The Journals and Diaries of E M Forster
Editor: Philip Gardner
The Pickering Masters
978 1 84893 114 5: 234x156mm: £275.00/$495.00
Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) is best known for his beautifully-structured novels. He is recognized as one of the giants of twentieth-century literature.
This fascinating collection of diaries, travel journals and itineraries brings together all previously unpublished material Forster wrote which can be classed as ‘memoir’.
Covering the period 1895–1967, the diaries and journals presented in these volumes allow new insight into Forster’s early life and his career as a writer. They will be of immense value to scholars researching this key figure of English literature. They will also be a useful resource to those interested in travel during the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the wider literary and social history of the period.
A frank and lively diarist, Forster was not a dogged one, and his entries over the years are irregular and eclectic. Despite this, the archival material (held at King’s College, Cambridge), here newly transcribed, is substantial. Friendships with T E Lawrence, Benjamin Britten, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, John Maynard Keynes and Leonard and Virginia Woolf are all attested to. Meetings with other writers of the period including A E Housman and Henry James are also documented. Details on Forster’s sexuality, though often veiled, are nonetheless in evidence, particularly with regard to his long relationship with Bob Buckingham.
- All diaries and journals are previously unpublished
- Newly transcribed and not available in any other format
- Covers a period of over seventy years
- Illuminates the life of a key figure of English twentieth-century literature
- Full scholarly apparatus
- Index in final volume
Sample pages
Contents
Volume 1
General Introduction
Normandy Journal (1895)
Journal (1898)
Journal (1899)
Journal (1900)
Trip to Switzerland and Italy (1901)
Journal (1901)
Mediterranean Journal (1903)
Notebook Journal (1903–9)
Volume 2
The ‘Locked Diary’ (1909–67)
Volume 3
Stisted (1910)
Belfast Journal (1912)
‘Incidents of War’ Memoir, Alexandria (1915–17)
Journal (1925)
Africa Journal (1929)
French Itinerary (1931)
America Journal (1947 and 1949)
Journal (1950)
Journal (1952)
Travel Journal, France (1953)
Travel Journal, Portugal (1953)
Loose Diary Pages (1954 and 1955)
Trip to France (1955)
Hellenic Cruise (1956)
Trip to Austria (1957)
Journal (1958)
‘Trip to Italy’ Diary (possibly 1962)
Journal (1964)
‘West Hackhurst: A Surrey Ramble’
Index
Reviews
'....the most significant addition of material ... one could read Gardner's notes alone – with their endless unravelings – with unceasing pleasure.'
– Richard Canning, The Literary Review
' … this fascinating addendum to Forster’s writing in print … these fragments add considerably to our knowledge of the man and his work.’
– Peter Parker, Times Literary Supplement (read the full review here)
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- Selected Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, 1919–1967
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- Unpublished Works of Lytton Strachey : Early Papers
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