
2012	Malaysia Open	Wang Xin	21-19, 21-11
2011	Super Series Masters Finals	Saina Nehwal	18–21, 21–13, 21–13
2011	China Open	Wang Xin	18–12 (retired)
2011	Japan Open (3)	Juliane Schenk	21–16, 21–14
2011	World Championships	Cheng Shao-chieh	21–15, 21–10
2011	Indonesia Open	Saina Nehwal	12–21, 23–21, 21–14
2011	Badminton Asia Championships	Lu Lan	21–15, 23–21
2011	Korea Open	Wang Shixian	21–14, 21–18
2010	French Open (2)	Li Xuerui	21–13, 21–19
2010	Denmark Open	Liu Xin	21–14, 21–12
2009	Hong Kong Open	Jiang Yanjiao	21–13, 21–15
2009	French Open (1)	Wang Lin	21–9, 21–12
2009	Japan Open (2)	Wang Xin	21–8, 21–9
2009	Macau Open	Jiang Yanjiao	16–21, 22–20, 21–12
2009	Swiss Open	Jiang Yanjiao	21–17, 17–21, 21–13
2009	All England Open	Tine Rasmussen	21–19, 21–23, 21–11
2009	German Open	Zhu Lin	20–22, 21–13, 21–11
2008	Japan Open (1)	Zhou Mi	21–19, 17–21, 21–15
2007	Russian Open	Xu Huaiwen	21–17, 16–21, 21–19
2007	Bitburger Open	Juliane Schenk	16–21, 21–10, 21–17
2006	World Cup	Xie Xingfang	21–18, 21–19

     Super Series tournament

     Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix tournament

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Chinese) Profile

Randy Johnson
Johnson pitching for the San Francisco Giants in 2009
Pitcher
Born: (1963-09-10) September 10, 1963 (age 48) Walnut Creek, California
Batted: Right	Threw: Left
MLB debut
September 15, 1988 for the Montreal Expos
Last MLB appearance
October 4, 2009 for the San Francisco Giants
Career statistics
Win–loss record	303–166
Earned run average	3.29
Strikeouts	4,875
Teams
Montreal Expos (1988–1989) Seattle Mariners (1989–1998) Houston Astros (1998) Arizona Diamondbacks (1999–2004) New York Yankees (2005–2006) Arizona Diamondbacks (2007–2008) San Francisco Giants (2009)
Career highlights and awards
10× All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004) World Series champion (2001) 5× Cy Young Award (1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) World Series MVP (2001) Triple Crown (2002) Pitched a no-hitter on June 2, 1990 Pitched a perfect game on May 18, 2004

Randall David "Randy" Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former American Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 22-year career, he pitched for six different teams.

The 6-foot-10-inch (2.08 m) Johnson was celebrated for having one of the most dominant fastballs in the game. He regularly approached, and occasionally exceeded, 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) during his prime. He also threw a hard, biting slider. Johnson won the Cy Young Award five times, second only to Roger Clemens' seven.

Johnson finished his career first in strikeouts per nine innings pitched among starting pitchers (10.67), second all-time in total strikeouts (4,875; first among left-handed pitchers), third in hit batsmen (188), tenth in fewest hits allowed per nine innings pitched (7.24), 22nd in wins (303), and 57th in shutouts (37). He pitched two no-hitters, the second of which was the 17th perfect game in baseball history.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Johnson was born in Walnut Creek, California, to Carol Hannah and Rollen Charles “Bud” Johnson.^[1] By the time he entered Livermore High School, he was a star in baseball and basketball. In 1982, as a senior, he struck out 121 batters in 66 innings, and threw a perfect game in his last high school start. He also played on a Bercovich team that assembled top players from throughout California. After high school he was drafted in 1982 by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round and offered $50,000 to sign. Instead, Johnson accepted a full athletic scholarship to USC, also playing 2 years of basketball. He continued to start at the University of Southern California under coach Rod Dedeaux, but often exhibited control problems.

Major league career (1988–2009)[link]

Montreal Expos (1988–1989)[link]

Johnson was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the second round of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft. He made his MLB debut in 1988, and pitched in a total of 11 games for the Expos in 1988 and 1989.

Johnson was among the most feared pitchers in baseball because of his dominant pitching arsenal (fastball, slider), augmented by his intimidating appearance (height, wild mullet hairstyle and mustache), and his angry, energetic demeanor on the mound.^{[citation needed]} Part of his early intimidation factor came from his dramatic lack of control.^{[citation needed]}

Seattle Mariners (1989–1998)[link]

After being traded to the Seattle Mariners by the Expos for Mark Langston during the 1989 season, Johnson led the AL in walks for three consecutive seasons (1990–92), and in hit batsmen in 1992 and 1993. In July 1991, facing the Milwaukee Brewers, the erratic Johnson allowed 4 runs on 1 hit, thanks to 10 walks in 4 innings. A month later, a 9th-inning single cost him a no-hitter against the Oakland Athletics. Johnson suffered another 10-walk, 4-inning start in 1992.

But his untapped talent was volcanic: in 1990, Johnson became the first left-hander to strike out Wade Boggs three times in one game, and a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers attested to his potential. Johnson credits a session with Nolan Ryan late in the 1992 season with helping him take his career to the next level; Ryan has said that he appreciated Johnson's talent and did not want to see him take as long to figure certain things out as he had taken. Ryan recommended a slight change in his delivery; before the meeting, Johnson would land on the heel of his foot after delivering a pitch, and as such, he usually landed offline from home plate. Ryan suggested that he land on the ball of his foot, and almost immediately, he began finding the strike zone more consistently.^[2] In a September 27, 1992 game against the Texas Rangers, with Ryan the opposing starting pitcher, Johnson struck out 18 batters in eight innings while throwing 160 pitches, a pitch count that has not been reached in an MLB game since.^[3]

Johnson broke out in 1993 with a 19–8 record, 3.24 ERA and his first of six 300-plus strikeout seasons (308). In May 1993, Johnson again lost a no-hitter to a 9th-inning single; again, the opponent was the Oakland Athletics. He also recorded his 1,000th career strikeout against the Minnesota Twins' Chuck Knoblauch. Prior to the trade deadline, Johnson was nearly dealt to the Toronto Blue Jays for Steve Karsay and Mike Timlin. Toronto general manager Pat Gillick had two separate transactions on the table including the one for Johnson with Seattle general manager Woody Woodward and one for Rickey Henderson with Oakland general manager Sandy Alderson. When Gillick was unable to contact Woodward he agreed to utilize the deal with Alderson. When Woodward returned Gillick's call he said he would agree to the deal for Johnson. However, Gillick gave his word to Alderson even though the deal had not been finalized.^[4] At the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore, Maryland, in a famous incident, Johnson threw a fastball over the head of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman John Kruk.^[5] A similar incident would occur with Larry Walker in the 1997 All-Star Game.^[6]

After pitching well in the strike-shortened 1994 season, Johnson won the American League Cy Young Award in 1995 with an 18–2 record, 2.48 ERA and 294 strikeouts. His .900 winning percentage was the second highest in AL history, behind Johnny Allen, who had gone 15–1 for the Cleveland Indians in 1937. Johnson, who also finished second in the 1993 and 1997 Cy Young voting, and third in 1994, was the first Seattle Mariners pitcher to win the award, and the only one until Félix Hernández took home the honor in 2010.

Johnson capped the Mariners' late season comeback by pitching a 3-hitter in the AL West's one-game playoff, crushing the California Angels' hopes with 12 strikeouts. Thus unable to start in the 5-game ALDS series against the Yankees until the third game, Johnson watched as New York took a 2–0 series lead. Johnson beat the Yankees in Game 3 with 10 strikeouts in 7 innings.

When the series went the full five games, the Mariners having come back from an 0–2 deficit to win both games at the Kingdome, Johnson made a dramatic relief appearance in the series final, Game 5, on only one day's rest. Johnson's slow walk to the pitcher's mound from the left field bullpen electrified the sold-out home crowd. Entering a 4–4 game in the ninth inning, Johnson pitched the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings. He allowed 1 run, struck out 6, and held on for the series-ending win in Seattle's dramatic comeback.

Johnson posted an 0–6 playoff record in his next four playoff series, each of which his teams lost.

Johnson was sidelined throughout much of the 1996 season with a back injury, but he rebounded in 1997 with a 20–4 record, 291 strikeouts, and a 2.28 ERA (his personal best). Between May 1994 and October 1997, Johnson had gone 53–9, including a 16–0 streak that fell one short of the AL record. Johnson had two 19-strikeout starts in 1997, on June 24 and August 8.

As the 1998 season began, Johnson became upset that the Mariners would not offer him a contract extension; his contract expired after the season.^[7] Though the Mariners initially wanted to keep Johnson, turning down a trade offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers,^[8] they fell out of contention, going 8-20 in June.^[9] Minutes before the non-waiver trade deadline, on July 31, the Mariners traded Johnson to the Houston Astros for three minor leaguers, Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen, and John Halama.^[9]

Houston Astros (1998)[link]

Upon arriving in Houston, Johnson caught fire. In 11 regular-season starts with the Astros, he had a 10–1 record, a 1.28 ERA, and 116 strikeouts in 84⅓ innings, and pitched 4 shutouts. Johnson finished 7th in the National League Cy Young voting despite pitching only 2 months in the league, and helped Houston win their second straight National League Central division title. During the playoffs, however, the Astros lost the NLDS to the San Diego Padres, 3–1. Johnson started Games 1 and 4, both losses. He only gave up three earned runs combined in the two games, but received only one run in support (in Game 4).

Arizona Diamondbacks (1999–2004)[link]

Johnson agreed to a four-year contract, with an option for a fifth year, for $52.4 million, with the Arizona Diamondbacks; a second-year franchise.^[10] Johnson led the team to the playoffs that year on the strength of a 17–9 record and 2.48 ERA with 364 strikeouts, leading the majors in innings, complete games and strikeouts. Johnson won the 1999 NL Cy Young Award and Warren Spahn Award as the best left-handed pitcher in MLB.^[11] Johnson joined Gaylord Perry and Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers to have won the award in both the American and National Leagues. (Roger Clemens and Roy Halladay have since done the same).

Johnson finished 2000 with 19 wins, 347 strikeouts and a 2.64 ERA, and won his second consecutive NL Cy Young Award and Warren Spahn Award.^{[citation needed]} The Diamondbacks acquired Curt Schilling from the Philadelphia Phillies in July 2000, and the two aces anchored the Diamondbacks rotation.^[12]

In the fourth year of the franchise's existence, Johnson and Schilling carried the Arizona Diamondbacks to their first World Series appearance and victory in 2001 against the New York Yankees. Johnson and Schilling shared the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, the Babe Ruth Award,^[13] and were named Sports Illustrated magazine's 2001 "Sportsmen of the Year." For the first of two consecutive seasons, Johnson and Schilling finished 1–2 in the Cy Young balloting.^[14] Johnson also won his third consecutive Warren Spahn Award.^[15] Johnson's performance was particularly dominating, striking out 11 in a 3-hit shutout in game 2, pitching seven innings for the victory in Game 6 and then coming on in relief the following day to pick up the win in Game 7. Of Arizona's eleven post-season wins in 2001, Johnson had five.

Johnson's Game 7 relief appearance was his second of the 2001 season; on July 19, a game against the Padres was delayed by two electrical explosions in Qualcomm Stadium. When the game resumed the following day, Johnson stepped in as the new pitcher and racked up 16 strikeouts in 7 innings, technically setting the record for the most strikeouts in a relief stint.

Johnson struck out 20 batters in a game on May 8, 2001 against the Cincinnati Reds, Johnson recorded all 20 strikeouts in the first nine innings, but because the game went into extra innings, it was not categorized by MLB as an "official" 20-strikeout game.

In a freak accident on March 24, 2001, during the 7th inning of a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants, Johnson threw a fastball that struck and killed a dove. The bird swooped across the infield just as Johnson was releasing the ball. After being struck by the pitch, the bird landed dead amid a "sea of feathers." The official call was "no pitch."^[16]

On August 23, 2001, Johnson struck out three batters on nine pitches in the 6th inning of a 5–1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the 30th pitcher in major league history to pitch an immaculate inning.

In 2002, Johnson won the pitching Triple Crown, leading the NL in wins, ERA and strikeouts, and was voted his fourth consecutive Cy Young and Warren Spahn Awards.^[17] It was Johnson's fourth consecutive 300-strikeout season, a record.^{[citation needed]} He also became the first pitcher in baseball history to post a 24–5 record.^[18]

Johnson spent the majority of the 2003 season on the disabled list and was ineffective in the few injury-hampered starts he did make. One thing he did accomplish that year was hit his first career home run in a September 19, 2003 game against the Milwaukee Brewers. It was the only home run to date for Johnson, a career .125 hitter.

On May 18, 2004, Johnson pitched the 17th perfect game in baseball history. At 40 years of age, he was the oldest pitcher to accomplish this feat. Johnson had 13 strikeouts on his way to a 2–0 defeat of the Atlanta Braves. The perfect game made him the fifth pitcher in Major League history (after Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan, and Hideo Nomo) to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues. Johnson struck out Jeff Cirillo of the San Diego Padres on June 29, 2004 to become only the fourth MLB player to reach 4,000 strikeouts in a career.^{[citation needed]}

He finished the 2004 season with a 16–14 record, though the Diamondbacks scored two or fewer runs in 17 of his 35 starts that season.^{[citation needed]} Johnson led the major leagues in strikeouts (with 290). In the games where Arizona scored three or more runs, Johnson was 13–2. As his team only won 51 games that year, his ratio of winning 31.3% of his team's games was the highest for any starting pitcher since Steve Carlton in 1972 (who won 27 of the Phillies' 59 wins for an all-time record ratio of 45.8%).

New York Yankees (2005–2006)[link]

Johnson with the Yankees

The Diamondbacks traded Johnson to the New York Yankees for Javier Vázquez, Brad Halsey, Dioner Navarro, and cash in January 2005. Johnson pitched Opening Day for the Yankees on April 3, 2005 against the Boston Red Sox. Johnson was inconsistent through 2005, allowing 32 home runs; however, he regained his dominance in late 2005. He was 5–0 against the Yankees' division rival Red Sox and finished the season 17–8 with a 3.79 ERA, and was second in the AL with 211 strikeouts.

In 2005, The Sporting News published an update of their 1999 book Baseball's 100 Greatest Players. Johnson did not make the original edition, but for the 2005 update, with his career totals considerably higher and his 2001 World Championship season taken into account, he was ranked at Number 60.^{[citation needed]}

Johnson was a disappointment in Game 3 of the 2005 Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, allowing 5 runs on 2 home runs in 3 innings. In Game 5 in Anaheim, Johnson made an effective relief appearance after Mike Mussina gave up 5 runs and 6 hits to give the Angels a 5–2 lead, but the Yankees were unable to come back in the series.

After an inconclusive year in pinstripes, New York fans hoped that Johnson would return to his dominant style in his second Yankee season. Johnson began 2006 well, but then he struggled to find form. In between some impressive performances, he allowed 5 or more runs in 7 of his first 18 starts for the season. Johnson was more effective in the second half. Johnson finished the season with a 17–11 record, a subpar 5.00 ERA with 172 strikeouts. It had been revealed at the end of the 2006 season that a herniated disc in Johnson's back had been stiffening him and it was only in his second to last start of the season that he decided to get it checked. This exposure had caused him to miss his last start of 2006. After being given epidural anesthesia and a few bullpen sessions he was cleared to start in game 3 of the ALDS, however he gave up 5 runs in 5²⁄₃ innings.

Second stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2007–2008)[link]

Johnson pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In January 2007, the Yankees traded Johnson back to the Diamondbacks, almost two years to the day that Arizona had traded him to New York, for a package of Luis Vizcaíno, Alberto González, Steven Jackson, and Ross Ohlendorf.^{[citation needed]} The Yankees' decision to trade Johnson was primarily based on his pre-season request to be traded after the death of his brother. Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman was very sympathetic to Johnson's grief and agreed to trade him back to the Diamondbacks so that Johnson could be closer to his family in Phoenix.^{[citation needed]}

Johnson missed most of April rehabbing his injured back, before returning on April 24, 2007. Johnson allowed six runs in 5 innings and took the loss, but struck out seven. He returned to form, and by his tenth start of the season was among the NL's top ten strikeout pitchers. But on July 3, his surgically repaired disc from the previous season was reinjured. Johnson had season-ending surgery on the same disc, this time removing it completely. Reporting that the procedure went "a little better than expected," Arizona hoped that Johnson would be ready for the 2008 season.^{[citation needed]}

Johnson made his season debut on April 14, 2008 against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park eight months following his back surgery. On June 3, 2008, Johnson struck out Mike Cameron of the Milwaukee Brewers for career strikeout number 4,673. With this strikeout Johnson surpassed Roger Clemens for the number two spot on the all-time strikeout leaders list.^{[citation needed]} Johnson struck out 8 in the game but could not get the win as the Diamondbacks lost 7–1.

Johnson got his 4,700th career strikeout on July 6, 2008.^{[citation needed]} He finished the season with a 11–10 record and an ERA of 3.91, recording his 100th career complete game in a 2–1 victory over the Colorado Rockies.^[19]

San Francisco Giants (2009)[link]

On December 26, 2008, Johnson signed a one-year deal with the San Francisco Giants for a reported $8 million, with a possible $2.5 million in performance bonuses and another $2.5 million in award bonuses.^[20][21] Johnson became the twenty-fourth pitcher to reach 300 wins, beating the Washington Nationals on June 4 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.^[22] He became the seventh left-handed pitcher to achieve the 300 win milestone and the fifth pitcher in the last 50 years to get his 299th and 300th win in consecutive starts, joining Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Gaylord Perry, and Tom Seaver. Johnson was placed on the 60-day disabled list with a torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder on July 28, 2009.^[23] Johnson was activated by the Giants on September 16, 2009, and assigned to the Giants bullpen.^[24] On September 18, 2009, Johnson made his first relief appearance in 4 years, facing the Los Angeles Dodgers for 3 batters. At age 46, he was at the time the second oldest player in Major League Baseball, trailing only Jamie Moyer.^{[citation needed]}

On January 5, 2010, he announced his retirement from professional baseball.^[25] The Mariners invited Johnson to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Seattle Mariners home opener at Safeco Field on April 12, 2010^[26] and inducted Johnson into the Mariners Hall of Fame on January 17, 2012.^[27] The Diamondbacks also invited Johnson and former teammate Curt Schilling to both throw out the ceremonial first pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks' 10th Anniversary of the 2001 World Series team that defeated the New York Yankees after September 11, 2011.

Pitching style[link]

In the prime of his career, Johnson's fastball was consistently clocked over 100 mph (160 km/h), even as high as 102 mph (164 km/h).^[28] His signature pitch is a slider that breaks down and away from left-handed hitters and down and in to right-handed hitters. The effectiveness of the pitch is marked by its velocity being in the low 90s along with tight late break; hitters often believe they were thrown a fastball until the ball breaks just before it crosses home plate. Right-handed hitters have swung through and missed sliders that nearly hit their back feet.^[29] Johnson dubbed his slider "Mr. Snappy".^[30] In later years, his fastball declined to the 96 mph (154 km/h) range and his slider clocked at around 87 mph (140 km/h). Johnson also threw a split-finger fastball that behaved like a change-up and a sinker to induce ground-ball outs.^[31]

"Big Unit" nickname[link]

During batting practice in 1988, the 6'10" Johnson, then with the Montreal Expos, collided head-first with outfielder Tim Raines, prompting his teammate to exclaim, "You're a big unit!"^[32] The nickname stuck.

Throughout much of his career, Johnson held the title of tallest player in MLB history. Former pitcher Eric Hillman and current pitchers Andrew Sisco and Chris Young have also been measured at 6'10". The title of tallest player is now held by Johnson's former Diamondback teammate Jon Rauch, a relief pitcher who is 6'11".

Accomplishments[link]

Johnson throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Seattle Mariners home opener at Safeco Field in 2010

• Pitched a no-hitter for Seattle on June 2, 1990, against Detroit
• 10-time All-Star (1990, 1993–95, 1997, 1999, 2000–02, 2004)
• Led the league in strikeouts nine times (1992–95, 1999–2002, 2004)
• Led the league in ERA four times (1995, 1999, 2001, 2002)
• 5 time Cy Young Award winner (1995, 1999–2002)
• Holds the record for most strikeouts in a relief appearance (16 against San Diego on July 18, 2001)
• World Series co-MVP (Curt Schilling, 2001)
• Pitched a perfect game against Atlanta (May 18, 2004)- oldest pitcher to do so in major-league history
• Collected his 300th win in a 5–1 victory against the Washington Nationals on June 4, 2009
• Sports Illustrated MLB All-Decade Team (2009)
• Has defeated every major-league team at least once
• Struck out 20 batters on May 8, 2001 against Cincinnati Reds
• Struck out 4,875 batters; 2nd most all-time (Nolan Ryan, 5,714)
• Named to the Mariners Hall of Fame

Acting career[link]

Johnson guest starred in The Simpsons episode "Bart Has Two Mommies", which aired on March 19, 2006. Johnson appeared in the movie Little Big League, playing himself.

Johnson appeared in a Right Guard commercial where he fired dodgeballs at Kyle Brandt, who represented odor. Johnson also appeared in several commercials for Nike in 1998. The spots comedically portrayed him taking batting practice (swinging ineptly at balls from a pitching machine) in his hope that he would break Roger Maris' then-single-season record for home runs. He made a cameo appearance in a commercial for MLB 2K9 with teammate Tim Lincecum. Johnson made an appearance in a GEICO insurance commercial.^[33]

Johnson has been featured as a playable character in various Backyard Baseball games.

Personal life[link]

Johnson has four children with his wife Lisa: Sammi (born 1994), Tanner (born 1996), Willow (born 1998), and Alexandria (born 1999). He also has a daughter from a previous relationship, Heather Renee Roszell (born 1989).^[34] He is a resident of Paradise Valley, Arizona.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Baseball portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Randy Johnson

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Randy Johnson at the Internet Movie Database
• Randy Johnson Video on ESPN Video Archive
• Box score of Johnson's perfect game
• Randy Johnson Video on FoxSports Video Archive
• CBS Player Page
• Randy Johnson: Countdown to 300 Wins