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D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence was born on the 11th September
1885, in a small terraced house in Nottinghamshire, the son of a
coal miner. Lawrence’s father was well-liked but had a tendency
to drown his depression in drink. His mother was religious, highly
articulate and literate (she read widely and wrote poetry) and is
generally regarded as the major influence in his life. She ran what
used to be called a ‘parlour shop’ selling haberdashery
from the front room of the cottage. There were four other siblings
and a lot of family conflict. Lawrence once wrote ‘I was born
hating my father’. He won a scholarship to Nottingham High
School and became interested in literature, reading all twenty volumes
of ‘The International Library of Famous Literature’,
which his mother had bought by subscription. After he left school
Lawrence became a pupil teacher before winning another scholarship
to University College Nottingham in order to become certificated.
His first post was in Croydon, with easy access to London, where
Lawrence bought the English Review which published his first poetry.
The editor, Edward Garnett, introduced him to the publisher Gerald
Duckworth and gave him a great deal of encouragement. So did the
society hostess Ottoline Morrell, who invited him to attend her
‘salons’ in London and then to one of her weekends at
Garsington Manor, where he met some of the major literary figures
of the day. |
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| Lawrence suffered his first bouts of pneumonia as an adolescent and from then on had what was known as a ‘weak chest’. It rapidly became tubercular, but Lawrence ignored his symptoms until the disease was quite advanced. Although physically attracted to men, Lawrence always had close female relationships. A six year engagement to Jessie Chambers, whom he credited with helping him to launch his literary career, was broken off in 1910, the year his mother died from cancer. It was a year of considerable emotional upheaval. Lawrence then became engaged to another intelligent, literary woman, Louie Burrows. This too was broken off a month before he met Frieda Weekley - the aristocratic, German wife of a Professor at Nottingham University - in 1912. Two months later they ran away together, travelling through Germany, Switzerland, and France, finally settling in Italy at a little coastal village called Fiascherino near La Spezia. After a protracted and bitter divorce, Frieda and Lawrence were able to marry in 1914. Frieda grieved for the three children she wasn’t allowed to see and it was a stormy and sometimes violent marriage. After publishing poetry and short stories, Lawrence’s first novel The White Peacock, was published in January 1911 and his second - The Trespasser - in 1912. Sons and Lovers followed in 1913 and established Lawrence’s reputation, though initial drafts (under the title Paul Morel) were turned down because of the explicit content. His fourth novel, The Rainbow, was banned for indecency shortly after publication in 1915 and all remaining copies were ordered to be burnt. Lawrence’s agent was unable to find a publisher for Women in Love, which continued the story of the Brangwen family. It is clear from Lawrence’s letters and discussions with friends, that the character of Hermione Roddice was based on Ottoline Morrell. Her husband threatened to sue if the book appeared. Gerald Crich and Gudrun Brangwen were based on John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield. Rupert Birkin incorporated aspects of Lawrence himself and Ursula Brangwen drew on Frieda’s character. |
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www.katherinemansfield.net
A resource site for the biography of Katherine Mansfield by Kathleen Jones