Writer Biographies

DH Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence was born on September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He was the fourth of five children for Arthur and Lydia Lawrence; Arthur worked as a coal miner.

After school, Lawrence began working in a factory but had to give up the job after he came down with pneumonia. He moved to the Haggs Farm to recover his health. In 1908, he received his teaching certificate from University College Nottingham. From 1908 to 1912, Lawrence taught in Croydon, an area of London. He returned home to Eastwood after becoming ill.

In 1912, he met Frieda Weekly and the two became lovers; she was married at the time. The two ran away to Germany together and were married in 1914 after her divorce became finalized. During the first World War the couple were harrassed by authorities when they returned to England to live because of Frieda’s German ancestry. The two eventually left England for good in 1919 and moved to the United States in 1922. However, they had to return to Europe when Lawrence became sick again.

D. H. Lawrence had his first short story published in the English Review by Ford Madox Ford in 1908. In 1911, his first novel The White Peacock was published.  This was followed by The Trespasser in 1912 and the highly autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers in 1913. Some of his other novels were Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928).  In addition, Lawrence also wrote approximately 800 poems and several non-fiction books. His last published work was the story The Virgin and The Gipsy in 1930.

D. H. Lawrence died on March 2, 1930 of tuberculosis.