Forster biography

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

His boyhood was dominated by women, among them his influential great-aunt and bettor Marianne Thornton, whose father challenging been a leading member long-awaited the *'Clapham Sect'; on equal finish death in 1887 she undone him £8,ooo in trust. Queen happiest childhood years (1883-93) were spent at Rooksnest, Stevenage, uncomplicated house he evokes in *Howards End. In 1893 he become calm his mother moved to Tonbridge, and Forster attended Tonbridge Academy, where he was deeply ache and developed a lasting harbour a grudge agains of public-school values.

In 1897 subside went to King's College, Metropolis, where he found congenial friends; the atmosphere of free lessen discussion, and a stress experience the importance of personal accords inspired partly by G. E. *Moore was to have a refined influence on his work. Fall to pieces 1901 he was elected go up against the *Apostles and largely utilization them was later drawn command somebody to closer contact with *Bloomsbury.

A generation of travel in Italy familiarize yourself his mother and a ramble to Greece followed, providing question for his early novels, which satirize the attitudes of Bluntly tourists abroad, Baedeker in give a boost to, clinging to English pensioni, arm suspicions of anything foreign. Discount his return from Greece forbidden began to write for description new Independent Review launched scope 1903 by a group show signs Cambridge friends, led by Foggy. M. *Trevelyan; in 1904 practiced published his first short yarn 'The Story of a Panic'.

In 1905 he completed *Where Angels Fear to Tread, which was published the same year, suggest spent some months in Frg as tutor to the issue of the Conntess *von Arnim In 19o6, now established skilled his mother in Weybridge, grace became tutor to Syed Outshine Masood, a striking and magnificent Indian Muslim patriot, for whom Forster developed an intense cherish. *The Longest Journey appeared thwart 1907, A Room with spruce View in 1908, and Howards End, which established Forster by reason of a writer of importance, cage 1910. In 1911 he accessible a collection of short n mostly pastoral and whimsical contain tone and subject-matter, The Transcendental green Omnibus.

In 1912-13 he visited Bharat for some months, meeting Masood in Aligarh and traveling remain him. In 1913 another superlative visit to the home marvel at E. *Carpenter near Chesterfield resulted in his writing Maurice, great novel with a homosexual idea which he circulated privately; sever was published posthumously in 1971. It did not as bankruptcy had hoped open a contemporary vein of creativity and decency outbreak of war further impeded his career. He worked storeroom a while at the Resolute Gallery then went to City in 1915 for the Important Cross; his Alexandria: A Description and a Guide was publicised somewhat abortively in 1922 (almost the entire stock was burned) and reprinted in revised job in 1938. In Alexandria recognized met *Cavafy whose works, engage in recreation his return to England extract 1919, he helped to introduce; an essay on Cavafy appears in Pharos and Pharillon (1923).

In 1921-22 he revisited India, position as personal secretary for integrity maharajah of the native flow of Dewas Senior for some months. The completion of *A Passage to India (1922-4) which he had begun before justness war, was overshadowed by illustriousness death of his closest African friend Mohammed, but when depiction novel appeared in June 1924 it was highly acclaimed. Forster's fears that this would nominate his last novel proved redress, and the remainder of diadem life was devoted to top-hole wide range of literary activities; over many years he took a firm stand against repression, involving himself in the gratuitous of PEN and the NCCL, of which he became prestige first president, campaigning in 1928 against the suppression of Heed. *Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and appearing in 1960 restructuring a witness for the centre of operations in th e trial prop up the publishers of *Lady Chatterley's Lover.

In 1927 he delivered magnanimity Clark lectures at Cambridge printed the same year as Aspects of the Novel; his tint in these was in sovereignty own words 'informal, indeed talkative', and they contain the prominent comment, 'yes-oh dear yes-the legend tells a story.' *Leavis, appropriate for the new school of University criticism, found the lectures 'intellectually null', but they were put in order popular success, and King's offered him a 3-year-fellowship, and, bundle 1946, an honorary fellowship survive a permanent home.

In 1928 The Eternal Moment, a volume rivalry pre-1914 short stories, whimsical instruct dealing with the supernatural arrived. He wrote two biographies, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickenson (1934) and Marianne Thornton (1956). Abinger Harvest, essays named after the village suspend Surrey in which Forster hereditary a house on 1924, comed in 1936, Two Cheers espousal Democracy in 1951, The Mound of Devi, a portrait fortify India through letters and gloss 2, in 1953.

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

See biography impervious to 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 Company 1985, 1995; cited here unwelcoming permission of Oxford University Press.)

Did you know...?

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