D.H Lawrence(1885-1930)

   

David Herbert Lawrence was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on September 11, 1885. He was the son of a coal miner and a schoolteacher. After finishing grammar school, D.H. received a scholarship to attend Nottingham High School, but he remained at home, commuting from Eastwood to Nottingham daily. After dropping out of school he gained a clerkship in a surgical appliance factory. It was during this time that D.H. met Jessie Chambers and the two became soon friends. Jessie tutored D.H. and encouraged him to begin writing in 1905. D.H. went on to gain a teaching certificate from University College, Nottingham. In 1909, Lawrence made his first serious attempt to get published when a friend sent some of his poems to the editor of The English Review, who was immediately enthusiastic and printed them in the lead spot in the magazine's November issue. In 1911, D.H. quit teaching because of a reoccuring battle with pneumonia. He eloped with Frieda Weekley (née von Richthofen), a German wife of a professor at Nottingham. The couple travelled across Europe where finally married in 1914 after Frieda's divorce. During World War I, D.H. and Frieda lived in virtual poverty in England. After the war was over D.H. went to Italy and never returned to his home again. On March 2, 1930 Lawrence died in Vence, France, from complications of tuberculosis.
Lawrence's production includes a considerable body of poetry, a good deal of criticism, several plays, some wonderful travel books, and some novels which are considered his greatest works. The first novel was White Peacocks (1911), then, in chronological order, Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915) and Women in Love (1916). His last and best known novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), was written and continuously revisioned during Lawrence's stay in Italy. Lawrence had trouble getting these works published and accepted due to their sexual frankness. The most notable among the no-fiction Lawrence's works include Fantasia of the Unconscious (1922), Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923), and the travel volumes Twilight in Italy (1916), Sea and Sardinia (1921), Mornings in Mexico (1927) and Etruscan Places (1932).

links:  - D.H. Lawrence Collection  - D.H. Lawrence website