Em forester biography
A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster
Before judging my reading experience of this book based on my star rating, let me say this:
This was not a bad book and there are aspects of this biography that provide a valuable insight into Forster's life and work. However, this biography really follows Forster's life from one angle only, depending on what you expect from a biography, mileage on this may vary.
Moffat starts the book with an explanation of her approach, which in turn is based on something Christopher Isherwood said when looking at a stack of biographies about Forster:
"Of course all those books have got to be re-written," he said. "Unless you start with the fact that he was homosexual, nothing's any good."
That is, Moffat is quoting from an Isherwood biography by John Lehmann here, and whether this is a true account or was written as a dramatic embellishment, I could not say.
It does, however, go straight to the heart of Moffat's biography ... and also to one of the criticisms I have.
Moffat does an excellent job presenting Forster in the context of his sexuality, or more precisely his initial struggles with it and the immense pressure he felt of not being able to live openly for fear of persecution and, indeed, prosecution. Being a young man at the start of the 20th century, Forster would have only been too aware of the trials of Oscar Wilde and would himself witness the arrest of friends and acquaintances over the decades.
His resentment over not being able to tell the stories he really wanted to tell and over having to work within the expectations of societal conventions lead to Forster stopping to write major works of fiction after A Passage to India (1924). That is, he did write another major novel, Maurice, but insisted that it should not be published until after his death as the story tells of the relationship between two men and he feared the repercussions. (Btw, Maurice apparently includes a game-keep
E.M. Forster: biography
E.M. Forster was born Edward Morgan Forster on 1st January 1879 in London. Forster was born to a Welsh father, Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster, and an Anglo-Irish mother, Alice Clara Whichelo. Edward Senior died of tuberculosis when his son was only a year old. He left the family considerable money so Forster had quite a privileged upbringing. He was close to his mother who cared for him deeply. Forster enjoyed a pleasant childhood in their Hertfordshire home that the two moved to in 1883.
Fig. 1 - E.M. Forster is a well-known modernist writer whose best works include A Room with a View and A Passage to India.
Forster attended a boarding school as a teenager that he disliked as he saw the students and school ethos as snobbish. Forster then went on to attend King's College, Cambridge. He studied history, literature, and philosophy.
He began to foster a love of writing while at university. Forster also participated in debate groups that began to shape his worldview and make him a more liberal person. However, Forster did not receive the grades needed to progress into his fourth year. He was in no need of money so he and his mother left for Europe.
They travelled through Italy and Austria. This theme of travelling would be very important in Forster's life. Forster's Italian travels would prove to be a key inspiration for A Room with a View (1908). They then returned to London and Forster worked for some time as a tutor.
He moved to Surrey with his mother in 1904. He spent some time as a tutor in Germany before returning to England. Around this time in 1905 his first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, a novel set in Italy, was published. It was received quite well and thought to be very original.
Forster then published The Longest Journey (1907) and A Room with a View the following year. The former novel is thought to have been semi-autobiographical. The latter was another tale set in Italy that proved to have great lon English novelist and writer (1879–1970) Not to be confused with E. M. Foster. E. M. Forster OM CH Portrait of Forster by Dora Carrington, c. 1924–1925 Edward Morgan ForsterOM CH (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). He also wrote numerous short stories, essays, speeches and broadcasts, as well as a limited number of biographies and some pageant plays. His short story "The Machine Stops" (1909) is often viewed as the beginning of technological dystopian fiction. He also co-authored the opera Billy Budd (1951). Many of his novels examine class differences and hypocrisy. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work. Considered one of the most successful of the Edwardian era English novelists, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 22 separate years. He declined a knighthood in 1949, was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1953, and in 1961 he was one of the first five authors named as a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. After attending Tonbridge School, Forster studied history and classics at King's College, Cambridge, where he met fellow future writers such as Lytton Strachey and Leonard Woolf. He then travelled throughout Europe before publishing his first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, in 1905. His final novel, Maurice, a tale of homosexual love in early Correspondence, literary manuscripts, journals, other papers, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Letters, Historical Manuscripts Commission, National Register of Archives Letters and literary manuscripts, Richard A. Gleeson Library, University of San Francisco Letters to S. S. Koteliansky, Add. Ms 48974, British Library, St Pancras Correspondence with the Society of Authors, Add. Ms 56704, British Library, St Pancras Correspondence with Marie Stopes, Add. Ms 58502, British Library, St Pancras Correspondence with Sibyl Colefax, Bodleian Library, Oxford Letters to E. J. Thompson, Bodleian Library, Oxford Letters to V. N. Datta, Cambridge University Library Letters to Lord Kennet and Lady Kennet, Cambridge University Library Correspondence with Christopher Isherwood, Huntington Library, San Marino, California Letters to Sir George Barnes, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Letters to Vanessa Bell, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Correspondence with the Buckingham family, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Correspondence with A. E. Felkin, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Correspondence with J. M. Keynes, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Letters, postcards, and telegram to G. H. W. Rylands, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Letters to W. G. H. Sprott, King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge Correspondence with Sir B. H. Liddell Hart, Liddell Hart C., King's London Correspondence with James Hanley, Liverpool Record Office and Local Studies Service Letters to Naomi Mitchison, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh Letters to Hugh Walpole, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas Correspondence with Lord Clark, Tate Collection Letters to Elizabeth Trevelyan, Trinity College, Cambridge Letters to William Plomer, Durham University Letters to Kingsley Martin, University of Sussex Special Collections Correspondence with New Statesman magazine, University E. M. Forster
Born Edward Morgan Forster
(1879-01-01)1 January 1879
Marylebone, Middlesex, EnglandDied 7 June 1970(1970-06-07) (aged 91)
Coventry, Warwickshire, EnglandOccupation Writer (novels, short stories, essays) Alma mater King's College, Cambridge Period 1901–1970 Genre Realism, symbolism, modernism Subjects Class division, gender, imperialism, homosexuality Notable works E. M. Forster