Howard Overing Sturgis

Howard Overing Sturgis born 30 January 1855 (d. 1920)

Howard Overing Sturgis was an American expatriate socialite and occasional novelist.

Sturgis was born in London to a rich and well-connected New England merchant family. Russell Sturgis, Howard's father, was a partner at Barings Bank in London, where he and his wife, Julia, were noted figures in society, entertaining such guests as Henry Adams, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Henry James, who became an intimate friend and mentor to Howard.

Sturgis was 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. He attended Eton and Cambridge, and, after the death of his parents, purchased a house in the country, Queen's Acre, called Qu'acre, where Howdie (as Sturgis was known to his coterie of friends) and his much-younger lover William Haynes-Smith (called 'the Babe') frequently and happily entertained a wide circle of friends, from androgynous boys from Eton to literary heavyweights such as James and Edith Wharton. He was the subject of a memorable sketch by E M Forster.

In 1891 Sturgis published his first novel, Tim: A Story of School Life, based on his unhappy days at Eton, which was followed, in 1895, by All That Was Possible, an epistolary novel written from the perspective of a retired actress. Both books went into several printings. Nearly ten years passed before Sturgis published his 'masterpiece', Belchamber, which was successful neither with the public nor with his friends - a bad review from his mentor James was especially galling. He was not to write again apart from a few short stories.