01/01/2026
"I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort."
E.M. Forster
– January 1, 1879
E.M. Forster was ahead of his time, or he was simply better suited to take on certain topics that couldn't be treated with any frankness during his own era. He remained a true Edwardian gentleman, yet Forster wrote from a modern gay male point of view more fully realized than any other writer of his era.
After writing and gardening, Forster had two great love affairs in his life. Remember, at that time in England being gay was illegal, punishable with a prison sentence. Like some other Edwardians, Forster found a sort of s*xual freedom exploring the far reaches of the British Empire, such as Egypt and India, odd now that both countries are repressive in their policies towards LGBTQ people.
The first lover was Muhammad el-Adl, a young Egyptian. Forster: "I have plunged into an anxious but very beautiful affair. It seemed to me, and I proved right, that something precious was being offered me and that I was offering something that might be thought precious. I should have been right to take the plunge, because if you pass life by it is jolly well going to pass you by in the future. If you're frightened it's all right, that's no harm; fear is an emotion. But by some trick of the nerves, I happen not to be frightened."
The second great love of his life was a policeman, Bob Buckingham, whom he met in 1930 when Buckingham was 28 years old and Forster was 51; their affair continued, perhaps even intensified, after Buckingham's marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Buckingham accommodated Forster in their relationship, with the wife enjoying his company before handing off the writer to her husband for weekends. Only someone with Forster's considerable skills and vivid imagination could have maintained such an unconventional, yet somehow sweet relationship over so many years.
Here is your reading list:
• WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD (1905)
• THE LONGEST JOURNEY (1907)
• A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1908)
• HOWARDS END (1910)
• A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1924)
• MAURICE (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)
1947 photograph with Bob Buckingham by George Platt Lynes.
