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Howard Sturgis

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Howard Overing Sturgis (January 30, 1855 – February 7, 1920) was an English-language novelist who wrote about same-sex love. Of American parentage, he lived and worked in Britain.

Contents

• Early life

• Career

• Personal life

• Legacy

• Works

• Further reading

• References

• External links

Early life

"Howdie," as he was known to his intimates, was born in London on 30 January 1855 into an affluent New England American family.cite-ref-roberts1898-1-0[1] His father, Russell Sturgis,cite-ref-1888will-2-0[2] was a China trader and lawyer who later became head of Barings Bank in London.cite-ref-white2008-3-0[3] His mother was Russell's third wife, Julia Overing (née Boit) Sturgis. Among his siblings were brothers Julian (who also became a novelist) and Henry (who became MP for South Dorset) and sister Mary (wife of Bertram Falle, 1st Baron Portsea).cite-ref-lee1912-4-0[4] From his father's earlier marriage, he had an elder half-brother, John Hubbard Sturgis, who was a noted Boston architect.cite-ref-5[5]

He was described as "a delicate child, closely attached to his mother, and fond of such girlish hobbies as needlepoint and knitting, which he continued to practice throughout his life."cite-ref-new-york-review-of-books-6-0[6] His parents sent him to be educated at Eton College. He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA degree in 1878.cite-ref-7[7] He became a friend of the novelists Henry James and Edith Wharton.cite-ref-new-york-review-of-books-6-1[6]

Career

Sturgis's first novel, Tim: A Story of School Life (1891), was published anonymously and was dedicated to the "love that surpasses the love of women." It describes the love of two youths at boarding-school and was "based on his unhappy days at Eton."cite-ref-new-york-review-of-books-6-2[6] It was followed in 1895 by All that was possible, an epistolary novel about an actress who retires from London to a remote valley in Wales.cite-ref-hollinghurst2008-8-0[8]

Sturgis' first two novels were successful as far as sales were concerned; but his third, Belchamber (1904), failed to gain the same plaudits.cite-ref-new-york-review-of-books-6-3[6]cite-ref-nyt1905-9-0[9] Although Edith Wharton praised it, Henry James found it unsatisfactory,cite-ref-jstor-10-0[10] and let Sturgis know in several letters. Afterwards Sturgis went on to publish only one short story (1908), about a lesser writer driven suicidal by the criticism of a greater, and a memorial on his friend, Anne Thackeray.cite-ref-hollinghurst2008-8-1[8]

Personal life

After the death of his mother in 1888, he bought a country house named Queen's Acre ("Qu’acre"), near Windsor Great Park and moved there with his lover, William Haynes-Smith (1871–1937), known to all as "the Babe."cite-ref-hollinghurst2008-8-2[8] Haynes-Smith was the son of the English colonial administrator Sir William Haynes-Smith. At Qu’acre, they frequently entertained a wide group of friends, including Wharton and James. cite-ref-new-york-review-of-books-6-4[6]

Sturgis died at Windsor, Berkshire on 7 February 1920.cite-ref-jstor-10-1[10] Four years after his death, Haynes-Smith married Howard's niece, Alice Maud Russell Sturgis (a daughter of his elder half-brother John Hubbard Sturgis),cite-ref-11[11] at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Both were in their 50s when they married.cite-ref-1924wedding-12-0[12]

Legacy

After his death appreciations of him were published by A. C. Benson (1924), Edith Wharton (1934), E. M. Forster (1936) and George Santayana (1944), his cousin. His great-nephew is the journalist and novelist Henry Porter.

Works

• Tim: A Story of School Life (1891) [Anonymously published]

• All That Was Possible (1895)

• Belchamber (1904)

• 'On the Pottlecombe Cornice', in Fortnightly Review (1908) [short story]