Editing E. M. Forster (section)

== Personal life ==
While not out publicly during his own lifetime, Forster was homosexual. 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><ref name=":0" /> Forster was open about his homosexuality to close friends, but not to 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> He developed a long-term relationship with Bob Buckingham (1904–1975), a married policeman, which lasted for 40 years.<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 included Buckingham and his wife May 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]]. Other writers with whom he associated included the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]] and the [[Belfast]]-based novelist [[Forrest Reid]]. 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 ]. The [[British Library]] website. Retrieved 18 July 2020.</ref> He is considered part of the [[Bloomsbury Group]].

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>

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", and "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> During his time there, he wrote regularly to Edward 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=http://web.archive.org/web/20170702174650/http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/writers/e_m_forster/ |archive-date=2017-07-02 |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> While in Egypt, Forster 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" />

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> 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>

In 1930, Forster's relationship with Buckingham began and lasted the rest of his life.<ref name=":2" /> Forster was both the witness to Buckingham's marriage to May and the godfather of their son, Robin Morgan. While living at King's College, he spent weekends with the family. 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> 

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>

Forster 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>

In the final years of his life, having suffered a series of strokes, Buckingham's wife, May, insisted that Forster 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>