English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. Lawrence's doctrine of sexual freedom has seen his work prosecuted for obscenity. Lawrence regarded sex, the primitive subconscious, and nature, as cures for what he considered modern man's maladjustment to industrial society. The author's frankness in describing sexual relations between men and women upset a great many people.

"Necessary, forever necessary, to burn out false shames and smelt the heaviest ore of the body into purity."
(from Lady Chatterley's Lover, 1928)

Lawrence was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, in central England. He was the fourth child of a struggling coal miner who was a heavy drinker. His mother was a former schoolteacher. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between her parents. Encouraged by his mother, who figures as Mrs Morel in his first masterpiece, Lawrence became interested in arts. He was educated at Nottingham High School, to which he had won a scholarship. He worked as a clerk in a surgical appliance factory and then four years as a pupil-teacher. After studies at Nottingham University, Lawrence matriculated at 22 and briefly pursued a teaching career at Davidson Road School in Croydon in South London (1908-1911).

In 1909 a number of Lawrence's poems were submitted by Jessie Chambers, his childhood sweetheart, to Ford Maddox Ford, who published them in English Review. The appearance of his first novel, THE WHITE PEACOCK, launched Lawrence as a writer. In 1912 he met Frieda von Richthofen, professor Ernest Weekly's wife, and fell in love with her. They eloped to Bavaria and travelled in Austria, Germany and Italy. In 1913 appeared Lawrence's novel SONS AND LOVERS, which was based on his childhood and contains a portrayal of Jessie Chambers (Miriam in the novel).

In 1914 Lawrence married Frieda von Richthofen, and travelled with her in the final two decades of his life. Lawrence's fourth novel, THE RAINBOW (1915), was about two sisters growing up in the north of England. The novel was banned for its alleged obscenity - it used four letter words and talked openly about sex. The ban created further difficulties for Laurence, hindering the opportunities of further publication of his work. Also his paintings were confiscated from an art gallery. John Middleton Mutty and Catherine Mansfield offered Lawrence their various 'little magazines' for his texts. An important patron was Lady Ottoline Morrell, wife of a Liberal Member of Parliament. Through her, Lawrence formed relationships with several cultural figures, among them Aldous Huxley, E.M. Forster, and Bertrand Russell, with whom he was later to quarrel bitterly.

"But it needs a certain natural gift to become a loose woman or a prostitute. If you haven't got the qualities which attract loose men, what are you to do? Supposing it isn't in your nature to attract loose and promiscuous men! Why, then you can't be a prostitute, if you try your head off: nor even a loose woman. Since willing won't do it. It requires a second party to come to an agreement."
(from The Lost Girl, 1920 )

Lawrence started to write THE LOST GIRL (1920) in Italy. He had settle with Frieda in Gargano. In those days they were so poor that they could not even afford a newspaper. The novel dealt with one of Lawrence's favourite subjects - a girl marries a man of a much lower social status, against the advice of friends, and finds compensation in his superior warmth and understanding. He abandoned the novel for some years, finally rewriting the story in an old Sicilian farmhouse near Taormina in 1920.

During the First World War Lawrence and his wife were unable to obtain passports and were target of constant harassment from the authorities. They were accused of spying for the Germans and officially expelled from Cornwall in 1917. The Lawrences were not permitted to emigrate until 1919, when their years of wandering began.

In the 1920s Aldous Huxley travelled with Lawrence in Italy and France. Between 1922 and 1926 he and Frieda left Italy to live intermittently in Ceylon, Australia, New Mexico and Mexico. These years provided the settings for several of Lawrence's novels and stories. After severe illness in Mexico, it was discovered that he was suffering from life-threatening tuberculosis. From 1925 the Lawrence's confined their travels to Europe.

Lawrence's best-known work is LADY CHATTERLY'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 on her husband's estate. The book was condemned as pornography and banned for a time in both the UK and the US. In the UK it was published in an unexpurgated form in 1960, after an obscenity trial where defence witnesses included E.M. Forster, Helen Gardner and Richard Hoggart. Lawrence's other novels include WOMEN IN LOVE (1920), a sequel to Rainbow, in which the characters in the novel are probably partially based on Lawrence and his wife, and John Middleton Murry and his wife Katherine Mansfield. The friends shared a house in England in 1914-15. AARON'S ROAD (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), first published under the title The Escaped Cock, is a retelling of the story of Christ's resurrection, but instead to have Christ to go to heaven, Lawrence has him mate with the priestess of Isis. Lawrence's non-fiction works include MOVEMENTS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY (1921), PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS (1922), STUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE (1923) and APOCALPSE (1931).

D.H. Lawrence died in Vence, France on March 2, 1930. His works have been reprinted and adapted for screen after his death. Lawrence gained posthumous renown for his expressionistic paintings completed in the 1920s.

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Constance Chatterley is married to Sir Clifford, a mine owner in Derbyshire. A war wound has left him impotent and paralysed. Constance has a brief affair with a young playwright and then enters into a passionate relationship with Sir Clifford's gamekeeper, Oliver Melloers. Connie becomes pregnant. Sir Clifford refuses to give a divorce and the lovers wait for better time when they could be united.

For further reading: D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study by Anais Nin (1932); The Savage Pilgrimage by C. Carswell (1932); D.H. Lawrence: A Personal Record by J. Chambers (1935); D.H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography, ed. by E. Nehls (1957-59, 3 vols.); D.H. Lawrence by A Beal (1960); The Art of Perversity by K. Widmer (1962); The Deed of Life by J. Moynahan (1963); Double Measure by G. Ford (1965); The Art of D.H. Lawrence by K. Sagar (1966); D.H. Lawrence's American Journey by J. Cowan (1970); Acts of Attention: The Poems of D.H. Lawrence by S. Gilbert (1972); D.H. Lawrence: The World of the Major Novels by S. Sanders (1973); The Priest of Love by H. More (1974); D.H. Lawrence's Nightmare by P. Delany (1978); D.H. Lawrence: A Biography by J. Meyers (1990); D.H. Lawrence: Aesthetics and Ideology by A. Fernihough (1993); D.H. Lawrence: A Study of the Shorter Fiction by W. Thornton (1993); D.H. Lawrence: A Reference Companion by P. Poplawski (1996); D.H. Lawrence: The Thinker as Poet by F. Becket (1997); D.H. Lawrence, Dying Game by D. Ellis (1998) - See also: Olavi Paavolainen, Ezra Pound, Alan Sillitoe, Tennessee Williams.

• THE WHITE PEACOCK, 1911
• THE TRESPASSER, 1912
• SONS AND LOVERS, 1912 - film 1960, dir. Jack Cardiff
• LOVE POEMS AND OTHERS, 1913
• THE PRUSSIAN OFFICER AND OTHER STORIES, 1914
• THE RAINBOW, 1915 - film 1989, dir. by Ken Russell
• TWILIGHT IN ITALY, 1916
• LOOK! WE HAVE COME THROUGH, 1917
• NEW POEMS, 1918
• WOMEN IN LOVE, 1920 - film 1971, dir. by Ken Russell
• THE LOST GIRL, 1920
• SEA AND SARDINIA, 1921
• AARON'S ROD, 1922
• ENGLAND, MY ENGLAND, 1922
• THE LADYBIRD, 1923
• BIRDS, BEASTS AND FLOWERS, 1923 S
• TUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1923
• KANGAROO, 1923
• ST. MAWR, 1925
• THE PLUMED SERPENT, 1926
• MORNINGS IN MEXICO, 1927
• JOHN THOMAS AND LADY JANE, 1927
• LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, 1928 -
• COLLECTED POEMS II, 1928 film L'amant de Lady Chatterley, dir. Marc Allégret, 1955; film 1981, dir. Just Jaeckin; television film 1992, dir. Ken Russell
• THE WOMAN WHO RODE AWAY, 1928
• PANSIES, 1929
• THE ESCAPED COCK, 1929
• NETTLES, 1930
• THE VIRGIN AND THE GIPSY, 1930
• LOVE AMONG THE HAYSTACKS, 1930
• A PROPOS OF LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, 1930
• APOCALYPSE, 1931
• THE MAN WHO DIED, 1931
• ETRUSCAN PLACES, 1932
• THE LOVELY LADY, 1933
• BIRDS, BEASTS AND FLOWERS, 1933
• LAST POEMS, 1933
• THE PLAYS, 1933
• WE NEED ONE ANOTHER, 1933
• THE TALES, 1933
• A COLLIER'S FRIDAY NIGHT, 1934
• THE SPIRIT OF PLACE, 1935
• PHOENIX, 1936
• FOREWORD TO 'WOMEN IN LOVE', 1936
• FIRE AND OTHER POEMS, 1940
• THE FIRST LADY CHATTERLY, 1944
• LETTERS TO BERTRAND RUSSELL, 1948
• A PRELUDE, 1949
• SELECTED ESSAYS, 1950
• THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES, 1955
• SEX, LITERATURE AND CENSORSHIP, 1955
• EIGHT LETTERS TO RACHL ANNAND TAYLOR, 1956
• THE COMPLETE POEMS, 1957
• POSTHUMOUS PAPERS, 1961
• THE COLLECTED LETTERS, 1962
• THE SYMBOLIC MEANING, 1962
• THE COMPLETE POEMS, 1964
• THE PAINTINGS OF D.H. LAWRENCE, 1964
• THE COMPLETE PLAYS, 1965
• SELECTED LITERARY CRITICISM, 1967
• PHOENIX II, 1968
• LAWRENCE IN LOVE, 1968
• THE QUEST FOR RANANIM, 1970
• THE CENTAUR LETTERS, 1970
• LETTERS TO MARTIN SECKER 1911-1930, 1970
• THE FIRST LADY CHATTERLEY, 1971
• THE ESCAPED COCK, 1973
• LETTERS TO THOMAS AND ADELE SELZER, 1976
• LETTERS (7 vol.), 1979-93
• INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS, 1981

  Other film adaptations: The Rocking Horse Winner, 1949, dir. Anthony Pelisser; The Fox, 1967, dir. Mark Rydell; The Virgin and the Gypsy, 1970, dir. Christopher Miles