David Herbert Lawrence was born on September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England. His childhood was littered with inconstancy due in large part to the unhappiness in his parents’ marriage; his father, an illiterate coal miner and alcoholic, often quarreled with his mother, an educated schoolteacher. Poverty compounded the family’s internal troubles, but Lawrence maintained a solid relationship with his mother, who encouraged him to read, write, and paint. He earned a scholarship to Nottingham High School and subsequently worked at a surgical appliance factory for several years. He received a teaching certificate from Nottingham University in 1907, and the following year took a position in a South London school that he kept until 1911.

The English Review published a number of Lawrence’s poems submitted by a childhood friend in 1909, a few years before his first novel, The White Peacock (1911), appeared. In 1912, Lawrence met and fell in love with a married woman and mother of three, Frieda von Richthofen. Their affair escalated, and … [Lawrence’s repertoire expanded greatly through his travelling years] …after his novel Sons and Lovers, and his poetry collection Love Poems and Others were both published in 1913, the pair eloped in Bavaria and traveled through Europe. When they returned to England, the couple was ostracized because of suspicions of German sympathies during World War I and were not allowed to emigrate until 1919. The couple moved through Europe, Australia, North America, and Mexico, Lawrence all the while prolifically publishing novellas and poetry, including the experimental collection Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1923). He and Frieda moved next to the United States and settled in New Mexico, an environment that inspired the setting for Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent (1926) and that freed the writer and awakened him to a “new world.” However, D. H.’s severe illness forced the Lawrences back to Europe.

Lawrence’s repertoire expanded greatly through his travelling years, as he published several novels, poems, and nonfiction books after his marriage. Many of his works were banned in England and the United States or were the subjects of intense censorship cases because of their candid and direct references to sex and romantic relationships between men and women. His most widely recognized publication, Lady Chatterly’s Lover (1928), fell under caustic scrutiny for the graphic nature of its narration, and the ban was left in place until 1960. Lawrence also believed in the value of intuition and responded emphatically to the philosophy of Nietzsche. His poetry especially reflected such convictions, and evolved from very organized, traditional verses to innovative, free verses. Lawrence died on March 2, 1930 after a lifelong battle with tuberculosis, in Venice, France.