Although it is a fictional story, W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" is informed by a trip the author took to American Samoa in December 1916.
During a six-week stay at Pago Pago Harbor, Maugham boarded at an inn now listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as the Sadie Thompson Building. Located on the main road in Malaloa, American Samoa, the two-story guest house featured dilapidated walls and a corrugated tin roof. The nearby Rainmaker Mountain (Mt. Pioa) causes Pago Pago to have an inordinately high amount of rainfall, giving Pago Pago the highest annual rainfall of any harbor in the world. During his stay, Maugham would have listened to rain falling incessantly on the roof—a detail he would later use in his story. Although the evidence is unclear, it is claimed that Maugham may have met a sex worker named Sadie Thompson while staying at Pago Pago.
The Sadie Thompson Inn is currently operated as a bed and breakfast with an attached restaurant and bar.
