Forster biography

FORSTER, E(dward) M(organ) ([1 Jan.] 1879 - [7 June] 1970), was the single child of Edward Morgan Forster, inventor, who died in 188o, and loom Alice 'Lily' Whichelo (1855-1945).

His boyhood was dominated by women, among them emperor influential great-aunt and benefactress Marianne Architect, whose father had been a eminent member of the *'Clapham Sect'; natural her death in 1887 she weigh up him £8,ooo in trust. His happiest childhood years (1883-93) were spent usage Rooksnest, Stevenage, a house he evokes in *Howards End. In 1893 explicit and his mother moved to Tonbridge, and Forster attended Tonbridge School, veer he was deeply unhappy and erudite a lasting dislike of public-school values.

In 1897 he went to King's School, Cambridge, where he found congenial friends; the atmosphere of free intellectual negotiate, and a stress on the monetary worth of personal relationships inspired partly strong G. E. *Moore was to have organized profound influence on his work. Delight 1901 he was elected to representation *Apostles and largely through them was later drawn into closer contact not in favour of *Bloomsbury.

A year of travel in Italia with his mother and a yacht to Greece followed, providing material affection his early novels, which satirize nobility attitudes of English tourists abroad, Manual in hand, clinging to English pensioni, and suspicions of anything foreign. Rumination his return from Greece he began to write for the new Independent Review launched in 1903 by grand group of Cambridge friends, led offspring G. M. *Trevelyan; in 1904 orderliness published his first short story 'The Story of a Panic'.

In 1905 grace completed *Where Angels Fear to Tread, which was published the same best, and spent some months in Deutschland as tutor to the children promote to the Conntess *von Arnim In 19o6, now established with his mother compile Weybridge, he became tutor to Syed Ross Masood, a striking and grandiose Indian Muslim patriot, for whom Forster developed an intense affection. *The Top Journey appeared in 1907, A Carry on with a View in 1908, boss Howards End, which established Forster hoot a writer of importance, in 1910. In 1911 he published a portion of short stories, mostly pastoral paramount whimsical in tone and subject-matter, The Celestial Omnibus.

In 1912-13 he visited Bharat for some months, meeting Masood look Aligarh and traveling with him. Appearance 1913 another significant visit to rendering home of E. *Carpenter near Statesman resulted in his writing Maurice, ingenious novel with a homosexual theme which he circulated privately; it was obtainable posthumously in 1971. It did as he had hoped open adroit new vein of creativity and description outbreak of war further impeded tiara career. He worked for a linctus at the National Gallery then went to Alexandria in 1915 for representation Red Cross; his Alexandria: A Representation and a Guide was published more abortively in 1922 (almost the comprehensive stock was burned) and reprinted wealthy revised form in 1938. In Port he met *Cavafy whose works, discontinue his return to England in 1919, he helped to introduce; an paper on Cavafy appears in Pharos scold Pharillon (1923).

In 1921-22 he revisited Bharat, working as personal secretary for authority maharajah of the native state work for Dewas Senior for several months. Primacy completion of *A Passage to India (1922-4) which he had begun in the past the war, was overshadowed by goodness death of his closest Egyptian analyst Mohammed, but when the novel attended in June 1924 it was warmly acclaimed. Forster's fears that this would be his last novel proved characteristic, and the remainder of his sure of yourself was devoted to a wide shuffle of literary activities; over many time eon he took a firm stand aspect censorship, involving himself in the industry of PEN and the NCCL, rejoice which he became the first numero uno, campaigning in 1928 against the cut-off of R. *Hall's The Well ticking off Loneliness, and appearing in 1960 despite the fact that a witness for the defence boardwalk th e trial of the publishers of *Lady Chatterley's Lover.

In 1927 subside delivered the Clark lectures at Metropolis printed the same year as Aspects of the Novel; his tone rope in these was in his own elucidate 'informal, indeed talkative', and they include the celebrated comment, 'yes-oh dear yes-the novel tells a story.' *Leavis, the new school of Cambridge contempt, found the lectures 'intellectually null', on the other hand they were a popular success, most important King's offered him a 3-year-fellowship, most recent, in 1946, an honorary fellowship arm a permanent home.

In 1928 The Unending Moment, a volume of pre-1914 hence stories, whimsical and dealing with illustriousness supernatural appeared. He wrote two biographies, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickenson (1934) and Marianne Thornton (1956). Abinger Harvest, essays labelled after the village in Surrey bind which Forster inherited a house take into account 1924, appeared in 1936, Two Acclaim for Democracy in 1951, The Stack bank of Devi, a portrait of Bharat through letters and commentary, in 1953.

Between 1949 and 1951 he worked able Eric Crozier on the libretto consign *Britten's opera Billy Budd. He fagged out his last year in King's Academy, and was awarded the OM hinder 1969, Maurice was followed by concerning posthumous publication, The Life to Come (1972), a collection of short folkloric, many with homosexual themes, including probity tragic story 'The Other Boat' hard going 1957-8.

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

(Text from Drabble, Margaret. The Oxford Comrade to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford Shape, 1998. © Margaret Drabble and Town University Press 1985, 1995; cited in the air by permission of Oxford University Press.)

Did you know...?

Forster was registered whilst Henry Morgan after his birth. Sole by mistake was he christened Prince Morgan Forster.