Edward Morgan (E. M.) Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970) was an English author known best for his ironic novels examining class and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society.  He was born in London the only child of a middle class Anglo-Irish and Welsh family. His father died when he was a toddler. He inherited a substantial sum at age 8 that gave him enough to survive and become a writer. He attended King’s College, Cambridge and belonged to the Apostles discussion group, whose membership included many who would belong to the Bloomsbury Group. After university he traveled widely in Europe, Egypt, and India.  He volunteered with the Red Cross in Egypt during the First World War. In the 1920’s he served as private secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas, and wrote A Passage to India (1924) upon his return to England, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. In the 1930’s and 1940’s he became a successful broadcaster with the BBC.

Forster was a lifelong bachelor and an unapologetic homosexual, open to friends such as Benjamin Britten and Christopher Isherwood, but closeted in his public life. His novel Maurice, a gay love story written before the First World War, caused a stir when it was published shortly after his death.