KRISHNA PREM

Ronald Nixon, aka Krishna Prem, was among those considered the model for Larry Darrell, the central character in W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge.  In the novel, Larry is an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I.  He sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life, traveling through Europe and eventually to India where he has significant spiritual adventures.
  
Ronald Nixon was not an American but an Englishman, but he became a fighter pilot in the First World War as well, and likewise experienced a crisis of meaninglessness in his life.  He also went to India where he was one of the first Europeans to pursue orthodox Vaishnavite Hinduism.  Following his initiation in the sect, he adopted the monastic name Krishna Prem.

Another candidate for the model of Larry was novelist Christopher Isherwood, who had assisted Maugham in interpreting Verse 1.3.14 of the Katha Upanishad which became the novel’s theme.  But Isherwood, who was an initiate of Advaita Vedanta in Swami Prabhavananda’s Vedanta Society of Southern California, went so far as to write Time magazine denying he was the model.

A man named Guy Hague was believed to have influenced the Larry Darrell character, but on closer examination he proved not to be the most plausible model.  The English poet and translator Lewis Thompson was thought to be a stronger possibility.

Still, on the surface at least, Ronald Nixon, aka Krishna Prem, best fits the situation of Larry Darrell.  But Maugham wanted Larry to be “nobody,” as he put it, so real life models for the character, if there were any, will likely never be known.