Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Focusing on a single, uncontested will is unusual within legal studies. And the extensive literature about EM Forster has overlooked the significance of his will. This article endeavours to address these silences and develop a conversation between the two. It first explores the place of inheritance in Forster's life and novels; and in doing so highlights his interest in inheritance as both a concept and a practice. Turning then to his will, it argues that it reveals a reflective personal and political engagement with concerns about kinship, sexuality and intimate citizenship which are central to current debates within socio-legal and sociological scholarship. This reading consequently argues that his will is a text that can be read alongside his other work; that it represents a ‘posthumous publication’. While a close, critical reading of the will of one very particular individual, the article identifies the challenges posed to testators in negotiating the public and private nature of wills and highlights both the rich potential and the difficulties that these texts present for socio-legal, literary and biographical scholarship.
The research for this paper was primarily undertaken during a sabbatical leave based at Tel Aviv University and I would like to thank the Law School, and in particular Daphna Hacker, for their collegiality and hospitality. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
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55. Establishing ‘current worth’ is complex. These figures are based on calculators provided at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/ and http://www.measuringworth.com
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158. Including his posthumously published collection of short stories (The Life to Come and Other Stories, 1972).
159. This reading is lent weight by the inclusion of the Terminal Note written in 1960 and reinforced by his portrait or handwriting sometimes being used for the cover. See eg the London Penguin edition of 1972.
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