A great unrecorded history

With the posthumous publication of his long-suppressed novel Maurice in 1970, E.M. Forster came out as a homosexual--though that revelation made barely a ripple in his literary reputation. As Wendy Moffat persuasively argues, Forster's homosexuality was the central fact of his life. Between Wilde's imprisonment and the Stonewall riots, Forster led a long, strange, and imaginative life as a gay man. He preserved a vast archive of his private life--a history of gay experience he believed would find its audience in a happier time. Moffat's decade of detective work--including first-time interviews with Forster's friends--has resulted in the first book to integrate Forster's public and private lives. Seeing his life through the lens of his sexuality offers us a radically new view, revealing his astuteness as a social critic, his political bravery, and his prophetic vision of gay intimacy. This book invites us to see Forster--and modern gay history--from a completely new angle.--From publisher description.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of LGBTQ+, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.