Autograph Letter Signed ("E M Forster") to "Dear Gladys" [the name "Sykes" has been added in pencil, evidently by a former owner].2 pages 8vo, King's College, Cambridge, 6 August 1956.
". . . I am so sorry to hear that you are obliged to take a cure at Bath, and hope it will be a cure. My own health keeps satisfactory considering my age [Forster was 77 at the time], though I have this afternoon been stung on the finger by a wasp, which makes my writing worse than usual. The nasty little creature was sitting on a tree and when I touched a twig in passing, it took action. However I am now much better. I have had some pleasant correspondence with Sir Richard Sykes. He says he would like to have (after my death) the picture of Mary Ann Sykes which you gave me. I hope by the way that you thought she reproduced well in my book about Aunt Marie.""My book about Aunt Marie" is Marianne Thornton, Forster's "domestic biography" of his great-aunt, published in this year, 1956. Marianne Thornton died at the age of ninety in 1897 leaving Forster enough money to attend Cambridge, travel, and pursue a literary career. The Sykes family were related to the Thorntons and therefore to Forster.
FORSTER,, Edward Morgan 1879-1970. Novelist
Stock Code: AU5475
