AN E. M. FORSTER CHRONOLOGY AUTHOR CHRONOLOGIES

General Editor: Norman Page, Professor of Modern English Literature, University of Nottingham

Reginald Berry A POPE CHRONOLOGY

Edward Bishop A VIRGINIA WOOLF CHRONOLOGY

Timothy Hands A GEORGE ELIOT CHRONOLOGY A HARDY CHRONOLOGY

Harold Orel A KIPLING CHRONOLOGY

Norman Page A BYRON CHRONOLOGY A DICKENS CHRONOLOGY A DR JOHNSON CHRONOLOGY AN OSCAR WILDE CHRONOLOGY

F. B. Pinion A WORDSWORTH CHRONOLOGY A TENNYSON CHRONOLOGY A KEATS CHRONOLOGY

Valerie Purton A COLERIDGE CHRONOLOGY

J. H. Stape AN E. M. FORSTER CHRONOLOGY

R. C. Terry A TROLLOPE CHRONOLOGY An E. M. Forster Chronology

J. H. STAPE Visiting Professor in English Chiba University, Japan

M © J. H. Stape 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

ISBN 978-1-349-22655-9 ISBN 978-1-349-22653-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22653-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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General Editor's Preface vi

Introduction viii

Acknawledgements xi

List of Abbreviations xii

A Note on Names, Titles, Usages and Locations xiv

AN E. M. FORSTER CHRONOLOGY 1

Who's Who 162

Locations and Addresses 177

Select Bibliography 181

Index 183

People and Organisations 183

Forster's Works 187

Forster's Reading 193

v General Editor's Preface

Most biographies are ill adapted to serve as works of reference - not surprisingly so, since the biographer is likely to regard his function as the devising of a continuous and readable narrative, with excursions into interpretation and speculation, rather than a bald recital of facts. There are times, however, when anyone reading for business or pleasure needs to check a point quickly or to obtain a rapid overview of part of an author's life or career, and at such moments turning over the pages of a biography can be a time-consuming and frustrating occupation. The present series of volumes aims at providing a means whereby the chrono­ logical facts of an author's life and career, rather than needing to be prised out of the narrative in which they are (if they appear at all) securely embedded, can be seen at a glance. Moreover, whereas biographies are often, and quite understandably, vague over matters of fact (since it makes for tediousness to be forever enumerating details of dates and places), a chronology can be precise whenever it is possible to be precise. Thanks to the survival, sometimes in very large quantities, of letters, diaries, notebooks and other documents, as well as to thoroughly researched biographies and bibliographies, this mater­ ial now exists in abundance for many major authors. In the case of, for example, Dickens, we can often ascertain what he was doing in each month and week, and almost on each day, of his prodigiously active working life; and the student of, say, David Copperfield is likely to find it fascinating as well as useful to know just when Dickens was at work on each part of that novel, what other literary enterprises he was engaged in at the same time, whom he was meeting, what places he was visiting and what were the relevant circumstances of his personal and professional life. Such a chronology is not, of course, a substitute for a bio­ graphy; but its arrangement, in combination with its index, makes it a much more convenient tool for this kind of purpose; and it may be acceptable as a form of I alternative' biography, with its own distinctive advantages as well as its obvious limita­ tions. Since information relating to an author's early years is usually

vi General Editor's Preface vii scanty and chronologically imprecise, the opening section of some volumes in this series groups together the years of child­ hood and adolescence. Thereafter each year, and usually each month, is dealt with separately. Information not readily assign­ able to a specific month or day is given as a general note under the relevant year or month. The first entry for each month carries an indication of the day of the week, so that when necessary this can be readily calculated for other dates. Each volume also contains a bibliography of the principal sources of information. In the chronology itself, the sources of many of the more specific items, including quotations, are identified, in order that the reader who wishes to do so may consult the original contexts. NORMAN PAGE Introduction

The publication of Forster's authorised biography, a two-volume edition of his selected letters, his Indian diaries and various memoirs in the Abinger Edition have since his death in 1970 provided much new material for the student of his life and fiction. Considerable documentary resources have also become available in archives and libraries and, as far as has been practical, these have been drawn upon in compiling this chrono­ logy. The diaries and letters of Forster's contemporaries and friends have been useful in establishing the nature and time­ frame of his activities. In the absence of a complete edition of Forster's several thousands of letters, details necessarily remain sketchy and certain emphases may be slightly lopsided. While Forster was a keen observer of his own life, he did not, unlike, say, Virginia Woolf, keep detailed and voluminous journals. And never a systematic diarist, Forster also destroyed some of his diaries either to ensure privacy or as part of periodic weedings out of the detritus of his long life. Thus even the extant diaries contain frustrating lacunae and teasing silences. Two structural limitations also weigh upon any account of Forster's life and career, one fundamental, the other temporary. Compared to the infonnation available for his mature years, frustratingly little survives for the years from 1901 to 1914, those of his most active creative phase and the period literary scholars would consider, along with the years 1921-4 when he brought to completion, the most important. Thus, tracing the conception, growth and completion of Forster's fiction is not often possible in detail and is further hindered by the nearly universal absence of dates on extant manuscripts and typescripts. The second, more temporary, structural limitation is that 1949 is the cut-off point for access to papers at King's College, Cam­ bridge. These are at present reserved since they mention persons still living. One further word of caution also needs to be added: Forster's life has not been the subject of detailed and prolonged scholarly investigation in the way that, to cite only modern examples, the lives of D. H. Lawrence or Joseph Conrad have.

viii Introduction ix

Printed sources thus remain more limited than is the case for a number of his contemporaries, while some of his activities - his extension lecturing or his negotiations with his publishers - await even initial investigation. Lastly, Forster himself sometimes pro­ vides contradictory dates for an event. On occasion, other more certain sources than memory, such as a stamp in a passport or recourse to a newspaper, may be drawn upon to dissipate the confusion. In some cases, however, the contradictory evidence has to be weighed and a decision made on the basis of likelihood rather than certitude. Despite these handicaps, enough hard factual information about Forster's activities, travels, wide read­ ing and preoccupations is certainly available to justify a compact digest of his life. The unusual shape and length of that life necessitate treating his early and late years summarily, with Forster's literary career and public activities forming this chronology's principal focus. After writing five novels in rapid succession (though , a story of homosexual love, was to remain unpublished until after his death), he completed his acknowledged masterpiece, A Passage to India, after a ten-year hiatus in its writing, only to retreat again at the age of forty-five into public silence as a prac­ tising novelist. The patterning adopted here seeks to emphasise the achievements and activities of Forster's maturity with the side advantage that it also highlights the extent of his later public commitments and interventions as an engaged and public spokesman for liberal and humane values, as a broadcaster and biographer, and as an essayist and prolific reviewer. (Since his death it has also been established that he continued to write stories for his own interest, pleasure and amusement, and these are, of course, accounted for here.) Even the last twenty of Forster's ninety-one years, years of physical decline, reveal him actively interested in and engaged with the challenges of his time and, even if not at a Verdian level of quality, enjoying creative periods that resulted in a masterly short story, in a finely crafted libretto and in volumes of auto­ and family biography. Restrictions on space and the aforemen­ tioned lack of access to some unpublished sources confine the treatment of these years to his literary and journalistic activities and to his continued public presence, though some sense of enduring enthusiasms, interests and friendships is suggested during a period of his life in which the pressures of age, an x Introduction increasingly insistent sense of mortality and declining health took their inescapable toll. Forster was a voracious reader, eagerly keeping abreast with current writing as well as rereading his favourite authors. The recording of the title of every book he read has not been attempted; however, Forster's reading during his student years at Cambridge, as far as it is recorded in his diaries and letters, and during the period up to 1925 has been a particular concern since these works, which include much contemporary fiction, may variously inform or influence his writings. The reading of his later years is handled more selectively and summarily, partly because titles may be found in the published letters, Commonplace Book and essays. Dates of publication for his reading have been provided on first mention only. Acknowledgements

I am especially indebted to Dr Owen Knowles whose A Conrad Chronology in this series inspired and has guided the present work and to Professors Judith Scherer Herz and S. P. Rosenbaum for reading this book in draft and generously offering useful comments. I should also like to thank the following individuals for answering enquiries, offering advice or otherwise assisting me in my research: Philip Anson; Nicola Beauman; Dr Laurence Davies; Brigitte Euler, Archivist, Staatsoper Dresden; Raymond Gauthier; Dr Michael Halls, sometime Archivist of Modern Papers, King's College Library, Cambridge; Dr Robert G. Hamp­ son; Millard Irion, Public Services Librarian, Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard University; Frank K. Lorenz, Curator of Special Collections, Hamilton College; Hans van MarIe; Sarah A. Polirer, Curatorial Assistant, Harvard University Archives; Caro­ line Rittenhouse, College Archivist, Bryn Mawr College; Elizabeth Sage, Archives Assistant, University of Chicago Library; Patricia Schute, Secretary, Royal Society of Literature. I should also like to acknowledge the assistance of the archi­ vists and librarians of the following institutions for facilitating my consultation of the collections in their care:' Bodleian Library, Oxford; British Library; Brynmor Jones Memorial Library, Hull University; University Library and Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University; Durham University Library; King's Col­ lege and Trinity College Libraries, Cambridge.

E. M. Forster's diaries and letters © The Provost and Scholars of King's College, Cambridge, 1992.

xi List of Abbreviations

Individuals

BB 'Bob' Buckingham DHL D. H. Lawrence EMF Edward Morgan Forster FB Florence Barger GLD Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson HOM H. O. Meredith JRA J. R. Ackerley LF 'Lily' Forster (mother) RCT Robert Caverley Trevelyan SRM Syed Ross Masood TEL T. E. Lawrence VW Virginia Woolf

Works AE Albergo Empedocle and Other Writings AH Abinger Harvest AHG Alexandria: A History and a Guide AN AS Arctic Summer and Other Fiction CB Commonplace Book CO and Other Stories EM and Other Stories GLD Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson HD The Hill of Devi HE LJ The Longest Journey LTC The Life to Come and Other Stories MT PI A Passage to India RWV TCD WAFT Where Angels Fear to Tread

xii List of Abbreviations xiii

Other Abbreviations

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation Diary E. M. Forster's manuscript diaries, King's College, Cambridge DHLL The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, ed. James T. Boulton et al., 6 vols (Cambridge, 1979-91) N&A Nation & Athenaeum NCCL National Council of Civil Liberties NS&N New Statesman & Nation SSD Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis, 3 vols (London, 1981-5) TELL The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, ed. Malcolm Brown (London, 1988) TLS Times Literary Supplement VWD The Diary of Virginia Woolf, ed. Anne Olivier Bell assisted by Andrew McNeillie, 5 vols (London, 1977-84) VWL The Letters of Virginia Woolf, ed. Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, 6 vols (London, 197~O) A Note on Names, Titles, Usages and Locations

Forster was known to his family, friends and circle as 'Morgan'; the initials of his given names, Edward Morgan, yield the abbre­ viation EMF. All verbs lacking an explicitly identified subject refer to Forster. Abbreviations in the plural (for example, DHLs) indicate an individual and spouse. Quotations from Forster's diary and letters are identified by date only, even when the material quoted has been published. When a date is unspecified in a parenthetical reference, it is that of the main entry. The loca­ tions of Forster's letters are provided in Mary Lago's Calendar of the Letters of E. M. Forster (1985). Where a work has more than one title or was not given a title by Forster, the title used here is the one assigned by the editors of the Abinger Edition of Forster's works, the edition cited throughout for quotations. Where an item's first publication or most convenient reprinting occurs in that edition, the word Abinger precedes the title in the reference. Complete publication details for short pieces and writings first published in periodicals or newspapers are to be found in B. J. Kirkpatrick's A Bibliography of E. M. Forster (2nd edn, 1985). Only first serial publication is recorded in this chronology; in cases where these have been reprinted in a book of essays by Forster this is indicated by an abbreviation in parenthesis following the title. Only Forster's broadcast talks not published as articles or otherwise collected are specifically noted. Complete publication details of broadcast talks can be found in Kirkpatrick. The term 'Anglo-Indian' indicates English persons resident in British India. Academic terms are roughly as follows: Michaelmas from mid-October to mid-December, Lent from mid-January to mid-March and Easter from mid-April to mid-June. Unless otherwise indicated, place of publication for all books cited is London. Where context alone does not specify, all references to streets, business premises, theatres and public venues are to a London location. Where a place-name has

xiv A Note on Names, Titles, Usages and Locations xv changed since Forster's connection with it, the present-day name is given in parenthesis except in instances where the former name can be assumed to be widely familiar.