E. M. Forster  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English fiction writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924).

Forster was gay, but this fact was not made public during his lifetime. His posthumously released novel Maurice tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.

Notable works by Forster

Novels

• Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
• The Longest Journey (1907)
• A Room with a View (1908)
• Howards End (1910)
• A Passage to India (1924)
• Maurice (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)

Short stories

• The Celestial Omnibus (and other stories) (1911)
• 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"
  • "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)

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 (1951) (with Eric Crozier; based on Melville's 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)

Literary criticism

• Aspects of the Novel (1927)
• The Feminine Note in Literature (posthumous) (2001)
• The Creator as Critic and Other Writings

Biography

• Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1934)
• Marianne Thornton, A Domestic Biography (1956)

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)

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>

Notable films and drama based upon Forster's fiction

• The Machine Stops (1966), dramatised for the BBC anthology series Out of the Unknown
• A Passage to India (1984), dir. David Lean
• A Room with a View (1985), dir. James Ivory
• Maurice (1987), dir. James Ivory
• Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991), dir. Charles Sturridge
• Howards End (1992), dir. James Ivory
• Howards End (2017), BBC One miniseries, dir. Hettie MacDonald
• The Inheritance (2018), play by Matthew Lopez, adapted from Howards End, and featuring Forster as a character