W. Somerset Maugham
publication date: Monday, December 3, 2018 (part of Winter 2019)
category: 
Literature
clue: This mostly gay would-be doctor wrote about human bondage, a razor's edge, and a magician not unlike Aleister Crowley.
explanation: Maugham was a physician before becoming a full-time writer. He described himself as three-fourths queer. His best-known novels include Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge, and The Magician. more…
difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Samir Mehta, LaVonne Lemler, Chris Lemler, Matthew Preston, Richard Slominsky, Erik Bates, and Stan Iwanchuk
Gothic Goodbye: The RPG Gothic Earth has been set in a world of literary creations roughly contemporary to its 1899 setting, with characters like Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula driving much of the storyline. After a decade of play, the game is now in its final weeks. Here's sending it off with a two-week retrospective of authors of that era whose works captured the popular imagination, in the order in which they shaped the world of Gothic Earth.Similar Goos
Bram Stoker
This Irish novelist and theater manager gave bloodthirsty readers one of the greatest undying villains in all of literature. Go »
Arthur Conan Doyle
Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Lestrade, Adler, Moran -- and even Mycroft -- will live on forever, thanks to the imagination of this British doctor. Go »
H.G. Wells
This author, who wrote classic novels about time travel, genetic horrors, an invisible person, and alien attacks, created a deep well of science-fiction concepts to inspire later authors. Go »
L. Frank Baum
Dorothy was disappointed by the "wizard" that she and the scarecrow, tin man, and lion had followed the Yellow Brick Road to meet, but frankly, the real man behind the curtain was this imaginative American icon. Go »
Sax Rohmer
This author roamed between genres like pastoral fantasy, Islamic terrorism, and mummy-based horror, but his most enduring creation was a racist caricature of a crime lord with distinctive facial hair. Go »
