View source for E. M. Forster

{{Short description|English novelist and writer (1879–1970)}}
{{Distinguish|E. M. Foster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = E. M. Forster
| honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100|OM|CH}}
| image            = E. M. Forster von Dora Carrington, 1924-25.jpg
| caption          = Portrait of Forster by [[Dora Carrington]], {{circa|1924–1925}}
| birth_name       = Edward Morgan Forster
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1879|1|1}}
| birth_place      = [[Marylebone]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|6|7|1879|1|1}}
| death_place      = [[Coventry]], [[Warwickshire]], England
| occupation       = Writer (novels, short stories, essays)
| period           = 1901–1970
| alma_mater       = [[King's College, Cambridge]]
| genre            = [[Realism (arts)|Realism]], [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolism]], [[modernism]]
| subjects         = [[Class division]], gender, imperialism, homosexuality
| notable_works    = {{unbulleted list|''[[A Room with a View]]'' (1908)|''[[Howards End]]'' (1910)|''[[A Passage to India]]'' (1924)|''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' (1971)}}
| signature        = E M Forster signature.jpg
}}

'''Edward Morgan Forster''' {{postnom|country=GBR|OM|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 biographies and [[medieval pageant|pageant plays]]. His short story "[[The Machine Stops]]" (1909) is often viewed as the beginning of technological [[dystopian fiction]]. He also co-authored the libretto to [[Benjamin Britten]]'s opera ''[[Billy Budd (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.<ref name="Nobel">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3128 |title=Edward M Forster |work=Nomination Database |publisher=[[Nobel Media]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402155616/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3128 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |access-date=5 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="Nobel-2">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3127 |title=E Forster |work=Nomination Database |publisher=[[Nobel Media]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012061726/http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3127 |archive-date=12 October 2014 |access-date=26 October 2016}}</ref> He declined a [[British honours system#Knighthood|knighthood]] in 1949, though he received the [[Order of Merit]] upon his 90th birthday.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=EM Forster (1879–1970) and the First World War |url=https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/diversity/lgbt-history/fwwhomosexuality/forster-fww/ |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=Exploring Surrey's Past}}</ref> Forster 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. The last of his novels to be published, ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'', is a tale of homosexual love in early 20th-century England. While completed in 1914, the novel was not published until 1971, the year after his death. 

Many of his novels were posthumously adapted for cinema, including [[Merchant Ivory Productions]] of ''[[A Room with a View (1985 film)|A Room with a View]]'' (1985), ''[[Maurice (1987 film)|Maurice]]'' (1987) and ''[[Howards End (film)|Howards End]]'' (1992), critically acclaimed period dramas which featured lavish sets and esteemed British actors, including [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Daniel Day-Lewis]], [[Hugh Grant]], [[Anthony Hopkins]] and [[Emma Thompson]]. Director [[David Lean]] filmed another well-received adaptation, ''[[A Passage to India (film)|A Passage to India]]'', in 1984.

==Early life==
Forster, born at 6 Melcombe Place, [[Dorset Square]], [[London]] NW1, which no longer stands, was the only child of the Anglo-Irish Alice Clara "Lily" (née Whichelo) and a Welsh architect, Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster. He was registered as Henry Morgan Forster, but accidentally baptised Edward Morgan Forster.<ref>Moffatt, p. 26.</ref> His father died of [[tuberculosis]] on 30 October 1880, before Forster's second birthday.<ref>[http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/29852.html AP Central – English Literature Author: E. M. Forster] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313211806/http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/29852.html |date=13 March 2012}}. Apcentral.collegeboard.com (18 January 2012). Retrieved on 10 June 2012.</ref> His father's sisters helped his mother to raise him. The tension between his father's straight-laced, religious family and his doting mother influenced the themes of his work.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-08 |title=E.M. Forster {{!}} Biography, Books, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-M-Forster |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> 

[[File:Bs 03 rooks nest square.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Plaque and sundial at [[Rooks Nest House|Rooks Nest]] in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, the childhood home remembered in Forster's novel ''[[Howards End]]''.]]
In 1883, he and his mother moved to [[Rooks Nest House|Rooks Nest]], near [[Stevenage]], [[Hertfordshire]], where they lived until 1893. This was to serve as a model for the house Howards End in his novel of that name. It is [[Listed building|listed]] [[Grade I listed buildings in Hertfordshire|Grade I]] on the [[National Heritage List for England]] for historic interest and literary associations.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1176972 |desc=Rooks News House Howards|access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref> Forster had fond memories of his childhood at Rooks Nest. He continued to visit the house into the later 1940s, and he retained the furniture all his life.<ref>{{cite book|author=Victoria Rosner|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Bloomsbury Group|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k66BAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|date=26 May 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01824-2|page=28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey M. Heath|title=The Creator as Critic and Other Writings by E. M. Forster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlE9xTv7B20C&pg=PA403|date=25 February 2008|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1-77070-178-6|page=403}}</ref>

[[File:Tonbridge School 2008.jpg|thumb|upright|A section of the main building, Tonbridge School]]
Among Forster's ancestors were members of the [[Clapham Sect]], a social reform group in the [[Church of England]]. Forster inherited £8,000 ({{Inflation|UK|8000|1887|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}) in [[Trust law|trust]] from his paternal great-aunt [[Marianne Thornton]] (daughter of the abolitionist [[Henry Thornton (reformer)|Henry Thornton]]), who died on 5 November 1887.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521542524&ss=fro |title=A Chronology of Forster's life and work |publisher=Cambridge.org |date=1 December 1953 |access-date=21 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924015351/http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521542524&ss=fro |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> This was enough to live on and enabled him to become a writer. He attended as a day boy [[Tonbridge School]] in Kent, where the school theatre has been named in his honour,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/about/facilities/theatre/ |title=E. M. Forster Theatre, Tonbridge School |publisher=Tonbridge-school.co.uk |access-date=21 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100828235549/http://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/about/facilities/theatre/ |archive-date=28 August 2010 }}</ref> although he is known to have been unhappy there.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/people/e-m-forster |title=British Museum site. Retrieved 7 August 2019. |access-date=25 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910034249/https://www.bl.uk/people/e-m-forster |archive-date=10 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

At [[King's College, Cambridge]] in 1897–1901,<ref>{{acad |id=FRSR897EM |name=Forster, Edward Morgan}}</ref> he became a member of the Christian Scientist Church known as the [[Cambridge Apostles|Apostles]] (formally the Cambridge ''Conversazione'' Society). They met in secret to discuss their work on philosophical and moral questions. Many of its members went on to constitute what came to be known as the [[Bloomsbury Group]], of which Forster was a member in the 1910s and 1920s. There is a famous recreation of Forster's Cambridge at the beginning of ''[[The Longest Journey (novel)|The Longest Journey]]''. The Schlegel sisters of ''[[Howards End]]'' are based to some degree on [[Vanessa Bell|Vanessa]] and [[Virginia Woolf|Virginia]] Stephen.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf |editor-last=Sellers |editor-first=Susan  |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0521896948 |location=England |page=16}}</ref> Forster graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] with [[second-class honours]] in classics and history.

In 1903, Forster travelled in [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]] and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] out of interest in their classical heritage.<ref>{{cite news |title=E.M. Forster Chronology |url=https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernbritishnovel/e-m-forster-chronology/ |access-date=21 May 2025 |publisher=Yale University}}</ref> He then sought a post in [[German Empire|Germany]], to learn the language, and spent several months in the summer of 1905 in Nassenheide, [[Pomerania]] (now the Polish village of [[Rzędziny]]), as a tutor to the children of the writer [[Elizabeth von Arnim]]. He wrote a short memoir of this experience, which was one of the happiest times in his life.<ref>R. Sully (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=3F5ED-XhzjwC&pg=PA120 British Images of Germany: Admiration, Antagonism & Ambivalence, 1860-1914], p. 120. New York: Springer. Retrieved 20 July 2020 (Google Books)</ref><ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/4deb90eb-7c06-4548-992a-27a94c7dac2e E.M. Forster, (1920-1929) 'Nassenheide']. [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]. Retrieved 18 July 2020.</ref>

==Career==

[[File:EMForster1917.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Forster circa 1917]]
In 1914, he visited [[Egypt]], Germany and India with the classicist [[Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson]], by which time he had written all but one of his novels.<ref>[[Lionel Trilling]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C&pg=PA114 ''E. M. Forster'', p. 114.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502032740/http://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C&pg=PA114|date=2 May 2014}}</ref> As a [[conscientious objector]] in the First World War, Forster served as a Chief Searcher (for missing servicemen) for the [[British Red Cross]] in [[Alexandria]], Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Red Cross volunteer records |url=https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?fname=edward&sname=forster&id=77266&first=true |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905024514/https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?fname=edward&sname=forster&id=77266&first=true |archive-date=5 September 2018 |access-date=4 September 2018}}</ref>

Forster spent a second spell in India in the early 1920s as private secretary to [[Tukojirao III]], [[Maharajah]] of [[Dewas]]. ''[[The Hill of Devi]]'' is his non-fictional account of this period. Upon his return to England, Forster wrote ''A Passage to India''. All six of his novels were completed in [[Weybridge|Weybridge, Surrey]].

Forster was awarded a [[Benson Medal]] in 1937. In the 1930s and 1940s, Forster became a notable broadcaster on [[BBC Radio]], and while [[George Orwell]] was the BBC India Section talks producer from 1941 to 1943, he commissioned from Forster a weekly book review.<ref name="Orwell1987">{{Cite book |last=Orwell|first=George |author-link=George Orwell |title=The War Broadcasts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Urb_nQEACAAJ |year=1987 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-018910-0}}</ref> Forster was President of the [[Liberty (advocacy group)|National Council for Civil Liberties]], as well as Cambridge Humanists from 1959 to his death. Forster became publicly associated with the [[British Humanist Association]]. In addition to his broadcasting, he advocated individual liberty and penal reform and opposed censorship by writing articles, sitting on committees and signing letters. He testified as a witness for the defence in the 1960 obscenity trial over the sexually explicit content in [[D. H. Lawrence|D.H. Lawrence]]'s previously unpublished ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]''.
{{multiple image|align=right
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Forster was elected an honorary [[fellow]] of King's College in January 1946,<ref name="Cambridge_Companion">{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to E. M. Forster |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-83475-9 |editor=David Bradshaw |chapter=Chronology |access-date=27 May 2008 |chapter-url=http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/34759/frontmatter/9780521834759_frontmatter.htm}}</ref> and lived for the most part in the college, doing relatively little. In April 1947 he arrived in America for a three-month nationwide tour of public readings and sightseeing, returning to the East Coast in June.<ref name="ReferenceA">Wendy Moffat, ''E. M. Forster: A New Life'', London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010.</ref> He declined a [[British honours system#Knighthood|knighthood]] in 1949 and was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1953.<ref name="Cambridge_Companion" /> At age 82, he wrote his last short story, ''Little Imber'', a science fiction tale. According to his friend [[Richard Marquand]], Forster was critical of American foreign policy in his latter years, which was one reason he refused offers to adapt his novels for the screen, as Forster felt such productions would involve American financing.<ref>{{Cite video |medium=dvd |title=EM Foster Obituary Special |author=BBC |publisher=Goldcrest Films International |date=14 July 1970}}</ref>

At 85 he went on a pilgrimage to the Wiltshire countryside that had inspired his favourite among his own novels, ''The Longest Journey'', escorted by [[William Golding]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In 1961, he was one of the first five authors named as a [[Companion of Literature]] by the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rsliterature.org/award/companions-of-literature/ |title=Companions of Literature |date=2 September 2023 |publisher=Royal Society of Literature}}</ref> In 1969, he was made a member of the [[British Order of Merit|Order of Merit]] on his 90th birthday.<ref name=":1"/>

==Work==
===Novels===
[[File:Monument to E. M. Forster.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The monument to Forster in [[Stevenage]], Hertfordshire, near Rooksnest where Forster grew up. He based the setting for his novel ''Howards End'' on this area, now informally known as Forster Country.]]
Forster had five novels published in his lifetime. Although ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' was published shortly after his death, it had been written nearly sixty years earlier. His first novel, ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'' (1905), tells of Lilia, a young English widow who falls in love with an Italian, and of the efforts of her [[bourgeois]] relatives to get her back from Monteriano (based on [[San Gimignano]]). Philip Herriton's mission to retrieve her from Italy has features in common with that of [[Lambert Strether]] in [[Henry James]]'s ''[[The Ambassadors]].'' Forster discussed James' novel ironically and somewhat disapprovingly in his book ''Aspects of the Novel'' (1927). ''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' was adapted as a 1991 [[Where Angels Fear to Tread (film)|film]] directed by [[Charles Sturridge]], starring [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Rupert Graves]], [[Judy Davis]] and [[Helen Mirren]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-back-to-the-future-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-british-film-industry-in-the-1980s.pdf|page=30|title=Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing|website=British Film Institute|date=2005|access-date=30 June 2024|archive-date=12 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912042419/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-back-to-the-future-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-british-film-industry-in-the-1980s.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Next, Forster published ''[[The Longest Journey (novel)|The Longest Journey]]'' (1907), an inverted ''[[Bildungsroman]]'' following the lame Rickie Elliott from Cambridge to a career as a struggling writer and then a post as a schoolmaster, married to an unappealing Agnes Pembroke. In a series of scenes on the Wiltshire hills, which introduce Rickie's wild half-brother Stephen Wonham, Forster attempts a kind of [[sublime (literary)|sublime]] related to those of [[Thomas Hardy]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]].

[[File:III Palazzo Jennings Riccioli, Firenze, Italy (2).jpg|thumb|upright|Forster and his mother stayed at Pensione Simi, which was located in Palazzo Jennings Riccioli, [[Florence]], in 1901. Forster took inspiration from this stay for the Pension Bertolini in ''[[A Room with a View]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aguidetoflorence.com/a-literary-tour.html |title=A Literary Tour of Florence |publisher=Walking Tours of Florence |date=4 April 2017 |access-date=7 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408083010/http://www.aguidetoflorence.com/a-literary-tour.html |archive-date=8 April 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

Forster's third novel, ''[[A Room with a View]]'' (1908), is his lightest and most optimistic. It was started in 1901, before any of his others, initially under the title ''Lucy''. It explores young Lucy Honeychurch's trip to Italy with a cousin and the choice she must make between the free-thinking George Emerson and the repressed aesthete Cecil Vyse. George's father Mr Emerson quotes thinkers who influenced Forster, including [[Samuel Butler (1835–1902)|Samuel Butler]]. It was adapted as a [[A Room with a View (1986 film)|film of the same name]] in 1985 by the [[Merchant Ivory]] team, starring Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Julian Sands, Denholm Elliott and [[Daniel Day-Lewis]],<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091867/fullcredits/ |title=A Room with a View (1985) - Full cast & crew - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-10-18 |via=www.imdb.com}}</ref> and as a [[A Room with a View (2007 film)|televised adaptation of the same name]] in 2007 by [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Daniel Day-Lewis |url=http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho7/daylewis_d.htm |website=The Oscar Site |access-date=6 June 2024 |archive-date=7 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007180639/http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho7/daylewis_d.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' and ''A Room with a View'' can be seen as Forster's Italian novels. Both include references to the famous [[Baedeker]] guidebooks and concern narrow-minded middle-class English tourists abroad. The books share themes with his short stories collected in ''[[The Celestial Omnibus]]'' and ''[[The Eternal Moment]]''.

''[[Howards End]]'' (1910) is an ambitious [[Condition of England novel|"condition-of-England" novel]] about various groups among the [[Edwardian]] middle classes, represented by the Schlegels (bohemian intellectuals), the Wilcoxes (thoughtless plutocrats) and the Basts (struggling lower-middle-class aspirants). ''Howards End'' was adapted as a [[Howards End (film)|film]] in 1992 by the Merchant-Ivory team, starring [[Vanessa Redgrave]], [[Emma Thompson]], [[Anthony Hopkins]], and Helena Bonham-Carter. Thompson won the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]] for her performance as Margaret Schlegel.<ref>{{cite news |title=Simply Put, It's Chemistry: Two actors, two Oscars, two tart tongues—Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins do the Tracy and Hepburn thing |url=https://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-31/entertainment/ca-51533_1_emma-thompson-and-anthony-hopkins |last=De Vries |first=Hilary |newspaper=The New York Times |date=31 October 1993 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029221032/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-31/entertainment/ca-51533_1_emma-thompson-and-anthony-hopkins |url-status=live }}</ref> It was also adapted as a [[Howards End (miniseries)|miniseries]] in 2017. An opera libretto ''Howards End, America'' was created in 2016 by [[Claudia Stevens]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-howards-end-opera-20190221-story.html|title=In the new 'Howards End' opera, Edwardian London is 1950s Boston, and Leonard Bast is black|date=21 February 2019|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

Forster's greatest success, ''[[A Passage to India]]'' (1924) takes as its subject the relations between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the [[British Raj]]. Forster connects personal relations with the politics of colonialism through the story of the Englishwoman Adela Quested, the Indian Dr. Aziz, and the question of what did or did not happen between them in the [[Marabar Caves]]. Forster makes special mention of the author [[Ahmed Ali (writer)|Ahmed Ali]] and his ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' in a preface to its Everyman's Library Edition. The novel was awarded the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction. ''A Passage to India'' was adapted as a [[A Passage to India (play)|play]] in 1960, directed by [[Frank Hauser (director)|Frank Hauser]], and as a [[A Passage to India (film)|film]] in 1984, directed by [[David Lean]], starring [[Alec Guinness]], Judy Davis and [[Peggy Ashcroft]], with the latter winning the 1985 Oscar for [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-oscar-winner-for-best-supporting-actress|title=Oldest Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress|website=Guinness World Records|date=25 March 1985 }}</ref> 
[[File:Forster typewriter.jpg|thumb|left|E.M. Forster's typewriter.]]

''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' (1971), published posthumously, is a homosexual love story that also returns to matters familiar from Forster's first three novels, such as the suburbs of London in the English [[home counties]], the experience of attending Cambridge, and the wild landscape of [[Wiltshire]].<ref>[[Joseph Epstein (writer)|Epstein, Joseph]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/10/archives/maurice-by-e-m-forster-256-pp-new-york-w-w-norton-co-695-maurice.html "E. M. Forster's posthumous novel—more important to the man than to literature"], ''The New York Times'', 10 October 1971.</ref> The novel was controversial, given that Forster's homosexuality had not been publicly known or widely acknowledged. Today's critics continue to debate over the extent to which Forster's sexuality and personal activities influenced his writing.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1470492.stm |title=BBC News Website |date=2 August 2001 |access-date=21 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914212852/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1470492.stm |archive-date=14 September 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''Maurice'' was adapted [[Maurice (1987 film)|as a film]] in 1987 by the Merchant Ivory team. It starred [[James Wilby]] and [[Hugh Grant]] who played lovers (for which both gained acclaim) and Rupert Graves, with [[Denholm Elliott]], [[Simon Callow]] and [[Ben Kingsley]] in the supporting cast.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Maurice'' |url=https://www.merchantivory.com/film/maurice |website=MerchantIvory.com |access-date=30 June 2024}}</ref>

Early in his career, Forster attempted a historical novel about the Byzantine scholar [[Gemistus Pletho]] and the Italian [[condottiero]] [[Sigismondo de Malatesta]], but was dissatisfied with the result and never published it, though he kept the manuscript and later showed it to [[Naomi Mitchison]].<ref>Mentioned in a 1925 letter to Mitchison, quoted in her autobiography ''You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920–1940''. {{Cite book |last1=Mitchison |first1=Naomi |title=You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940 |year=1986 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=Fontana Paperbacks |location=London |isbn=978-0-00654-193-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nas5AAAACAAJ |chapter=11: Morgan Comes to Tea}}</ref>

===Critical reception===
[[File:EMForsterLeiden1954.jpg|thumb|upright|Forster receiving an honorary doctorate from [[Leiden University]] (1954)]]
Forster's first novel, ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'', was described by reviewers as "astonishing" and "brilliantly original".<ref>P. Gardner, ed. (1973). ''E. M. Forster: the critical heritage''.</ref> ''[[The Guardian|The Manchester Guardian]]'' (forerunner of ''The Guardian'') noted "a persistent vein of cynicism which is apt to repel," though "the cynicism is not deep-seated." The novel is labelled "a sordid comedy culminating, unexpectedly and with a real dramatic force, in a grotesque tragedy."<ref>''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 August 1905.</ref> [[Lionel Trilling]] remarked on this first novel as "a whole and mature work dominated by a fresh and commanding intelligence".<ref name="Trilling">{{Cite book |author-last=Trilling |author-first=Lionel |author-link=Lionel Trilling |title=E. M. Forster |series=Columbia essays on modern writers, vol. 189 (first ed. 1943) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C |publisher=[[New Directions Publishing]] |year=1965 |issue=10 |isbn=978-0811202107 |page=57 |access-date=26 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022030902/https://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=22 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Subsequent books were similarly received on publication. ''The Manchester Guardian'' commented on ''[[Howards End]]'', describing it as "a novel of high quality written with what appears to be a feminine brilliance of perception... witty and penetrating."<ref>''The Manchester Guardian'', 26 February 1910.</ref> An essay by [[Lord David Cecil|David Cecil]] in ''Poets and Storytellers'' (1949) describes Forster as "pulsing with intelligence and sensibility", but primarily concerned with an original moral vision: "He tells a story as well as anyone who ever lived".<ref name=Cecil>David Cecil (1949). ''Poets and Storytellers: A Book of Critical Essays''. Macmillan.</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2017}}

The beginning of technological [[dystopian fiction]] is traced to Forster's "[[The Machine Stops]]", a 1909 short story where most people live underground in isolation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zimmermann |first1=Ana Cristina |last2=Morgan |first2=W. John |date=1 March 2019 |title=E. M. Forster's 'The Machine Stops': humans, technology and dialogue |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0698-3 |journal=AI & Society |language=en |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=37–45 |doi=10.1007/s00146-017-0698-3 |s2cid=25560513 |issn=1435-5655|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>Caporaletti, Silvana. "Science as Nightmare: ''The Machine Stops'' by E. M. Forster." ''Utopian studies'' 8.2 (1997): 32-47.</ref> M. Keith Booker states that "The Machine Stops," ''[[We (novel)|We]]'' and ''[[Brave New World]]'' are "the great defining texts of the genre of dystopian fiction, both in [the] vividness of their engagement with real-world social and political issues and in the scope of their critique of the societies on which they focus."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Booker|first1=M Keith|title=The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism|date=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press}}</ref> [[Will Gompertz]] for the [[BBC]] writes, "The Machine Stops is not simply prescient; it is a jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, breath-takingly accurate literary description of lockdown life in 2020."<ref>{{cite news |title=The Machine Stops: Will Gompertz reviews EM Forster's work ★★★★★ |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52821993 |access-date=2 January 2025 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

American interest in Forster was spurred by [[Lionel Trilling]]'s ''E. M. Forster: A Study'', which called him "the only living novelist who can be read again and again and who, after each reading, gives me what few writers can give us after our first days of novel-reading, the sensation of having learned something." {{Harv |Trilling |1943}}

Criticism of his works has included comments on unlikely pairings of characters who marry or get engaged and the lack of realistic depiction of sexual attraction.<ref name=Cecil />{{page needed|date=August 2017}}

===Key themes===
Forster was President of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 until his death and a member of the Advisory Council of the [[British Humanist Association]] from 1963 until his death. His views as a [[humanism|humanist]] are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections despite the restrictions of contemporary society. His humanist attitude is expressed in the 1938 essay ''[[What I Believe (E. M. Forster essay)|What I Believe]]'' (reprinted with two other humanist essays – and an introduction and notes by [[Nicolas Walter]]). When Forster's cousin [[Philip Whichelo]] donated a portrait of Forster to the [[Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association]] (GLHA), [[Jim Herrick]], the founder, quoted Forster's words: "The humanist has four leading characteristics – curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race."<ref>{{cite news |title=E. M. Forster (1879-1970) |url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/e-m-forster/ |access-date=30 June 2024 |publisher=Heritage Humanists}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of E.M. Forster by Roger Fry, 1911s..jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Portrait of Forster in 1911 by [[Roger Fry]], painted a year after receiving critical acclaim for his fourth novel ''Howards End''. Both members of the [[Bloomsbury Group]], Fry was an influence on Forster's aesthetics.<ref>{{cite news |title=Roger Fry (British, 1866-1934) |url=https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25852/lot/5/roger-fry-british-1866-1934-portrait-of-em-forster-73-x-60-cm-28-14-x-23-58-in-painted-in-1911/ |access-date=1 July 2024 |work=Bonhams}}</ref>]]
Two of Forster's best-known works, ''A Passage to India'' and ''Howards End'', explore the irreconcilability of class differences. ''[[A Room with a View]]'' also shows how questions of propriety and class can make human connection difficult. ''A Room with a View'' is his most widely read and accessible work, remaining popular long after its original publication. His posthumous novel ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' explores the possibility of class reconciliation as one facet of a homosexual relationship.

Sexuality is another key theme in Forster's works. Some critics have argued that a general shift from heterosexual to homosexual love can be observed throughout the course of his writing career. The foreword to ''Maurice'' describes his struggle with his homosexuality, while he explored similar issues in several volumes of short stories. Forster's explicitly homosexual writings, the novel ''Maurice'' and the short story collection ''[[The Life to Come (and Other Stories)|The Life to Come]],'' were published shortly after his death. Beyond his literary explorations of sexuality, Forster also expressed his views publicly; in 1953, Forster openly advocated in ''[[The New Statesman and Nation]]'' for a change in the law in regard to homosexuality (which would be [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|legalised in England and Wales in 1967]], three years prior to his death), arguing that homosexuality between adults should be treated without bias and on the same grounds as heterosexuality.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Homosexuality rise is troubling Britons |pages=28 |work=[[The New York Times]] |publication-date=3 November 1953 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/11/03/92763522.html?zoom=16}}</ref>

Forster is noted for his use of [[symbol]]ism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised (as by his friend [[Roger Fry]]) for his attachment to [[mysticism]]. One example of his symbolism is the [[wych elm]] tree in ''Howards End.''<ref>{{cite news |title=The Wych Elm by Tana French — reminiscent of Donna Tartt's The Secret History |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/review-the-wych-elm-by-tana-french-reminiscent-of-donna-tartts-the-secret-history-zxzzbtv30 |access-date=30 June 2024 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> The characters of Mrs Wilcox in that novel and Mrs Moore in ''A Passage to India'' have a mystical link with the past, and a striking ability to connect with people from beyond their own circles. Forster, Henry James, and [[W. Somerset Maugham]] were the earliest writers in English to portray characters from diverse countries – France, Germany, Italy and India. Their work explores cultural conflict, but arguably the motifs of humanism and cosmopolitanism are dominant. In a way, this is anticipation of the concept of human beings shedding national identities and becoming more and more liberal and tolerant.

== Personal life ==
===Family===
From 1925 until his mother's death at age 90 in March 1945, Forster lived with her at the house of West Hackhurst in the village of [[Abinger Hammer]], [[Surrey]]; he continued to live there until September 1946.<ref>{{Cite web |title=King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge, The Papers of Edward Morgan Forster (reference EMF/19/6) |url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FEMF%2F19%2F6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122121524/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FEMF%2F19%2F6 |archive-date=22 January 2009 |access-date=27 May 2008}}</ref> His London base was 26 [[Brunswick Square]] from 1930 to 1939, after which he rented 9 Arlington Park Mansions in [[Chiswick]] until at least 1961.<ref name="Cambridge_Companion" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=King's College Archive Centre, Cambridge, The Papers of Edward Morgan Forster (reference EMF/17/10) |url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FEMF%2F17%2F10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701034950/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0272%2FPP%2FEMF%2F17%2F10 |archive-date=1 July 2009 |access-date=27 May 2008}}</ref> 

===Friendships===
Though conscious of his repressed desires, it was while stationed in Egypt, that Forster became friendly with the Greek poet [[Constantine P. Cavafy|C.P. Cavafy]], described in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' article on Forster as "an active homosexual".<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33208|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/33208|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}} Accessed 21 March 2025.</ref> 

He was a close friend of the socialist poet and philosopher [[Edward Carpenter]]. A visit to Carpenter and his younger lover [[George Merrill (gay activist)|George Merrill]] in 1913 inspired Forster's novel ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'', which is partly based on them.<ref>Kate Symondson (25 May 2016) [https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/e-m-forsters-gay-fiction E M Forster's gay fiction ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810063000/https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/e-m-forsters-gay-fiction |date=10 August 2020 }}. The [[British Library]] website. Retrieved 18 July 2020.</ref> During his time in Egypt he also wrote regularly to Carpenter, whom he told about openly gay life in Alexandria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=E M Forster (1879–1970) - Exploring Surrey's Past |url=https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/writers/e_m_forster/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702174650/http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/writers/e_m_forster/ |archive-date=2 July 2017 |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk |language=en-US |url-status=live }}</ref>

He is considered part of the [[Bloomsbury Group]]. Forster also edited the letters of [[Eliza Fay]] (1756–1816) from India, in an edition first published in 1925.<ref>''Original Letters from India'' (New York: NYRB, 2010 [1925]) {{ISBN|978-1-59017-336-7}}.</ref> In 2012, [[Tim Leggatt]], who had known Forster for his last 15 years, wrote a memoir based on unpublished correspondence with him over those years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leggatt |first=Timothy W |title=Connecting with E.M. Forster: a memoir |publisher=Hesperus Press Limited |year=2012 |isbn=9781843913757 |location=London |oclc=828203696}}</ref> He was friends with fellow gay novelist [[Christopher Isherwood]], whom [[William Plomer]] introduced to him in 1932 and to whom he showed an early draft of ''Maurice'' decades before its posthumous publication.<ref> {{cite book |last=Isherwood |first= Christopher |title= Christopher & His Kind |publisher=Magnum Books |year=1978|page=84|isbn= 0417027001}} The precise date is 14 September 1932. </ref> Writers with whom he associated included the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]] and the [[Belfast]]-based novelist [[Forrest Reid]].

===Relationships===
While not out publicly during his own lifetime, Forster was homosexual, about which he was open with his close friends but not the public. He never married and had a number of male lovers during his adult life.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 June 1970 |title=Britain Unlimited Biography |url=http://britainunlimited.com/e-m-forster/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922051344/http://britainunlimited.com/e-m-forster/ |archive-date=22 September 2017 |access-date=21 August 2010 |publisher=Britainunlimited.com}}</ref> In 1906 Forster fell in love with [[Ross Masood|Syed Ross Masood]], a 17-year-old Indian future Oxford student he tutored in Latin. Masood had a more romantic, poetic view of friendship, confusing Forster with avowals of love.<ref>{{Cite news |last=White |first=Edmund |date=6 November 2014 |title=Forster in Love: The Story |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/11/06/forster-love-story/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412001146/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/11/06/forster-love-story/ |archive-date=12 April 2018 |access-date=11 April 2018 |work=The New York Review of Books |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> 

Whilst in Egypt Forster "lost his R [respectability]" to a wounded soldier in 1917<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33208|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/33208|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}} Accessed 21 March 2025.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Leith |first=Sam |date=13 June 2010 |title=EM Forster's work tailed off once he finally had sex. Better that than a life of despair |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/13/em-forster |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306181643/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/13/em-forster |archive-date=6 March 2016 |access-date=12 March 2018 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> and had a short-lived but emotionally powerful affair with an Egyptian tram conductor, Mohammad el Adl. The pair met in 1917 and quickly developed an interest in each other. Their relationship began to end in 1918, as el Adl prepared to marry. El Adl and his wife had a son, who they named Morgan. After returning to England in 1919, Forster visited el Adl in 1922 and found him deathly ill with tuberculosis.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Watt |first=Donald |date=1983 |title=Mohammed el Adl and "A Passage to India" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831128 |journal=Journal of Modern Literature |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=311–326 |jstor=3831128 |issn=0022-281X}}</ref> After el Adl's death, his widow sent his wedding ring to Forster.<ref name=":1" /> Forster kept el Adl's letters for the rest of his life.<ref name=":3" />

In 1960, Forster began a relationship with the Bulgarian émigré [[The Radev Collection|Mattei Radev]], a picture framer and art collector who moved in Bloomsbury group circles. He was Forster's junior by 46 years. They met at Long Crichel House, a Georgian rectory in [[Long Crichel]], Dorset, a country retreat shared by [[Edward Sackville-West]] and the gallery owner and artist [[Eardley Knollys]].<ref>Jennings, Clive (14 June 2013) {{Cite news |title=Loves and lives of the men who built the Radev Collection |url=https://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2013/06/14/loves-and-lives-of-the-men-who-built-the-radev-collection/ |work=Fitzrovia News}} Retrieved 8 October 2020</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Life and times of artist in public gaze |url=http://www.haslemereherald.com/article.cfm?id=109984&headline=Life%20and%20times%20of%20artist%20in%20public%20gaze&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417172027/http://www.haslemereherald.com/article.cfm?id=109984&headline=Life%20and%20times%20of%20artist%20in%20public%20gaze&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |access-date=8 October 2020 |work=Farnham Herald}}</ref>

====Bob Buckingham====
[[File:Robert and May Buckingham House.jpg|thumb|Forster lived and died at this house, the home of his friends Robert and May Buckingham. The sign above the garage door marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.]]
In 1930, Forster began his 40 year relationship with Bob Buckingham (1904–1975), a married policeman.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Bethan |date=2012-02-17 |title=EM Forster and his 'wondrous muddle' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/17/e-m-forster-my-policeman |access-date=2023-11-29 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=Richard |date=6 June 2010 |title=Sex Led to EM Forster's End |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article7144850.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615105930/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article7144850.ece |archive-date=15 June 2011 |access-date=6 June 2010 |work=[[The Times]] |location=London}}</ref> Forster was both the witness to Buckingham's marriage to May Hockey in 1932 and the godfather of their son, Robert Morgan, the following year. While living at King's College, he spent weekends with the family and included both husband and wife in his circle, which included [[J. R. Ackerley]], a writer and literary editor of ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]],'' the psychologist [[W. J. H. Sprott]], and for a time, the composer [[Benjamin Britten]]. 

In the early years, Forster was jealous of May, but over time they too grew close.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rose |first=Peter |date=2010-11-30 |title=Peter Rose on the peculiar charms of E.M. Forster |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2010/december-2010-january-2011-no-327/45-december-2010-january-2011/182-the-peculiar-charms-of-e-m-forster |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=Australian Book Review |language=en-gb}}</ref> After a fall in April 1961, he spent his final years in Cambridge at King's College,<ref>Philip Nicholas Furbank, ''E. M. Forster: A Life. Volume Two: Polycrates' Ring (1914–1970)''. [[Secker & Warburg]], 1978. pp. 314–324.</ref> but in his final years, having suffered a series of strokes, May insisted that he move into the family home where she could look after him.<ref name=":2" /> Forster died of a stroke on 7 June 1970 at the age of 91, at the Buckinghams' home in [[Coventry]], [[Warwickshire]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 June 1970 |title=A Room with a View and Howards End |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/library/display.pperl?isbn=9780679641445&view=print |access-date=21 August 2010 |publisher=Randomhouse.com}}</ref><ref name="Cambridge_Companion" /> His ashes, mingled with those of Buckingham, were later scattered in the rose garden of Coventry's crematorium, near Warwick University.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stape |first=J H |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WX2wCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |title=E. M. Forster |date=18 December 1992 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-12850-1 |page=79 |access-date=20 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421094955/https://books.google.com/books?id=WX2wCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |archive-date=21 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|last1=Beauman|first1=Nicola|title=Forster, Edward Morgan (1879–1970)|date=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/33208|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33208|access-date=20 April 2017}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-2}}

===Novels===
* ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'' (1905)
* ''[[The Longest Journey (novel)|The Longest Journey]]'' (1907)
* ''[[A Room with a View]]'' (1908)
* ''[[Howards End]]'' (1910)
* ''[[A Passage to India]]'' (1924)
* ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)

===Short stories===
* ''[[The Celestial Omnibus|The Celestial Omnibus: And Other Stories]]'' (1911)
* ''[[The Eternal Moment|The Eternal Moment and Other Stories]]'' (1928)
* ''Collected Short Stories'' (1947) a combination of the above two titles, containing:
** "The Story of a Panic"
** "[[The Other Side of the Hedge]]"
** "The Celestial Omnibus"
** "Other Kingdom"
** "The Curate's Friend"
** "The Road from Colonus"
** "[[The Machine Stops]]"
** "The Point of It"
** "Mr Andrews"
** "Co-ordination"
** "The Story of the Siren"
** "The Eternal Moment"
* ''The Life to Come and Other Stories'' (1972) (posthumous) containing the following stories written between approximately 1903 and 1960:
** "Ansell"
** "Albergo Empedocle"
** "The Purple Envelope"
** "The Helping Hand"
** "The Rock"
** "[[The Life to Come (short story)|The Life to Come]]"
** "Dr Woolacott"
** "Arthur Snatchfold"
** "The Obelisk"
** "What Does It Matter? A Morality"
** "[[The Classical Annex]]"
** "The Torque"
** "[[The Other Boat]]"
** "Three Courses and a Dessert: Being a New and Gastronomic Version of the Old Game of Consequences", of which Forster wrote ''The Second Course'' (''The First Course'' was written by [[Christopher Dilke]], ''The Third Course'' by [[A. E. Coppard]] and ''The Dessert'' by [[James Laver]])

{{Col-2}}

===Plays and pageants===
* ''Abinger Pageant'' (1934)
* ''England's Pleasant Land'' (1940)

===Film scripts===
* ''[[A Diary for Timothy]]'' (1945) (directed by [[Humphrey Jennings]], spoken by [[Michael Redgrave]])

===Libretto===
* ''[[Billy Budd (opera)|Billy Budd]]'' (1951) (with [[Eric Crozier]]; based on [[Herman Melville|Melville's]] [[Billy Budd|novel]], for the opera by [[Benjamin Britten]])

===Collections of essays and broadcasts===
* ''[[Abinger Harvest]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Two Cheers for Democracy]]'' (1951)
* ''The Prince's Tale and Other Uncollected Writings'' (1998)
* Forster in Egypt: A Graeco-Alexandrian Encounter: E.M. Forster's First Interview, eds., Hilda D. Spear and Abdel-Moneim Aly (London, 1987)
* The Uncollected Egyptian Essays of E. M. Forster, eds., Hilda D. Spear and Abdel-Moneim Aly (Dundee, 1988)

===Literary criticism===
* ''[[Aspects of the Novel]]'' (1927)
* ''The Feminine Note in Literature'' (posthumous) (2001)
* ''[http://www.dundurn.com/books/creator_critic_and_other_writings_em_forster The Creator as Critic and Other Writings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509003037/http://www.dundurn.com/books/creator_critic_and_other_writings_em_forster |date=9 May 2015 }}''

===Biography===
* [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.525237/page/n1/mode/2up ''Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson''] (1934)<ref name=Jha>{{cite book|chapter=Chapter 8. ''E.M. Forster as Biographer'' by Vinita Jha|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ihm70dIkWIMC&pg=PA102| pages=102–113 | title=Studies in Literature in English, volume XI | isbn=9788126904273 | editor=Ray, Mohit Kumar | year=2002 |location=New Delhi |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors}}</ref>
* ''Marianne Thornton, A Domestic Biography'' (1956)<ref name=Jha/>

===Travel writing===
* ''Alexandria: A History and Guide'' (1922)
* ''Pharos and Pharillon (A Novelist's Sketchbook of Alexandria Through the Ages)'' (1923)
* ''The Hill of Devi'' (1953)<ref name=Jha/>

===Miscellaneous writings===
* ''Selected Letters'' (1983–85)
* ''Commonplace Book'' (facsimile ed. 1978; edited by Philip Gardner, 1985)
* ''Locked Diary'' (2007) (held at [[King's College, Cambridge]])
* ''Arctic Summer'' (novel fragment, written in 1912–13, published posthumously in 2003)
* ''Rooksnest'' (1894 and 1901), a description by Forster of his childhood home, on which he based ''Howards End''.<ref>Appendix to Penguin English Library edition of ''Howards End''. London 1983.</ref>
* ''Nassenheide'' (1920–1929), a memoir of his time as governor to [[Elizabeth von Arnim]]'s children, notable for its contrast to ''[[Elizabeth and Her German Garden]]''. Held at King's College.
* ''The Forster–Cavafy Letters: Friends at a Slight Angle'', edited by Peter Jeffreys (2009). The correspondence between Forster and [[Constantine P. Cavafy]], whom he got to know in Alexandria during his time there in the First World War.
{{Col-end}}
A wide variety of other journals, plays, and draft fiction are archived at King's College.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Halls |first=Michael |date=1985 |title=The Forster Collections at King's: A Survey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/441287 |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |volume=31 |issue=2/3 |pages=147–160 |doi=10.2307/441287|jstor=441287 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Notable films and drama based upon Forster's fiction==
{{See also|:Category:E. M. Forster in performing arts}}
* ''[[The Machine Stops]]'' (1966), dramatised for the [[BBC]] anthology series ''[[Out of the Unknown]]''
* ''[[A Passage to India (film)|A Passage to India]]'' (1984), dir. [[David Lean]]
* ''[[A Room with a View (1985 film)|A Room with a View]]'' (1985), dir. [[James Ivory]]
* ''[[Maurice (1987 film)|Maurice]]'' (1987), dir. James Ivory
* ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread (film)|Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'' (1991), dir. [[Charles Sturridge]]
* ''[[Howards End (film)|Howards End]]'' (1992), dir. James Ivory
* ''[[Howards End (miniseries)|Howards End]]'' (2017), [[BBC One]] miniseries, dir. [[Hettie MacDonald]]
* ''[[The Inheritance (play)|The Inheritance]]'' (2018), play by [[Matthew Lopez (playwright)|Matthew Lopez]], adapted from ''[[Howards End]]'', and featuring Forster as a character

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[M. H. Abrams]] and [[Stephen Greenblatt]], "E. M. Forster." ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', Vol. 2C, 7th Edition. New York: [[W. W. Norton]], 2000: 2131–2140
* J. R. Ackerley, ''E. M. Forster: A Portrait'' (London: Ian McKelvie, 1970)
* Parminder Kaur Bakshi, ''Distant Desire. Homoerotic Codes and the Subversion of the English Novel in E. M. Forster's Fiction'' (New York, 1996)
* Nicola Beauman, ''Morgan'' (London, 1993)
* Lawrence Brander, ''E. M. Forster. A critical study'' (London, 1968)
* [[E. K. Brown]], ''Rhythm in the Novel'' (University of Toronto Press, Canada, 1950)
* Glen Cavaliero, ''A Reading of E.M. Forster'' (London, 1979)
* S. M. Chanda, "A Passage to India: A Close Look" in ''A Collection of Critical Essays'', New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers
* Stuart Christie, ''Worlding Forster: The Passage from Pastoral'' (Routledge, 2005)
* John Colmer, ''E. M. Forster – The personal voice'' (London, 1975)
* [[Frederick Crews]], ''E. M. Forster: The Perils of Humanism'' (Textbook Publishers, 2003)
* ''E. M. Forster'', ed. by Norman Page, Macmillan Modern Novelists (Houndmills, 1987)
* ''E. M. Forster: The critical heritage'', ed. by Philip Gardner (London, 1973)
* ''Forster: A collection of Critical Essays'', ed. by Malcolm Bradbury (New Jersey, 1966)
* E. M. Forster, ''What I Believe, and other essays'', Freethinker's Classics #3, ed. by Nicolas Walter (London, G. W. Foote & Co. Ltd, 1999 and 2016)
* [[P. N. Furbank|Furbank, P.N.]], ''E.M. Forster: A Life'' (London, 1977–1978)
* Michael Haag, ''Alexandria: City of Memory'' (London and New Haven, 2004). This portrait of Alexandria during the first half of the 20th century includes a biographical account of E. M. Forster, his life in the city, his relationship with [[Constantine P. Cavafy|Constantine Cavafy]], and his influence on [[Lawrence Durrell]].
* Judith Herz and Robert K. Martin, ''E. M. Forster: Centenary Revaluations'' (Macmillan Press, 1982)
* [[Frank Kermode]], ''Concerning E. M. Forster'' (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010)
* [[Francis King]], ''E. M. Forster and his World'' (London, 1978).
* Mary Lago, ''Calendar of the Letters of E. M. Forster'' (London: Mansell, 1985)
* Mary Lago, ''Selected Letters of E. M. Forster'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983–1985)
* Mary Lago, ''E. M. Forster: A Literary Life'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995)
* [[Tim Leggatt]], ''Connecting with E. M. Forster: a memoir'' ([[Hesperus Press]], 2012)
* Robin Jared Lewis, ''E. M. Forster's Passages to India'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979
* John Sayre Martin, ''E. M. Forster. The endless journey'' (London, 1976)
* Robert K. Martin and George Piggford, eds, ''Queer Forster'' (Chicago, 1997)
* [[Pankaj Mishra]], ed. "E. M. Forster", ''India in Mind: An Anthology''. New York: Vintage Books, 2005: pp.&nbsp;61–70
* Wendy Moffat, ''E. M. Forster: A New Life'' ([[Bloomsbury]], 2010)
* Peter Rose, "The Peculiar Charms of E. M. Forster", ''Australian Book Review'' (December 2010/January 2011). Forster in his social context [https://web.archive.org/web/20131203044307/https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/component/k2/45-december-2010-january-2011/182-the-peculiar-charms-of-e-m-forster Retrieved 28 November 2013]
* Nicolas Royle, ''E. M. Forster (Writers & Their Work'' (London: Northcote House Publishers, 1999)
* P. J. M. Scott, ''E. M. Forster: Our Permanent Contemporary,'' Critical Studies Series (London, 1984)
* Sofia Sogos, "Nature and Mystery in Edward Morgan Forster's Tales", ed. Giorgia Sogos (Bonn: Free Pen Verlag, 2018)
* Oliver Stallybrass, "Editor's Introduction", ''Howards End'' (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin English Library, 1983) 
* Wilfred H. Stone, ''The Cave and the Mountain: a study of E. M. Forster'' (1964)
* [[Claude J. Summers]], ''E. M. Forster'' (New York, 1983)
* {{Citation |last=Trilling |first=Lionel |author-link=Lionel Trilling |title=E. M. Forster: A Study |place=Norfolk |publisher=New Directions |year=1943}}
* [[K. Natwar Singh]], ed., ''E. M. Forster: A Tribute, With Selections from his Writings on India'', Contributors: [[Ahmed Ali (writer)|Ahmed Ali]], [[Mulk Raj Anand]], [[V. K. Narayana Menon|Narayana Menon]], [[Raja Rao]] and [[Santha Rama Rau]], (On Forster's Eighty Fifth Birthday), New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., 1 January 1964
* Kathleen Verduin, "Medievalism, Classicism, and the Fiction of E.M. Forster," ''Medievalism in the Modern World. Essays in Honour of [[Leslie J. Workman]]'', ed. Richard Utz and Tom Shippey (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), pp.&nbsp;263–286
* Alan Wilde, ''Art and Order. A Study of E.M. Forster'' (New York, 1967)

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commonscat=yes |n=no |author=Edward Morgan Forster |b=no |v=no |d=Q189119}}

;Digital collections
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/e-m-forster}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=975|name=Edward Morgan Forster}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Forster, E. M.|name=E. M. Forster|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edward Morgan Forster |sopt=t}}
* {{librivox author|id=1983}}

;Physical collections
* [http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/lago.htm Mary Lago Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719212129/http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/lago.htm |date=19 July 2013 }} at the [[University of Missouri]] Libraries. Research papers of a Forster scholar.
* [https://www.bl.uk/people/e-m-forster E M Forster] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910034249/https://www.bl.uk/people/e-m-forster |date=10 September 2016 }} at the British Library
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078777 Finding aid to E.M. Forster papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]
* [http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00039.xml&query=Forster&query-join=and E.M. Forster Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218061703/http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead%2F00039.xml&query=Forster&query-join=and |date=18 February 2012 }} at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
* [http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/?p=1&q=e.m.+forster+1879 Additional E.M. Forster manuscript items] are housed at various archival repositories.

;General portals
* [http://emforster.de/ Aspects of E. M. Forster]
* [http://www.musicandmeaning.com/forster/ "Only Connect": The unofficial Forster site]
* [http://society.emforster.de/ International E.M. Forster Society]
* [http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=forster_e_m E. M. Forster] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730233939/http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=forster_e_m |date=30 July 2020 }} at the [[The Encyclopedia of Fantasy|Encyclopedia of Fantasy]]
* [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/forster_e_m E. M. Forster] at the [[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]
* {{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5219/the-art-of-fiction-no-1-e-m-forster|journal= The Paris Review|volume= Spring 1953|issue= 1|title=E. M. Forster, The Art of Fiction No. 1|date=Spring 1953|author= P. N. Furbank & F. J. H. Haskell }}

;LGBT
* [http://www.outgay.co.uk/wdg4.html ''With Downcast Gays''], Andrew Hodges and David Hutter, The Gay Liberation pamphlet (1974)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061019234129/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/forster_em.html E.M. Forster] on [[glbtq.com]]

{{s-start}}
{{s-npo|is}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Thornton Wilder]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of [[PEN International]]|years=1946–1947}}
{{s-aft|after=[[François Mauriac]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bloomsbury Group}}
{{E. M. Forster}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|LGBTQ|Writing}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Edward Morgan}}
[[Category:E. M. Forster| ]]
[[Category:1879 births]]
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