D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer who worked across many forms: novels, short stories, poetry, plays, literary criticism, travel writing, essays, and painting. His modernist work examines modernity, social alienation, and industrialisation, while advocating for sexuality, vitality, and instinct. Four of his best-known novels—*Sons and Lovers* (1913), *The Rainbow* (1915), *Women in Love* (1920), and *Lady Chatterley's Lover* (1928)—faced censorship trials because of their radical treatment of romance, sexuality, and explicit language. Lawrence’s views and artistic choices made him a controversial figure; he was persecuted and his creative work was misrepresented throughout his life. Much of that life was spent in voluntary exile, which he called a “savage enough pilgrimage.” At his death, he was often dismissed as tasteless, avant-garde, or a pornographer whose only success came from erotica. But novelist and critic E. M. Forster, in an obituary, challenged that view, calling Lawrence “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” Later, literary critic F. R. Leavis also defended Lawrence’s artistic integrity and moral seriousness.

Lawrence was born on 11 September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, the fourth child of Arthur John Lawrence, a barely literate miner at Brinsley Colliery, and Lydia Lawrence (née Beardsall), a former pupil-teacher who had to do manual work in a lace factory because of her family’s financial troubles. He grew up in the coal mining town of Eastwood. The house where he was born, 8a Victoria Street, is now the D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum. His working-class background and the tensions between his parents provided material for some of his early works. From a young age, Lawrence roamed the open, hilly countryside and the remaining fragments of Sherwood Forest in Felley woods north of Eastwood, beginning a lifelong love of nature. He often wrote about “the country of my heart” as a setting for his fiction. Though his father wanted his sons to go down the pit, his mother was determined they would not earn a living through manual labour, and she succeeded, at least with Lawrence. He attended Greasley Beauvale Board School near Eastwood from 1891 to 1898, becoming the first local pupil to win a county council scholarship to Nottingham High School. He left that school in 1901 and worked for three months as a junior clerk at Haywood’s surgical appliances factory, but a severe bout of pneumonia ended that job. During his recovery, he often visited Hagg’s Farm, home of the Chambers family, and began a friendship with one of the daughters, Jessie Chambers, who would inspire characters in his writing. A shared love of books was an important part of his relationship with Chambers and other adolescent friends, an interest that lasted his whole life. In a private letter from 1908, Lawrence expressed support for eugenics, suggesting a “lethal chamber” to dispose of “all the sick, the halt, the maimed.” He was also an early supporter of poet Anna Wickham, whose work he admired and encouraged, recommending her poetry for publication.

From 1902 to 1906, Lawrence worked as a pupil-teacher at the British School in Eastwood. He then became a full-time student and earned a teaching certificate from University College, Nottingham (then an external college of the University of London) in 1908. During these early years, he worked on his first poems, some short stories, and a draft of a novel called *Laetitia*, which eventually became *The White Peacock*. At the end of 1907, he won a short story competition in the *Nottinghamshire Guardian*, his first wider recognition for his literary talents. In autumn 1908, the newly qualified Lawrence left his childhood home for London. While teaching at Davidson Road School in Croydon, he kept writing. Jessie Chambers submitted some of his early poetry to Ford Madox Ford (then Ford Hermann Hueffer), editor of the influential *The English Review*. Ford commissioned the story “Odour of Chrysanthemums,” and when it was published in that magazine, it encouraged publisher Heinemann to ask Lawrence for more work. His career as a professional author began in earnest, though he taught for another year. Shortly after the final proofs of his first published novel, *The White Peacock*, appeared in 1910, Lawrence’s mother died of cancer, leaving him devastated. He called the following months his “sick year.” Because of his close relationship with his mother, this grief became a major turning point. The novel is essentially about the emotional battle for Lawrence’s love between his mother and “Miriam” (based on Jessie Chambers), and it also documents Lawrence’s brief intimate relationship with Chambers, which he began at Christmas 1909 and ended in August 1910. The hurt this caused Chambers, and her portrayal in the novel, ended their friendship; after it was published, they never spoke again. In 1911, Lawrence was introduced to Edward Garnett, a publisher’s reader, who became a mentor and valued friend, as did his son David. During these months, Lawrence revised *Paul Morel*, the first draft of what became *Sons and Lovers*. A teaching colleague, Helen Corke, gave him access to her intimate diaries about an unhappy love affair, which formed the basis of his second novel, *The Trespasser*.