D.H. Lawrence

British novelist and poet, the author of novels which include "Sons and Lovers," Women In Love," "The Rainbow," "Aaron's Rod," "The Plumed Serpent," "The Virgin and the Gypsy" and the classic "Lady Chatterley's Lover." Lawrence was one of the most controversial writers of the twentieth century who believed in the concept that man should bring his instinct into balance with his intellect. His explicit treatment of sexual fulfillment led to over three decades of censorship and ultimately to the Supreme Court.

"Bertie" was the fourth child of an abusive coal miner and a refined mother whom he idolized. After surviving bronchitis at the age of two weeks which left him in permanently delicate health, he grew to be a frail and hyper-sensitive child who was often in tears and was overly dominated by his unhappy mother Lydia. His parents' marriage was disastrous. Lydia, a refined schoolteacher, met Lawrence's father, Arthur, at a local dance, where she fell in love with him. After the wedding, she found that Arthur did not own his own house and did not work in the mining office, as she had been led to believe, but instead labored as a miner himself. Her profound disillusion and subsequent misery is reflected in Lawrence's persistent theme in his novels of the elegant, well-bred woman under the influence of a common, low-bred man. As a child, Lawrence dazzled his family with his ability to copy paintings of the masters, and lioness Lydia demanded that her intelligent, talented and fragile son escape the drudgery of a miner's life and seek higher education.

After graduating a two-year teacher's training course at University College at Nottingham, Lawrence accepted a teaching job in the London suburb of Croydon. Taking up writing at the age of 19, he had four poems published in "The English Review" in 1909, which launched his writing career.