Editing Lytton Strachey (section)

=== Cambridge ===
Strachey was admitted as a Pensioner at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], on 30 September 1899.<ref>{{acad|id=STRY899GL|name=Strachey, Giles Lytton}}</ref> He became an Exhibitioner in 1900 and a Scholar in 1902. He won the Chancellor's Medal for English Verse in 1902<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=University intelligence |date=10 March 1902 |page=11 |issue=36711}}</ref> and was given a BA degree after he had won a second class in the History Tripos in June 1903. He did not however take leave of Trinity but remained until October 1905 to work on a thesis that he hoped would gain him a fellowship.<ref name="sanders"/> Strachey was often ill and had to leave Cambridge repeatedly to recover from the [[palpitations]] that affected him.<ref>Holroyd, 147–153.</ref>

Strachey's years at Cambridge were happy and productive. Among the [[Freshman|freshers]] at Trinity, there were three with whom Strachey soon became closely associated: [[Clive Bell]], [[Leonard Woolf]] and [[Saxon Sydney-Turner]]. With another undergraduate, A. J. Robertson, these students formed a group called the Midnight Society, which, in the opinion of Bell, was the source of the [[Bloomsbury Group]].<ref>Holroyd, 136–137.</ref> Other close friends at Cambridge were [[Thoby Stephen]] and his sisters [[Vanessa Bell|Vanessa]] and [[Virginia Woolf|Virginia Stephen]] (later Bell and Woolf respectively).

Strachey also belonged to the Conversazione Society, the [[Cambridge Apostles]] to which [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], [[Arthur Hallam|Hallam]], [[Frederick Denison Maurice|Maurice]], and [[John Sterling (author)|Sterling]] had once belonged. The Apostles formulated an elitist doctrine of "Higher Sodomy" which differentiated the homosexual acts of the intelligent from those of "ordinary" men.<ref>{{cite book |title = Lytton Strachey and the search for modern sexual identity | last=Taddeo| first=Julie Anne | publisher = Routledge; 1 edition |date = 18 July 2002| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=h027XP1CDnYC&q=Greek+love+male+bonding&pg=PA21| isbn=978-1-56023-359-6 }}</ref>{{rp|20–23}} In these years Strachey was highly prolific in writing verse, much of which has been preserved and some of which was published at the time. Strachey also became acquainted with other men who greatly influenced him, including [[G. Lowes Dickinson]], [[John Maynard Keynes]], Walter Lamb (brother of the painter [[Henry Lamb]]), [[George Mallory]], [[Bertrand Russell]]<ref>In his ''Autobiography'', Russell was quite amused by ''[[Eminent Victorians]]'', but did not like Strachey's cynicism about life. Russell writes on page 73 (George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1971): "Perhaps it was this attitude [about life] which made him, not a great man".</ref> and [[G. E. Moore]]. Moore's philosophy, with its assumption that the ''summum bonum'' lies in achieving a high quality of humanity, in experiencing delectable states of mind, and in intensifying experience by contemplating great works of art, was a particularly important influence.<ref name="sanders"/>

In the summer of 1903, Strachey applied for a position in the education department of the Civil Service. Even though the letters of recommendation written for him by those under whom he had studied showed that he was held in high esteem at Cambridge, he failed to get the appointment and decided to try for a fellowship at Trinity College.<ref name="sanders"/> From 1903 through 1905 he wrote a 400-page dissertation on [[Warren Hastings]], the 18th-century Indian imperialist, but the work failed to secure Strachey the fellowship and led to his return to London.<ref name="sanders"/>