E. M. Forster

Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stories, essays, speeches and broadcasts, as well as a limited number of biographies and some pageant plays. He also co-authored the opera ''Billy Budd'' (1951). Many of his novels examine class differences and hypocrisy. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work.

Considered one of the most successful of the Edwardian era English novelists, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 22 separate years. He declined a knighthood in 1949, was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1953, and in 1961 he was one of the first five authors named as a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.

After attending Tonbridge School, Forster studied history and classics at King's College, Cambridge, where he met fellow future writers such as Lytton Strachey and Leonard Woolf. He then travelled throughout Europe before publishing his first novel, ''Where Angels Fear to Tread'', in 1905. His final novel, ''Maurice'', a tale of homosexual love in early 20th-century England, was published in 1971, the year after his death.

Many of his novels were posthumously adapted for cinema, including Merchant Ivory Productions of ''A Room with a View'' (1985), ''Maurice'' (1987) and ''Howards End'' (1992), critically acclaimed period dramas which featured lavish sets and esteemed British actors, including Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Grant, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Director David Lean filmed another well-received adaptation, ''A Passage to India'', in 1984. Provided by Wikipedia