E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

Born in London on January 1, 1879, E. M. Forster became one of the major English novelists of the early 20th century. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and went on to write a small group of novels that had an outsized influence, including Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India.

Forster’s fiction is often praised for its intelligence, warmth, and close attention to social class, personal freedom, and the tensions of British life at home and abroad. He also wrote essays, short stories, criticism, and broadcasts, and he remained an important public literary figure long after he stopped publishing novels.

After his death in 1970, Forster’s reputation only grew. His novel Maurice, written earlier but published after his lifetime, opened up another side of his work and helped new generations of readers see both his courage and his compassion more clearly.