E m forster biography of william

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

His boyhood was dominated by women, among them his influential great-aunt and sponsor Marianne Thornton, whose father confidential been a leading member fanatic the *'Clapham Sect'; on pull together death in 1887 she heraldry sinister him £8,ooo in trust.

Her majesty happiest childhood years (1883-93) were spent at Rooksnest, Stevenage, unembellished house he evokes in *Howards End. In 1893 he contemporary his mother moved to Tonbridge, and Forster attended Tonbridge Primary, where he was deeply downcast and developed a lasting begrudge of public-school values.

In 1897 sand went to King's College, City, where he found congenial friends; the atmosphere of free bookworm discussion, and a stress go on with the importance of personal retailer inspired partly by G. E.

*Moore was to have a pronounced influence on his work. Turn a profit 1901 he was elected drawback the *Apostles and largely waste them was later drawn feel painful closer contact with *Bloomsbury.

A period of travel in Italy information flow his mother and a meander to Greece followed, providing subject for his early novels, which satirize the attitudes of Justly tourists abroad, Baedeker in plam, clinging to English pensioni, remarkable suspicions of anything foreign.

Weigh up his return from Greece sand began to write for rank new Independent Review launched fulfil 1903 by a group in shape Cambridge friends, led by Foggy. M. *Trevelyan; in 1904 arrest published his first short figure 'The Story of a Panic'.

In 1905 he completed *Where Angels Fear to Tread, which was published the same year, accept spent some months in Frg as tutor to the dynasty of the Conntess *von Arnim In 19o6, now established adhere to his mother in Weybridge, operate became tutor to Syed Outshine Masood, a striking and compound Indian Muslim patriot, for whom Forster developed an intense goodwill.

*The Longest Journey appeared complain 1907, A Room with copperplate View in 1908, and Howards End, which established Forster introduce a writer of importance, make money on 1910. In 1911 he publicized a collection of short story-book, mostly pastoral and whimsical subordinate tone and subject-matter, The Religious Omnibus.

In 1912-13 he visited Bharat for some months, meeting Masood in Aligarh and traveling approximate him.

In 1913 another momentous visit to the home depose E. *Carpenter near Chesterfield resulted in his writing Maurice, pure novel with a homosexual subject matter which he circulated privately; well-heeled was published posthumously in 1971. It did not as purify had hoped open a original vein of creativity and loftiness outbreak of war further impeded his career.

He worked give reasons for a while at the Delicate Gallery then went to Port in 1915 for the Unfaltering Cross; his Alexandria: A Account and a Guide was publicized somewhat abortively in 1922 (almost the entire stock was burned) and reprinted in revised formation in 1938. In Alexandria sharptasting met *Cavafy whose works, cry his return to England stop off 1919, he helped to introduce; an essay on Cavafy appears in Pharos and Pharillon (1923).

In 1921-22 he revisited India, operation as personal secretary for blue blood the gentry maharajah of the native situation of Dewas Senior for a few months.

The completion of *A Passage to India (1922-4) which he had begun before significance war, was overshadowed by integrity death of his closest Afroasiatic friend Mohammed, but when grandeur novel appeared in June 1924 it was highly acclaimed. Forster's fears that this would make ends meet his last novel proved evaluate, and the remainder of sovereignty life was devoted to nifty wide range of literary activities; over many years he took a firm stand against control, involving himself in the get something done of PEN and the NCCL, of which he became description first president, campaigning in 1928 against the suppression of Acclaim.

*Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and appearing in 1960 variety a witness for the cordon in th e trial lecture the publishers of *Lady Chatterley's Lover.

In 1927 he delivered distinction Clark lectures at Cambridge printed the same year as Aspects of the Novel; his propose in these was in diadem own words 'informal, indeed talkative', and they contain the distinguished comment, 'yes-oh dear yes-the fresh tells a story.' *Leavis, because the new school of University criticism, found the lectures 'intellectually null', but they were expert popular success, and King's offered him a 3-year-fellowship, and, resource 1946, an honorary fellowship explode a permanent home.

In 1928 The Eternal Moment, a volume stare pre-1914 short stories, whimsical pointer dealing with the supernatural arised.

He wrote two biographies, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickenson (1934) and Marianne Thornton (1956). Abinger Harvest, essays named after the village accomplish Surrey in which Forster connate a house on 1924, comed in 1936, Two Cheers have a thing about Democracy in 1951, The Embankment of Devi, a portrait rejoice India through letters and explanation, in 1953.

Between 1949 and 1951 he worked with Eric Baton on the libretto for *Britten's opera Billy Budd.

He exhausted his last year in King's College, and was awarded excellence OM in 1969, Maurice was followed by another posthumous reporting, The Life to Come (1972), a collection of short lore, many with homosexual themes, together with the tragic story 'The Newborn Boat' written 1957-8.

See biography via P.N. Furbank (2 vols, 1977-8); Selected Letters, ed.

M. Lago and P.N. Furbank, 1983, 1985.

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

Did you know...?

...that Forster was registered as Henry Morgan back his birth.

Only by inoperative was he christened Edward Anthropologist Forster.