Description:

DAVID H. LAWRENCE
(1885-1930) English novelist whose works examined the ills of modern industrialized society and the role of sex in human affairs. Among his most noted works are Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love. Superb content A.L.S. "D. H. Lawrence", 2pp. 4to., "Villa Mirenda, Scandicci (Florence)", Apr. 17, 1928, to Helen Bramble, editor of Forum: A Magazine of Controversy, in part: "...Many thanks for your letter and the copies of letters about the Escaped Cock. But what a lovely little anthology! I am delighted to have them. Now that I know I've committed an unpardonable sin, I feel all right. I always was so afraid I might be saved: like ten dollars in the bank...I do so much want to know how many souls were lost through my magnificence & the editors'. The more the merrier! Do you think Carrie J. Hill, who has nothing but sympathy in her dear old heart...might be able to tell me? No wonder the Forum looks red, fury & Mephistophelian. Let it be more so. Long live the cloven hoof! Of course you have lost a few subscriptions...But believe me, those lost souls will either come back or send delegates. You won't lose in the long run. Deadness is what loses in the long run. Anything that makes 'em wriggle becomes at least indispensible. Vive le gai coq, et le coq gai! I hope Carrie will read my novel & that it will fall into the hands of the son of nineteen, & that he'll read it aloud to the gaudy end before a shamed & aghast parent can stop him. Oh what a lot of hypocrites! So I enclose a few order forms & please send one to George Williamson Litchfield [illeg.]& to Carrie dear...I might even get them to lose their souls, instead of saving them, which would be so much more becoming. Your sincere 'traitor & enemy of the human race'...". Under Bramble, Forum: A Magazine of Controversy first published The Escaped Cock, a short novel based on the death and resurrection of Christ, in February, 1928. In 1929, it was published under the same title by Black Sun Press, and again by other houses, under a much less controversial title, The Man Who Dies. Clearly the author preferred the former title, committed as he was to thrusting sexual imagery and themes in the face of the bourgeoisie. The Carrie J. Hill and George Williamson whom Lawrence inveighs against in this letter, were angry readers of Forum that protested the prurient nature of the piece. Additionally, according to The Letters of D. H. Lawrence: March 1927 - November 1928, ed. James T. Boulton et alia, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), it was another irate reader who dubbed Lawrence the title "traitor of the human race", a slight he clearly relished. The letter is published on p. 370 of The Letters. Rusted paper clip impression at top edge, worn at edges with a split here and there, overall very good condition, and certainly an excellent example of the author's acerbic style. Along with two fine content retained typed copies of letters from Bramble (unsigned), dated July 31, 1930, and May 12, 1928. Both are addressed to Mrs. Hilton in London, and the July 31 letter prompted Lawrence's response above. It reads, in part: "...Having noticed Mr. [Aldous?] Huxley's letter in a recent NATION, I am enclosing a copy of a letter from Mr. Lawrence...About two years and a half ago The FORUM Magazine published Mr. Lawrence's story titled 'The Escaped Cock'. It created considerable excitement and many felt that in the story there was a good deal of blasphemy. We, who had published the story, felt it to be a fine and moving piece of work...Mr. Lawrence wrote in, asking when the story was to appear, and to the copy of the magazine in which it did appear I added excerpts from a number of letters of comment. They were somewhat startling in their denunciations...". The second letter from 1928, also penned to Mrs. Hilton reads, read in part: "...I've chuckled over your letter so much that everyone thinks I've gone...instead. There are such a lot of stodgy, deadening masses around, who take themselves and God so seriously that life assumes tremendous importance...I've broadcast your announcements of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' where I hope they will go more good than in turning to verdi gris the last days of dear Carrie Hall. I only wish the publishing business were as correspondingly lucrative as it is fascinating...". Three pieces in all.

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