Part of the Process: D.H. Lawrence
Photo Credits: thereader.org.uk
Part of the Process is a series in which we chronicle the often turbulent, usually absurd and always interesting lives of authors we admire. It’s not easy to be a writer in the 21st century, but in a strange way, reading about the trials and tribulations of those who seem to have ‘made it’ can be a reminder that it has always been a difficult process.
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Born to a barely literate miner and a lace factory worker in the coal mining town of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, David Herbert Lawrence was never meant to become one of the greatest modernist writers, as well as a noted poet, essayist and painter. Despite his humble beginnings, his journey to literary acclaim and influence was far from straightforward.
Lawrence was the first local pupil to win a county council scholarship to Nottingham High School, but left in 1901 at just 16 to work in an appliance factory. During this time, he suffered from a severe bout of pneumonia that led to convalescence. In this period, he often visited a nearby farm and made friends with Jessie Chambers, who would inspire characters in his writing and a love of books in him, until they cut off ties when she was upset by the depiction of her in one of his novels.
Working as a pupil-teacher until his early twenties, Lawrence began to work on his writing and wrote his first novel, The White Peacock. Shortly after the final proofs arrived in 1910, Lawrence lost his mother to cancer. He was devastated and later described this as a major turning point in his life. The incident is dramatised in many ways in his semi-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers.
In March 1912, Lawrence met Frieda Weekley, a married woman six years older than him, who was to become his companion for much of his life. They eloped and left England for her provincial home in Germany, near the disputed French border. Lawrence was arrested and accused of being a British spy before his father-in-law stepped in to ensure his release.
Following this incident, the couple moved to a hamlet south of Munich and then proceeded to Italy, where Lawrence completed the draft of Sons and Lovers, which was published in 1913. Lawrence and Frieda returned to England in 1914, just before the outbreak of the war, and were legally married after her divorce was completed. Around this time, Lawrence worked with various London intellectuals and writers including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Dora Marsden.
However, a combination of Frieda’s German origins and Lawrence’s controversial opinions and artistic preferences led to the couple enduring much persecution and criticism. While they lived in Cornwall during the war, Lawrence developed a strong relationship with a Cornish farmer which many scholars believe was romantic. The frank way in which same-sex attraction and sexuality in general are addressed in his books led to initial bans and harassment by authorities. But given the enduring and robust relationship with Frieda, others have argued he was bisexual or simply open-minded.
In late 1917, after constant harassment by the armed forces and other authorities, Lawrence was forced to leave Cornwall at three days’ notice under the Defence of the Realm Act. They moved to various small towns in England and lived in poverty until 1919, when the war came to an end. Around this time, Lawrence developed major health problems and barely survived bad influenza.
After the war, he began what he termed his ‘savage pilgrimage’, a voluntary exile from Britain that lasted until his death except two brief visits. In the ten years that followed, he spent large amounts of time in Australia, Italy, Sri Lanka, the United States and Mexico, and Lawrence is often considered an early pioneer of travel writing as we know it today.
The Lawrences arrived in the United States in September 1922. Lawrence had several times discussed the idea of setting up a utopian community with several of his friends, and ended up in Taos, New Mexico, a town where many white ‘bohemians’ had settled. Here, they eventually acquired a 160 acre ranch from a prominent socialite in exchange for the manuscript of The Plumed Serpent. They travelled frequently to Mexico but Lawrence’s poor health and bouts of malaria and tuberculosis limited his ability to travel after they returned to Europe.
They made their home in Northern Italy near Florence, where his last two books, including Lady Chatterley’s Lover were written. The book reinforced his notoriety after initial publication in Paris and Florence were noted for their explicit yet literary content, challenging British taboos around sex. In his final months, he wrote numerous poems, essays and reviews, as well as a defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was heavily censored or banned in the UK and the US.
Lawrence died of complications related to tuberculosis in 1930 in southern France. The obituaries shortly after Lawrence's death were, with the exception of one by E. M. Forster, unsympathetic or hostile. When the unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover was published by Penguin in Britain in 1960, the trial under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 became a major public event. Because the act said the publisher could escape conviction if they could prove a work has literary merit, this became a landmark moment as the verdict was not guilty and Lawrence’s work received great posthumous acclaim for being far ahead of its time.