Howard Overing Sturgis

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.

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. His father, Russell Sturgis, was a China trader and lawyer who later became head of Barings Bank in London. 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). From his father's earlier marriage, he had an elder half-brother, John Hubbard Sturgis, who was a noted Boston architect.

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." 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. He became a friend of the novelists Henry James and Edith Wharton.

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." 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.