Descriptive Summary
Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan),
1879-1970
E. M. Forster Collection
1908-1971
TXRC98-A22
6 boxes (2.5 linear feet)
and 1 galley folder
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin
This collection comprises correspondence, primarily with J.R.
Ackerley and Malcolm Darling, and drafts of literary works, notably
Passage to India.
English.
Biographical Sketch
Edward Morgan Forster was born January 1, 1879, in London. His father,
also Edward Morgan, was an architect and died of consumption 18 months after
the birth of his son, leaving him in the care of his mother, Alice Clara
Whichelo and a variety of female relatives. Forster's mother moved with her
young son to rural Hertfordshire in 1883 where he lived for most of his
childhood before being sent to Kent House preparatory school in Eastbourne. In
1887 a great-aunt left a legacy to Forster which, when combined with his
father's estate, paid for Forster's education and later allowed him the leisure
to be a writer without needing to worry about income. Forster finished his
school days at Tonbridge School, which he attended as a day student rather than
as a boarder between 1893-1897.
In the autumn of 1897, Forster entered King's College, Cambridge, where
he found liberation from the conformist attitudes of preparatory school. He was
elected to the Apostles in 1901, along with Desmond MacCarthy, and became
acquainted with the well-known alumni of that society, G.E. Moore, Lytton
Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, Leonard Woolf, and Roger Fry, among others, who
later introduced him into the Bloomsbury group. It was at Cambridge that
Forster began to think of himself as a writer and the years immediately
following his graduation were his most productive as a novelist. Between 1903
and 1910 he produced
Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905),
The Longest Journey (1907),
A Room with a View (1908), and
Howards End (1910), all four of which are
now regarded as classics.
After 1910 Forster wrote mostly short stories and essays. He also
traveled, taking a long trip to India in 1912 and spending a greater part of
World War I in Egypt working with the Red Cross. A travel guide to Alexandria
and a collection of essays resulted from his time in Egypt and after his second
trip to India in 1921 he completed
A Passage to India (1924). Forster's final
novel,
Maurice (1971) was actually written in 1914
and then frequently revised after 1924, but was not published until after his
death. This novel deals with the topic of homosexuality and is thought to be at
least partly autobiographical.
After World War I Forster wrote an increasing number of essays on the
human condition and more specifically on the state of life in England and the
value of democracy, which the onset of the Depression, Nazism, and the
impending crisis of World War II seemed to be threatening. His essays brought
him a great deal of public notice and in 1934 he was elected president of the
National Council for Civil Liberties. He is given credit for playing a large
role in having the provisions of the Sedition Bill modified. When World War II
broke out, Forster returned to his mother's home in West Hackhurst.
After the war, Forster accepted a fellowship at Cambridge where he
maintained a residence for the rest of his life. He began to gain international
acclaim after 1945 and wrote copiously through the early 1960s. He suffered a
stroke in 1964 and another one the following year which caused his overall
health to decline. He suffered a major stroke in May of 1970 and on June 7 he
died at the home of friends.
Scope and Contents
Manuscripts of novels and letters to friends and acquaintances comprise
the bulk of the E. M. Forster Collection, 1908-1971. The collection is organized
into three series, with materials arranged alphabetically by title or author:
I. Works, 1910-1960 (2 boxes); II. Correspondence, 1908-1967 (3.5 boxes); and
III. Works by Other Authors, 1933-1971 (.5 box). This collection was previously
accessible through a card catalog, but has been re-cataloged as part of a
retrospective conversion project.
The Works Series contains several holograph drafts of essays on topics
ranging from liberty to tolerance, and three holograph manuscripts of
A Passage to India, two of which are fairly
complete and are extensively edited by the author, while the third is composed
primarily of earlier draft material and represents about one-third of the
novel's length. Also contained in the collection is a copy of
The Longest Journey on microfilm, made from
the original manuscript held at the Cambridge University King's College
Library, the primary repository for Forster's papers.
The Correspondence Series is particularly interesting as it is almost
exclusively composed of personal letters from Forster to various friends and
acquaintances. The series is organized into two sections, Outgoing
Correspondence, 1908-1967, and Third-party Correspondence, 1925-1937. Outgoing
correspondence comprises over 800 letters from Forster to J. R. Ackerley,
Morgan's friend and confidante, and over 200 letters to Malcolm Darling,
another close friend. Also represented among the recipients of letters are Dora
Carrington, Francis King, John Lehmann, Colin Spencer, and others. The
Third-party section contains a scant handful of personal letters between people
other than Forster. All correspondents in this series are listed in the Index
of Correspondents in this guide.
The Works by Other Authors Series contains a small number of writings by
other people. Included is a list of the Cambridge University, King's College
Library's collection of Forster's papers, a biographical pamphlet about Forster
written by Rex Warner, and the Memorandum of Agreement between Albatross Verlag
and Forster for publication of
A Passage to India. Galley proofs for W.
Heffer & Sons Ltd.'s
Heffer Catalogue Seven, prepared for the
sale of Forster's collection of books after his death, are also included.
Elsewhere in the Ransom Center are five photographs of Forster located in the
Literary Files of the Photography Collection and one Vertical File of newspaper
clippings about Forster and his work.
Acquisition:
Purchases, 1960-1981 (R16, R594, R2030, R3082, R3730, R3731, R5180,
55463, R8497, R8509-12, R9084)
Access:
Open for research. This collection has been microfilmed.
Processed by:
Chelsea Jones, 1998
Sources:
Dictionary of Literary Biography -- Volume 48:
British Novelists, 1890-1929: Traditionalists. Thomas F. Staley, Ed.
(Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1985).
Who's Who in Bloomsbury. Alan and
Veronica Palmer. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987).
Other materials associated with Forster may be found in the following
collections at the Ransom Center:
- Aitken, Webster Craig Alec
- Blunden, Edmund Charles
- Brooke, Jocelyn
- Church, Richard
- Connolly, Cyril
- Cunard, Nancy
- Downing, Robert
- Duncan, Ronald Frederick Henry
- Garnett, Edward
-
Harpers Magazine
- Hutchinson, Mary
- Lehmann, John
-
London Magazine
- Lowndes, Marie Adelaide
- Maugham, William Somerset
- Morrell, Ottoline, Lady
- Murry, John Middleton
- Nehls, Edward
- P.E.N.
- Priestley, John Boynton
- Prokosch, Frederic
- Scott-James, Rolfe Arnold
- Sitwell, Edith, Dame
- Strong, Leonard Alfred George
- Tomlinson, Henry Major
Index Terms
Correspondents
Ackerley, J.R. (Joe
Randolph), 1896-1967.
Carrington, Dora de
Houghton, 1893-1932.
Darling, Malcolm Lyell,
Sir, 1880-1969.
Lehmann, John, 1907-
.
Prokosch, Frederic, 1906-
.
Spencer, Colin.
Subjects
Bloomsbury Group.
Places
England--Fiction.
England--Social life and
customs.
India--Social
conditions.
Document Types
Galley proofs.
Postcards.
E. M. Forster Collection--Folder List
Series I. Works,
1910-1960
1
1
A-Z
A Definition of Tolerance, holograph,
1953,
6pp
Liberty in England, typescript,
1935,
2pp
Liking Being Alive, holograph,
1910,
7pp
Notes on an unidentified play, holograph,
nd,
2pp
Untitled essay re André Gide, holograph and typescript,
1960,
8pp
The Longest Journey, microfilm of
holograph including letters and rejected pages (1 reel removed to Microfilm
collection)
A Passage to India
(1924)
1
2-4
Holograph with author revisions,
1924,
472pp
2
1-2
Holograph, 472pp (cont.)
2
3
Holograph with author revisions,
nd,
121pp
2
4
Stray pages, copy of holograph,
nd
3
1
Typescript with author revisions and printer's marks,
and nine pages of holograph revisions,
1924,
40pp
Series II. Correspondence,
1908-1967
Outgoing correspondence,
1908-1967
3
2
A-K
Ackerley, Joseph Randolph,
1922-1966
3
3
1922-1925
3
4
1926-1929
3
5
1930-1934
4
1
1935-1938
4
2
1939-1943
4
3
1944-1953
4
4
1954-1957
4
5
1958-1959
4
6
1960
5
1
1961-1962
5
2
1963-1964
5
3
1965-1966
5
4
Carrington, Dora de Houghton,
1922-1932
5
5
Darling, Malcolm Lyell,
1908-1967
6
1-2
Darling, Malcolm (cont.)
6
3
L-Z
6
4
Lehmann, John,
1935-1961
6
5
Palmer, Edward,
1925-1927
6
6
Spencer, Colin,
1950-1967
6
7
Third-Party Correspondence,
1925-1937
Series III. Works by Other Authors,
1933-1971
6
8
Ackerley, Joseph Randolph, Millstones, typescript,
nd;
Albatross Verlag (firm), Memorandum of Agreement for
A Passage to India, typescript,
1933
6
9
Cambridge University, King's College Library, list of the
papers of E. M. Forster,
1971
6
10
Warner, Rex,
E. M. Forster, holograph with author
edits, 37 pages and two printed editions,
1954 and 1960
W. Heffer & Sons Limited Booksellers,
Heffer Catalogue Seven, galley
proofs,
nd, 37pp (removed to galley folder 1)
E. M. Forster Collection--Index of Correspondents
Box and folder numbers are followed by a number in parentheses which
indicates the number of items written by that person. A single item is
indicated where there is no number in parentheses following the box and folder
number. Where there is correspondence from E. M. Forster, the number in
parentheses is followed by the phrase from
Forster. So in the example
Monroe, Harold--6.3 (10 from Forster), 6.7
there are 10 letters from Forster in Box 6, Folder 3 and one letter from
Monroe in Box 6, Folder 7.
- Ackerley, Alfred Roger--3.2 (from Forster)
- Ackerley, J.R. (Joe Randolph), 1896-1967--3.3-5.3 (849 from
Forster)
- Barnes, George--3.2 (from Forster)
- Brander, Laurence--3.2 (12 from Forster)
- Carrington, Dora de Houghton, 1893-1932--5.4 (31 from Forster)
- Chapman, R.W. (Robert William), 1881-1960--3.2 (4 from Forster)
- Connolly, Cyril, 1908- --3.2 (3 from Forster)
- Darling, Malcolm Lyell, Sir, 1880-1969--5.5-6.2 (212 from
Forster)
- Daykins, Miss--3.2 (from Forster)
- Dickinson, Patric, 1914- --3.2 (from Forster)
- Dodd, A.W.--3.2 (17 from Forster)
- Doggart, James Hamilton--3.2 (3 from Forster)
- Gambler, Peter--3.2 (3 from Forster)
- Hamilton, Hamish, 1900- --3.2 (from Forster)
- King, Francis Henry--3.2 (7 from Forster)
- Laurie, James--6.3 (from Forster)
- Lehmann, John, 1907- --6.4 (38 from Forster)
- Mauron, Charles--6.3 (from Forster)
- Meyerstein, Edward Harry William, 1889-1952--6.3 (from Forster)
- Monroe, Harold--6.3 (10 from Forster), 6.7
- Murphy, Joseph C.--6.3 (from Forster)
- Neill, Alexander Sutherland, 1883-1973--6.7
- Palmer, Edward--6.5 (16 from Forster)
- Partridge, Ralph--6.3 (7 from Forster)
- Patel, ?--6.3 (from Forster)
- P.E.N.--6.3 (from Forster)
- Prokosch, Frederic, 1906- --6.3 (from Forster)
-
Radio Times (London, England)--6.3 (from
Forster)
- Roberts, Francis Warren, 1916- --6.3 (2 from Forster)
- Robins, Elizabeth, 1862-1952--6.3 (from Forster)
- Spencer, Colin--6.6 (26 from Forster)
- Warmen, Mr.--See P.E.N.