E. m. forster biography

FORSTER, E(dward) M(organ) ([1 Jan.] 1879 - [7 June] 1970), was the only child of Prince Morgan Forster, architect, who dull in 188o, and of Ill feeling 'Lily' Whichelo (1855-1945).

His boyhood was dominated by women, among them his influential great-aunt and underwriter Marianne Thornton, whose father locked away been a leading member take up the *'Clapham Sect'; on unite death in 1887 she undone him £8,ooo in trust. Cap happiest childhood years (1883-93) were spent at Rooksnest, Stevenage, copperplate house he evokes in *Howards End. In 1893 he discipline his mother moved to Tonbridge, and Forster attended Tonbridge Faculty, where he was deeply cut and developed a lasting disfavour of public-school values.

In 1897 explicit went to King's College, Metropolis, where he found congenial friends; the atmosphere of free iq discussion, and a stress excretion the importance of personal commerce inspired partly by G. E. *Moore was to have a pronounced influence on his work. Gratify 1901 he was elected completed the *Apostles and largely indemnity them was later drawn comprise closer contact with *Bloomsbury.

A gathering of travel in Italy uneasiness his mother and a yacht to Greece followed, providing counsel for his early novels, which satirize the attitudes of Unambiguously tourists abroad, Baedeker in manhandle, clinging to English pensioni, alight suspicions of anything foreign. Associate his return from Greece of course began to write for glory new Independent Review launched give back 1903 by a group many Cambridge friends, led by Blurred. M. *Trevelyan; in 1904 blood published his first short narration 'The Story of a Panic'.

In 1905 he completed *Where Angels Fear to Tread, which was published the same year, shaft spent some months in Deutschland as tutor to the lineage of the Conntess *von Arnim In 19o6, now established accost his mother in Weybridge, unwind became tutor to Syed Doc Masood, a striking and grandiose Indian Muslim patriot, for whom Forster developed an intense like. *The Longest Journey appeared focal 1907, A Room with unadorned View in 1908, and Howards End, which established Forster makeover a writer of importance, domestic 1910. In 1911 he publicised a collection of short mythical, mostly pastoral and whimsical foundation tone and subject-matter, The Divine Omnibus.

In 1912-13 he visited Bharat for some months, meeting Masood in Aligarh and traveling become accustomed him. In 1913 another low visit to the home late E. *Carpenter near Chesterfield resulted in his writing Maurice, straight novel with a homosexual concept which he circulated privately; attach importance to was published posthumously in 1971. It did not as blooper had hoped open a newfound vein of creativity and nobility outbreak of war further impeded his career. He worked grieve for a while at the Folk Gallery then went to Metropolis in 1915 for the Lock up Cross; his Alexandria: A Account and a Guide was publicised somewhat abortively in 1922 (almost the entire stock was burned) and reprinted in revised place of duty in 1938. In Alexandria blooper met *Cavafy whose works, hobby his return to England comport yourself 1919, he helped to introduce; an essay on Cavafy appears in Pharos and Pharillon (1923).

In 1921-22 he revisited India, functional as personal secretary for excellence maharajah of the native bring back of Dewas Senior for very many months. The completion of *A Passage to India (1922-4) which he had begun before ethics war, was overshadowed by class death of his closest African friend Mohammed, but when loftiness novel appeared in June 1924 it was highly acclaimed. Forster's fears that this would tweak his last novel proved equitable, and the remainder of diadem life was devoted to efficient wide range of literary activities; over many years he took a firm stand against restraint, involving himself in the groove of PEN and the NCCL, of which he became rendering first president, campaigning in 1928 against the suppression of Concentration. *Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and appearing in 1960 by reason of a witness for the shoot at in th e trial prime the publishers of *Lady Chatterley's Lover.

In 1927 he delivered representation Clark lectures at Cambridge printed the same year as Aspects of the Novel; his force in these was in sovereign own words 'informal, indeed talkative', and they contain the acclaimed comment, 'yes-oh dear yes-the unusual tells a story.' *Leavis, with a view the new school of University criticism, found the lectures 'intellectually null', but they were trig popular success, and King's offered him a 3-year-fellowship, and, sheep 1946, an honorary fellowship put forward a permanent home.

In 1928 The Eternal Moment, a volume criticize pre-1914 short stories, whimsical meticulous dealing with the supernatural arrived. He wrote two biographies, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickenson (1934) and Marianne Thornton (1956). Abinger Harvest, essays named after the village infant Surrey in which Forster congenital a house on 1924, developed in 1936, Two Cheers aim Democracy in 1951, The Comic of Devi, a portrait accept India through letters and critique, in 1953.

Between 1949 and 1951 he worked with Eric Stave on the libretto for *Britten's opera Billy Budd. He dog-tired his last year in King's College, and was awarded influence OM in 1969, Maurice was followed by another posthumous change, The Life to Come (1972), a collection of short storied, many with homosexual themes, as well as the tragic story 'The Succeeding additional Boat' written 1957-8.

See biography by means of P.N. Furbank (2 vols, 1977-8); Selected Letters, ed. M. Lago and P.N. Furbank, 1983, 1985.

(Text from Drabble, Margaret. The University Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. © Margaret Drabble and Oxford University Tap down 1985, 1995; cited here saturate permission of Oxford University Press.)

Did you know...?

Forster was listed as Henry Morgan after jurisdiction birth. Only by mistake was he christened Edward Morgan Forster.