Page 11

From LAWRENCE, page 2

It was Hueffer who recommended publication of The White Peacock, which Lawrence had first drafted while at University College. It was published in 1911 just after Lawrence's mother's death.  1911 also marked Lawrence's break with Chambers.

     In 1912 Lawrence's second novel, The Trespasser, was published catching the attention of noted editor Edward Garnett who secured Lawrence's third novel, Sons and Lovers, for his firm.  Two other noteworthy events altered Lawrence's life in this 1911-1912 span.  He suffered another serious pneumonia episode, and he met, fell in love with, and eloped with Frieda Weekley.  This marriage had far reaching consequences on Lawrence's life, as she was, at the time of their elopement, the wife of a professor at Nottingham.  The pair traveled to Italy by way of Germany, and it was in Italy that Lawrence completed Sons and Lovers.  He and Frieda were married in 1914 in England following her divorce.

     Sons and Lovers became Lawrence's first major work, often considered an important step in the development of the modern psychological novel, but it was only the beginning of a long list of important, often controversial, sometimes banned, literary contributions.  In 1915 The Rainbow was published, followed by Women in Love.  Growing criticism of Lawrence's treatment of sex in these novels, as well as his elopement with Frieda eventually sent the Lawrences from England in 1919.  He spent the rest of his life writing in exile.  By 1922 Mabel Dodge Luhan, a well-known art patroness, had lured Lawrence and Frieda to New Mexico, where Mabel hopelessly tried to capture Lawrence's spirit.  Whether she actually wanted to take him from Frieda is open to debate, but clearly her domineering personality was problematic for Lawrence.  He had arrived at Mabel's in September, and in December he and Frieda move from Mabel's to Del Monte Ranch.  Lawrence wrote about Mabel in a

letter to his mother-in-law,

Very clever for a female--another   culture-bearer--likes to play the 'patroness' --hates the white world, and loves the Indians out of hate--is very 'noble', wants to be very 'good', and is very wicked--has a terrible will to power--woman power, you know--wanted to become a witch, and, at the same time, a Mary of Bethany  at Jesus's feet--a stout white crow, a cooing raven of misfortune, a little buffalo.  (Letters (V 352-5), D. H. Lawrence Review, p. 52)

Mable did, however, have some persuasion over Lawrence and his writings while he was in New Mexico.  Her urging him to write what she envisioned would be the great American novel, eventually resulted in The Plumed Serpent. 
       Emotionally Lawrence did not find New Mexico very agreeable, and he returned to Italy in 1925 with a diagnosis of tuberculosis and failing health.  In 1926 he completed the first versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover, a novel that would be banned until 1959 in New York and until 1960 in England. Although Lawrence had always pushed the sexual boundaries of what was considered permissible in his fiction,  Lady Chatterley's Lover, left no boundaries in tack with its descriptions of sexual acts and its use of colloquial four-letter words. 
     In 1929 Lawrence, who by then was dying, moved to the south of France.  There he wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation, Apocalypse.  It was his final religious statement.  He died of tuberculosis on March 2, 1930, in Vence, France, and although he was buried there, his ashes were removed to Taos, New Mexico in 1935.
  Besides the many novels Lawrence wrote, his poetry and nonfiction also have received notoriety.  Some of his poetry collections include Look! We Have Come Through (1917), Pansies (1929), and Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923).  His short stories were collected in several volumes including The Woman Who Rode Away, and

Sons and Lovers