Howard Sturgis

Howard Overing Sturgis ( born January 30, 1855 in London, † February 7, 1920 in Windsor, Berkshire ) was an American writer.

Life and work

Sturgis was born in 1855 in London as the youngest son of Russell Sturgis ( 1805-1887 ), a wealthy merchant from Boston, Massachusetts. One of his half-brothers was the writer Julian Sturgis ( 1848-1904 ). As a guest of the family, he learned as a child already Henry Adams, William Makepeace Thackeray and Henry James know, the latter was a personal friend and mentor to him. Sturgis grew up in England in the prosperity and attended Eton and Cambridge; after the death of his parents, he acquired near Eton and received an estate there, along with his partner William Haynes -Smith, often a large circle of friends, among them Henry James, Edith Wharton and George Santayana.

Sturgis has written three novels, two of which are dominated by gay themes. The first novel Tim: A Story of School Life was published anonymously in 1891 (Eng. 1895; NA 2009 under the title of Tim ) and is based on his unfortunate experience at Eton, the third, Belchamber of 1904, is regarded as his masterpiece, but was in contrast to the first two novels no sales success and was out of Wharton does not appreciate even by his friends; he therefore remained Sturgis ' last major work. Only a short story was published in his lifetime yet.

A gay contemporary of the next generation, EM Forster (1879-1970), has written a skit about Sturgis; On the other hand Sturgis ' Tim can be seen as precursors of Maurice Forster, written already 1913/14, (22 years after the publication of Tim ), but only published posthumously in 1971.

Bibliography

• Tim: A Story of School Life. Novel.. Macmillan and Co, London / New York, 1891 (Reprint: Mondial, New York, ISBN 978-1-59569-130-9 ) German: Tim. Novel. customary. v. Natalie Rümelin u m. e Nachw of tungsten setting. Männerschwarm Verlag, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-939542-48-3.