Literature / Writer's Datebook: September 11
Brief biography of English novelist, poet, essayist and literary critic D.H. Lawrence, 20th century's most important authors. He wrote books with frankness in describing sexual relations that upset many people in his time.
David Herbert Lawrence, more popularly known as D.H. Lawrence, was one of 20th century's most prominent writers. He wrote books whose direct description of sexual relations upset many people, and made him a controversial author.
Early Life
D.H. Lawrence was born in a Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, village in central England on September 11, 1885. His father was a coal miner and his mother a former schoolteacher. His parents were poor and quarrelled a lot. He was also often sick. His writing was encouraged by Ford Madox Ford and Edward Garnett.
Career and Personal Life
Lawrence early years formed the basis for his first major work, Sons and Lovers, a semi-autobiography, which was published when he was 28. D.H. Lawrence trained to be a teacher at Nottingham University and later ran off with Frieda von Richthofen, wife of Ernest Weekley, the aristocratic German wife of a professor there. After her divorce, they married in 1914.
His next novel, The Rainbow, was seized by the police because it explored marital and sexual relations, used swear words, and talked openly about sex. The book is about two sisters growing up in the north of England. He was prosecuted for obscenity and left England and lived in Italy where he produced a sequel, Women in Love, which became a popular film starring Alan Bates, Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson.
D.H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda travelled a lot, including in Australia, Italy and North America. They finally settled in Italy after he was told he was dying from tuberculosis. In Italy, he wrote his most controversial book Lady Chatterley's Lover. The book was first privately printed in Italy. It tells of the affair between a married wealthy woman and a man who works for his husband's estate. The book was made into a movie. It was only until 30 years after D.H. Lawrence's death that the uncut version of the book was published. Believed to be an obscene material, the publishers were accused, but later acquitted after a sensational trial.
D.H. Lawrence once again was further prosecuted for obscenity over the private publication of Lady's Chatterley's Lover in Florence in 1928. Opinion is divided over Lawrence's worth as a writer, but evidently he had strong effect on the younger intellectuals in his time, challenging them to interpret the human emotions on the higher level of consciousness. His last years were spent in Italy. He died March 2, 1930, at the age of 44, in Venice.
Publications by D.H. Lawrence
1913 Sons and Lovers
1915 The Rainbow
1920 Women in Love
1920 The Lost Girl
1922 Aaron's Rod
1923 Kangaroo (reflecting a visit to Australia)
1923 Birds, Beasts, and Flowers
1923 Studies in Classic American Literature (Literary criticism)
1926 The Plumed Serpent (set in Mexico)
1927 Mornings in Mexico
1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover
1928 Collected Poems
1957 Complete Poems
Image credit:
D.H. Lawrence. Public Domain.
Resources:
Brief Biography of D.H. Lawrence. University of Nottingham. Accessed September 11, 2018.
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)
D.H. Lawrence. en.wikipedia.org.
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring (!994)
(c) September 2009. Updated September 11, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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