Lawrence, David Herbert

(1885-1930)

   A coal miner's son, he was born at Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He was never robust; his mother, a former schoolteacher, was the driving force behind his winning a scholarship at Nottingham high school, and a teacher training course at Nottingham University. His Sons and Lovers (1913) is largely autobiographical of his early years. In 1915, his novel The Rainbow, with his use of four-letter words, was the subject of a prosecution; it was declared obscene. Lawrence felt the disgrace keenly and, dismayed at his treatment, when the war was over he and his wife left England and lived in many different countriesincluding the United States and Mexico. They finally settled in Italy, where he wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928); the furor it raised raged for many years. He died in Vence, France, of tuberculosis. Some of his poetry publications: Love Poems and Others, 1913. Look! We Have Come Through!, 1917. Bay: A Book of Poems, 1919. Birds, Beasts and Flowers, 1923. Pansies, 1929. Some of his poems: "Bavarian Gentians," "Eagle in New Mexico," "The American Eagle," "The Hands of God," "Welcome to Quetzalcoatl," "Winter in the Boulevard."

   Sources: Chapters into Verse, Vol. II: Gospels to Revelation. Robert Atwan and Laurance Wieder, eds. Oxford University Press, 1993. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete Poems of D.H. Lawrence. Vivian de Sola Pinto and Warren Roberts, ed. Penguin Books, 1993. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Top 500 Poems. William Harmon, ed. Columbia University Press, 1992. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).