David Hertbert Lawrence who is often better known as D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), was an important, influential and extremely controversial English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, often regarded one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. Lawrence had a prolific and diverse output of work, including novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary critism and personal letters. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, sexuality, and instinctive behaviour, many of his critics believe him to have a chauvenist attitude to women, but its true that the major influences in his life were his wife and mother and he obviously adored them both.
Lawrence's unsettling opinions earned him many enemies and he endured hardships, official persecution, censorship and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile. At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. Even in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire where he was born and grew up he was remembered with a certain amount of suspicion and ambivalence by those that actually knew him.
However, novellist and writer E. M. Forster,in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation. Later, the influential critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature, although some object to the stereotypical macho attitudes toward women and sexuality found in his works, but these have to be seen in the context of both the times and the culture of the mining village he grew up in.
David Herbert Lawrence [known as Bert to the family] was born on September 11, 1885, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, a small mining town in central England in an area known as the East Midlands. Within two weeks of his birth the child had bronchitis. It was to be a warning: Lawrence's lungs would plague him all his life.
He was the fourth child of a struggling coal miner, Arthur John Lawrence, who was also known as a heavy drinker. Arthur was born at the village of Brinsley, Nottinghamshire in 1847, and when Bert Lawrence was born, worked as a coal miner at nearby Brinsley colliery. D.H. Lawrence's mother, Lydia (nee Beardsall), was born in Ancoats, Manchester in 1852, although her father was originally from Nottinghamshire.
Lydia sold haberdashery from the Lawrence's front room shop on Victoria Street in Eastwood to help feed and clothe the family. Arthur married Lydia at Sneinton Parish Church, Nottinghamshire on the 27th December 1875.
Arthur Lawrence is often described as illiterate, but the position that he held down the mines, where he was in charge of a gang of men, and also his choice of wife, seems to indicate that this was not the case he was far from being unintelligent. His job down the mine entailed working with, and supervising, a group of other miners, as they hacked out the coal by hand. That amount of coal would be measured, and Arthur would be paid at the end of the week, for the exact amount of coal that his group of men mined, it would then be up to him to share out this money fairly between the other men.
Lydia came from a middle class religious family, and the differences in Lawrence's parents backgrounds often led to family conflicts, with his father preferring to spend his wages on drink, to help deaden the pain of working long grueling hours underground, whilst his mother was more concerned with the children's upbringing, welfare, and education. Lydia also had ambition, and wanted to own a shop on the main Nottingham Road in Eastwood, but with a growing family, this proved beyond reach.
Lydia was a former schoolteacher, and by all accounts greatly superior in education to her husband and she is the one given the credit for much of Lawrence's early literary influences. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between his parents.
After a false start at school at only four years of age, he was withdrawn and didn't return to the Greasley Beauvale Board School until he was seven years of age. This late start, no doubt, disadvantaged him socially, setting him apart from the other children. Indeed, he had few friends of his own, preferring the company of his younger sister, Ada, and her friends. He was a good scholar, however, and became the first boy from the school to win a scholarship to Nottingham High School. It caused the family considerable hardship to allow the boy to take up this scholarship but in September 1898, three days after his thirteenth birthday Lawrence went to the High School.
He worked hard and made the best of this opportunity, but it was a strain, certainly on the family finances, and also on a delicate boy. He took the train to Nottingham at seven in the morning and didn't reach home until evening. Once again, he made few friends and was socially very different to many of his peers Frieda, his wife, wrote that one boy who took Lawrence home to tea was horrified to discover that Lawrence's father was a miner and refused to have any more to do with him.
Lawrence spent much of what today would be thought of as 'leisure time' (and there was precious little of it) helping his overworked, and beloved mother. At fifteen, with High School and the 19th Century over, Lawrence began work at Haywood's, a surgical appliance manufacturer in Nottingham. He seems to have had similar difficulties in making friends here too; finding the factory girls frighteningly uncouth for his now rather refined ways.
Away from home for fourteen hours per day, excepting Sunday and one half day per week, working in dark and airless conditions, the frail health of the youth broke; within six months Lawrence had pneumonia. Due to his mother's devoted nursing, and against expectations, he recovered. Lawrence's health, however, had been irreparably weakened and it was not considered wise that he should return to the Nottingham factory. Accordingly, he joined the local British School as a pupil-teacher.
Pupil teachers were expected to help with classes after having arrived at school an hour earlier than the pupils in order to take lessons from the headmaster. Later he also attended the Pupil-teacher Centre at Ilkeston, Derbyshire where, for possibly the first time in his life, he made many friends. He also began to write. This writing was done in secret, under the guise of 'lessons', at home. The only person to see this very early work was Jessie Chambers, a fellow pupil-teacher and close friend who lived at Hagg's Farm. This farm and family provided a second home for the adolescent Lawrence, away from the strains of his own family. Here, he helped with the hay-making, discussed books and organized charades - Jessie's younger brother, David, has said "... he was at his greatest in charades. There have never been such charades since."
Lawrence's first published work did not get his name into print. It was a story especially written for a competition run by the Nottingham Guardian in 1907. It was called A Prelude and won a 3 prize (this was a sizable prize given that when Lawrence began teaching a year later he earned 1.90 per week). Lawrence had entered all three categories. Once in his own name, the others in friends' names; the winning entry was in Jessie Chambers' name.
In December 1904 Lawrence sat the examination for the King's Scholarship, which would guarantee him a day place at Nottingham University College, where he could obtain his Teacher's Certificate. He passed - he was in the top 37 of over 2,000 candidates, but was unable to take up the position until September 1906 due to financial hardship.
Lawrence was disappointed by college. He felt he gained nothing from the experience; the biggest disappointment being the lecturers themselves. He had imagined men full of enthusiasm and inspiration but instead remarked that he "might as well be taught by gramophones as by those men."
In 1908 Lawrence became a qualified teacher and took up a post at Davidson Road School, Croydon, Surrey. It is not difficult to imagine the wrench with which he left Eastwood, his beloved mother and Hagg's Farm. The school had some very poor boys and it was not to be an easy introduction for the young schoolmaster. However, he was dedicated and innovative - he encouraged the boys to act out The Tempest rather than sitting at their desks reading it - and the headmaster was pleased with his work.
In 1909, a number of Lawrence's poems were published in the English Review. In his free time Lawrence wrote. In January 1911 his first novel, The White Peacock was published launching into a writing career, but the elation he may have felt from this success was obliterated by the overshadowing death of his mother, from cancer, in the previous month. There is some suggestion that Lawrence helped end his mother's life with an overdose of medication.
In November of 1911 the poor health that had plagued Lawrence all year culminated in pneumonia. Once again, he fought his way free of the illness but his lungs had been damaged further. The doctor told him outright that to return to teaching would be to court tuberculosis and so, again, his life's direction was dictated by his lungs.
An aunt had in-laws in Germany and a German uncle suggested a plan whereby Lawrence could possibly become a Lektor in a German university. A professor of modern languages at Nottingham University, Ernest Weekley, was consulted and invited the twenty six year old Lawrence to lunch to discuss the details. Lawrence accepted the invitation and within two months was in Bavaria in Germany - not, however, as a Lektor but as the lover of Frieda von Richthofen aka Mrs. Weekley, the thirty two year old wife and mother of the Professor's three children.
Life was not easy for the couple. Frieda had high hopes of having her children with her, but when her husband discovered her infidelity he flatly refused her access and sent the couple letter after letter containing pleas, threats and abuse. This trauma caused fierce arguments between the couple (their fights were to become legendary amongst their friends). Frieda was distraught at the loss of her children; Lawrence was angry that he was powerless to do anything, that he was the cause of her misery and also bitter that she could not accept the loss of her children - as he had had to accept the loss of his beloved mother eighteen months before.
With little money they traveled, often on foot, through Germany (where Lawrence was accused of spying) and Switzerland finally renting a room at Riva in Austria, very near to the Italian border. Lawrence loved Italy - he felt that the Italian people really knew how to live - close to nature and unrestrainedly.
During the journey, and at Riva, Lawrence continued to write. He was revising what was to be ultimately regarded as one of his greatest books, Sons and Lovers, and that he managed, under the circumstances, to write at all is surprising.
Twenty-one year old, David Garnett, son of Lawrence's mentor of that time, joined Lawrence and Frieda for part of their journey. He recorded how little Lawrence's writing affected any of them. Lawrence would sit in the corner, pen flashing, while David and Frieda talked joked and worked around him. Frieda had never learned how to cook and so Lawrence would frequently jump up to look after the dinner, then return to his writing.
Lawrence was also a great mimic; he could impersonate many of the literary figures he had met in London and he would entertain Frieda by acting out parodies of services at the chapel he had attended in his youth. Frieda found all of this hilarious and fascinating because as the daughter of a Baron in Germany she had experienced a very different upbringing. David Garnett recalls that Lawrence not only mimicked others, he frequently mocked himself whilst describing meetings with literary "lion-hunters" and portraying events from his varied life. Almost everyone who ever spent time with the Lawrence's remembered him in charades; he had a passion for the amusement - even as a youth - and would inveigle everyone into the act.
Another quality which many of his friends and acquaintances remarked upon was the unusual vitality which radiated from Lawrence. Catherine Carswell, a close friend, remarked that Lawrence even radiated life whilst washing dishes; she added that that fact may seem irrelevant to others but that to those who knew him it was a striking quality. Another friend and writer, John Middleton Murry recalled that one of his most precious memories of Lawrence was of the two of them laying linoleum together!
In May 1913, Sons and Lovers was published in Great Britain. It did not sell spectacularly well, and Lawrence faced the possibility that he may have to return to teaching. He managed, however, to keep up a constant stream of short stories, articles, essays and poetry which enabled the pair to live the very simple life with which they were satisfied. The lovers returned to England briefly during this year for Frieda to try to make contact with her children. Access was denied her and the pair returned to Europe.
In 1914, Frieda's divorce was granted and on 13th July Lawrence and Frieda was married in London. Their intention was to return to Italy in August but the outbreak of war prevented their departure. They were to be unable to leave Lawrence's home country for five years. They were bitter years for both Lawrence and Frieda; his latest book, The Rainbow, was banned and he had great difficulty in earning enough to live on..
During the First World War Lawrence and his wife were unable to obtain passports and were targets of harassment from the authorities. When the Lawrence's moved to Cornwall in it was to find a little peace and solitude in a place where they could live cheaply. This last was necessary, as with banning of The Rainbow Lawrence's reputation had been severely damaged: he had effectively lost his means of earning.
Arriving at Zennor, they found a cottage which they could rent for five pounds per year! They bought some second-hand furniture and moved in. As always, once they had gained solitude, they sought to lose it. They immediately persuaded Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry to take the cottage next door. There wasn't a great deal of peace either. Katherine hated it there; Frieda and Lawrence fought with their usual ferocity; Murry turned down Lawrence's offer of blood-brotherhood. There were other visitors, some of whom found the Lawrence's easier to bear. And, for Lawrence, there was a farm nearby, with a family who reminded him of his youth and "The Hagg's". He became friendly with the Hockings of Tregerthen Farm as he had been friendly with the Chambers there.
There has been much speculation about whether there was a homosexual relationship between William Henry Hocking and Lawrence. Frieda is reported to have said that she believed it was so - the Prologue to Women in Love would seem to suggest that Lawrence found him physically attractive - there is no conclusive evidence either way.
During late 1916 war activity intensified - many young men were being killed and Frieda was German. Some of the Cornish people turned against Lawrence and Frieda and things worsened as 1917 progressed. They were accused of spying for the Germans and officially expelled from Cornwall. The Lawrence's were not permitted to emigrate until 1919, when their years of wandering began.
Small wonder that Lawrence became bitter about his home country. They destroyed his work as "utter filth" and expelled him from his home on suspicion of "spying"! Lawrence describes much of his Cornwall stay (and expulsion) in the "Nightmare" chapter of Kangaroo
Lawrence's best known work is Lady Chatterley's Lover, first published privately in Florence in 1928. It tells of the love affair between a wealthy, married woman, and a man who works as a gamekeeper on her husband's estate. The book was banned for a time in both UK and the US as pornographic. The story was also the reason many of the people in his home town of Eastwood felt ambivalent towards him. many of the locals recognised themselves and others within the story and felt somewhat betrayed.
Aaron's Rod (1922) shows the influence of Nietzsche, and in Kangaroo (1923) Lawrence expressed his own idea of a 'superman'. The Plumed Serpent (1926) was a vivid evocation of Mexico and its ancient Aztec religion. The Man Who Died (1929), is the story of Christ's Resurrection. Lawrence's non-fiction works include Movements In European History (1921), Psychoanalysis And The Unconscious (1922) and Studies In Classic American Literature (1923).
Towards the end of his wandering life, he had been staying at Bandol since October 1929 the doctor a lung specialist, examined him and persuaded him that his long-neglected tuberculosis required urgent care. On his advice Lawrence moved on 6 February to the sanatorium at Vence. As the news spread that his life was in danger; H.G. Wells, and the Aga khan, called on him, and the American sculptor Jo Davidson made a model of his bust. He did not take kindly to life in the clinic, and left it on March 1st for the Villa Robermond, where he died the next day, in the care of his wife Frieda, of the English writer Aldous Huxley and his Belgian wife Maria Nys.
Lawrence was buried in the old Vence cemetery in 1930. His remains were exhumed in March 1935 in the presence of Mrs. Gordon Crotch an English resident, and incinerated at Marseille on March 13. A wooden box holding a sealed zinc container in which were his ashes, was then delivered, to Captain Angelo Ravagli, At that time Ravagli was the factotum and lover of Lawrence's widow. His mission was to take the ashes to Taos, New Mexico in "a beautiful vase" specially ordered by Frieda for this purpose. The ashes taken to Taos by Ravagli were cast by him into the concrete slab of a "shrine" which he built at the Kiowa ranch at San Cristobal near Taos.
However, when Baron de Haulleville and his sister-in-law Rose Nys-de Haulleville [who was related to Huxley's wife Maria] were Ravagli's guests at Taos, Ravagli confessed late one night to having dumped the box and ashes between Marseille and Villefranche so as to avoid the expense and trouble of transporting them to the USA. When in New York he collected Frieda's vase and put into it some locally procured ashes which he took to Taos. A tombstone decorated with Lawrence's emblem the Phoenix, was saved after the exhumation by Mrs. Crotch, who kept it many years in Vence then moved it to England. It was ultimately rescued and taken to Eastwood. There is no reason to doubt Haulleville's story.
In August 2007 the 11th International D.H. Lawrence Conference was held at Nottingham University and Eastwood Hall on the theme 'Return to Eastwood'.