Editing E. M. Forster (section)

==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 a discussion society 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 both classics and history.

During his time at Cambridge, Forster resolved to see as much of the world as possible, having grown frustrated with the tight-laced culture of his home country.<ref name=":0" />  After university, he travelled Europe with his mother. In 1904, Forster travelled in [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]] and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] out of interest in their classical heritage. 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>

[[File:EMForster1917.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Forster circa 1917]]