The Life of D. H. Lawrence BlacKWELL CRITIcal BIOGRAPHIES General Editor: Claude Rawson This acclaimed series offers informative and durable biographies of important authors, British, European and North American, which will include substantial critical discussion of their works. An underlying objective is to re‐establish the notion that books are written by people who lived in particular times and places. This objective is pursued not by programmatic assertions or strenuous point‐making, but through the practical persuasion of volumes which offer intelligent criticism within a well‐researched biographical context. Also in this series The Life of Walter Scott The Life of Evelyn Waugh John Sutherland Douglas Lane Patey The Life of William Faulkner The Life of Goethe Richard Gray John R. Williams The Life of Thomas Hardy The Life of W. B. Yeats Paul Turner Terence Brown The Life of Celine The Life of John Milton Nicholas Hewitt Barbara Lewalski The Life of Henry Fielding The Life of Samuel Johnson Ronald Paulson Robert DeMaria, Jr The Life of Robert Browning The Life of Ann Brontë Clyde De L. Ryals Edward Chitham The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer The Life of William Shakespeare Derek Pearsall Lois Potter The Life of Daniel Defoe The Life of William Wordsworth John Richetti John Worthen The Life of George Eliot The Life of D. H. Lawrence Nancy Henry Andrew Harrison The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Rosemary Ashton The Life of D. H. Lawrence A Critical Biography Andrew Harrison This edition first published 2016 © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell. The right of Andrew Harrison to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Names: Harrison, Andrew, 1973– author. Title: The life of D. H. Lawrence / Andrew Harrison. Description: 1 | Chichester, Sussex : Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. | Series: Wiley blackwell critical biographies | Includes index. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015044565 (print) | LCCN 2016001782 (ebook) | ISBN 9780470654781 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119072683 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119101291 (Adobe PDF) Subjects: LCSH: Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930. | Authors, English–20th century–Biography. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Classification: LCC PR6023.A93 Z63125 2016 (print) | LCC PR6023.A93 (ebook) | DDC 823/.912–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015044565 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image: D. H. Lawrence in the cloisters of the cathedral at Cuernavaca, Mexico, c.5 April 1923. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La WB 1/13.) Set in 10/12pt Bembo by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 1 2016 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Preface xvi Part I Literary Formation, 1885–1912 1 1 Early Voices, September 1885–October 1908 3 2 Literary London, October 1908–April 1910 31 3 ‘A Small but Individual Name’, April 1910–May 1912 49 Part II UnEnglished, 1912–1914 79 4 ‘Coming Out Wholesome and Myself’, May 1912–May 1913 81 5 Forging a Career, June 1913–August 1914 106 Part III The Bitterness of the War and its Aftermath, 1914–1919 125 6 ‘The Real Fighting Line’, August 1914–December 1915 127 7 Outlaw, December 1915–April 1918 150 8 ‘Laid Up’, May 1918–November 1919 177 Part IV Europe Again, 1919–1922 197 9 Italy and Sicily, November 1919–December 1920 199 10 End of the Line, January 1921–February 1922 218 v Contents Part V New Worlds and Old Worlds, 1922–1925 235 11 Ceylon and Australia, February–August 1922 237 12 On to America, August 1922–November 1923 247 13 Broken Bonds, December 1923–July 1924 270 14 Writing for the Race, August 1924 –September 1925 283 Part VI Returning, 1925–1927 303 15 Understanding, September 1925–April 1926 305 16 Writing and Painting, April 1926–March 1927 319 Part VII ‘Unfailing Courage’, 1927–1930 339 17 Friendship and Isolation, March 1927 –May 1928 341 18 ‘Dropping a Little Bomb in the World’s Crinoline of Hypocrisy’, May 1928–August 1929 363 19 ‘Living on his Spirit’, August 1929 –March 1930 394 Afterword 406 Bibliography 411 Index 420 vi List of Illustrations 1 The Lawrence family, c.1895. Back row: Emily, George, Ernest. Front row: Ada, Lydia, Bert (D. H. Lawrence), Arthur. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La R 8.) 6 2 The Chambers family outside Haggs Farm, c.1899: May, Bernard, Mollie, Edmund, Ann, David, Jessie, Hubert, Alan. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La Ch 60.) 9 3 D. H. Lawrence, March 1905. Photograph by George Holderness. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La R 8.) 14 4 The copy of Maurice Greiffenhagen’s painting ‘An Idyll’ made by Lawrence for his sister Ada and begun on the day of his mother’s death, 9 December 1910. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La Pc 2/7.) 55 5 Frieda Weekley with two of her children, Monty and Barbara, Nottingham, c.1905. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La We 6/2.) 73 6 Frieda Weekley and D. H. Lawrence, Bavaria, late April or May 1913. (Photography Collection, D. H. Lawrence Literary File P–59, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.) 103 7 D. H. Lawrence, London, late summer 1915. (© National Portrait Gallery, London.) 141 8 D. H. Lawrence and his nephew, Jack Clarke, Mountain Cottage, Middleton‐by‐Wirksworth, Derbyshire, c.18–20 May 1918. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La Z 8/1/1/7.) 178 9 D. H. Lawrence and Kai Gøtzsche working at the Del Monte Ranch, New Mexico, December 1922. (Courtesy of Steffen Lange.) 253 10 Pencil drawing by Kai Gøtzsche of D. H. Lawrence, Knud Merrild and Gøtzsche on horseback in New Mexico, c.January 1923. vii List of Illustrations (The D. H. Lawrence Papers, Collection No. 1976.013. Department of Special Collections and University Archives, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa. Tulsa, Oklahoma.) 254 11 D. H. Lawrence in the cloisters of the cathedral at Cuernavaca, Mexico, c.5 April 1923. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La WB 1/13.) 258 12 D. H. Lawrence milking Susan, his cow. (Photography Collection, D. H. Lawrence Literary File P‐292N, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.) 296 13 Back row: Harwood Brewster, Earl Brewster. Front row: Dorothy Brett, Achsah Brewster and D. H. Lawrence. Capri, 27 February–c.10 March 1926. (Press Photograph. Source – Eve: The Lady’s Pictorial, 31 March 1926, p. 625.) 313 14 Lawrence and Frieda posing by the well at the Villa Mirenda, San Polo Mosciano, Florence. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La Phot 1/27.) 321 15 A family photograph taken outside St Peter’s Church, Markby, Lincolnshire, week of 22–26 August 1926. Back row: D. H. Lawrence, Emily King, Maude Beardsall, Ada Clarke, Gertie Cooper. Front row: Joan King, Jack Clarke, Bert Clarke. (Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, La Pc 2/8/26.) 325 16 D. H. Lawrence, self‐portrait in red crayon, June 1929. First published as the frontispiece to the unexpurgated edition of Pansies. 385 17 Lawrence’s paintings hanging in the Warren Gallery, London. (Photography Collection, D. H. Lawrence Literary File P‐591, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.) 386 viii Acknowledgements I am grateful to Pollinger Limited, acting on behalf of the Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli, for permission to quote from the letters and works of D. H. Lawrence. The following kindly provided assistance with acquiring illustrations for the book and granted permission to reproduce them: Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham; McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa; National Portrait Gallery, London; Steffen Lange; Deborah and Neil Matthews.