A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster
by Wendy Moffat
This book is just amazing. Wendy Moffat has done a terrific job, brilliantly researched and so sensitive to the interior life of the 20th century homo. Academic biography aside, Moffat creates a compelling polemic on the damage a narrow minded society imposes on gay men and women. "Yes, yes, I remember feeling that," I would say as the author parsed the homophobia that caused Forster so much suffering and distraction. Things are different now, I would tell Morgan, knowing he would be pleased with the progress we have made. On the other hand, Morgan's life-long task to protect his mother's sensibilities hit close to home, a reminder that some things remain resistant to change.
Best of all, unlike so much of today's cultural debate where gay criticism addresses the "choir," Moffat's biography will reach a wider audience, those seeking appreciation of 20th century Brit. Lit, and pushing academia a few more inches out of the closet.
Morgan, via Moffat, makes me proud to be an American, as least one lucky enough to be out in the 70s. Morgan’s wide-eyed appreciation of America’s ghetto culture, the openly gay enclaves of Greenwich Village and Santa Monica canyon, for example, registered for him as hope in the future. Imagine his bearing witness to both the Oscar Wilde trial and the Silverlake riots of 1967. Despite his long life, he was fortunately spared the epidemic of the 80s and 90s, exacerbated by this same “liberating” ghettoization he so admired.
Through this astute biography, I hope Moffat reaches a larger audience, be it academic, religious or Republican, with the awareness on the enormous cost culture pays to maintain policies of homophobia.
