Edward Morgan Forster was an English author born on January 1, 1879, and he passed away on June 7, 1970. He is best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). Forster also wrote numerous short stories, essays, speeches, and broadcasts. His short story The Machine Stops (1909) is often viewed as the beginning of technological dystopian fiction. He was a humanist, and his works frequently explore class differences and hypocrisy.

Forster was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 22 separate years and declined a knighthood in 1949. He was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1953 and was named a Companion of Literature in 1961. Maurice, a novel about homosexual love, was published posthumously in 1971. Many of his novels have been adapted into films, including acclaimed adaptations by Merchant Ivory Productions.