The Cambridge Edition of the Letters of D. H. Lawrence – serie

Volume I of the Letters, edited by James T. Boulton, gives the first 580 letters in the series, covering the period September 1901 to May 1913. This is the time of Lawrence's youth in Eastwood, his first year out of England - in Italy with Frieda - to the publication of Sons and Lovers. There are letters to his early loves, Jessie Chambers, Louie Burrows and Helen Corke. He writes The White Peacock, The Trespasser, Sons and Lovers, the early stories and poems. He is welcomed into the literary world by editors such as Ford and Garnett; he meets Pound and other writers; he reads widely. His mother dies; he grows away from the younger women; he meets Frieda and elopes with her. Professor Boulton's discreet annotation conceals an enormous labour of patient detection. There are over thirty photographs of his friends and correspondents and a newly discovered portrait miniature of Lawrence.

Volume II of the Letters presents more than 700 letters, covering the period from June 1913 to October 1916, from the enthusiastic reception of Sons and Lovers to the completion of the first manuscript of Women in Love. Lawrence visits England in June 1913 and receives recognition as the author of Sons and Lovers. He returns to Italy in the autumn of 1913 to work on his new novel 'The Sisters', which subsequently becomes The Rainbow and Women in Love. Lawrence and Frieda return to England in June 1914 to be married and are caught there by the War. The letters vividly record his reaction to the War. The editors' introduction considers the initial widening scope of Lawrence's literary life with his later isolation in Cornwall. Over two hundred letters are previously unpublished and others are printed for the first time in their entirety.

This volume contains 848 letters from the period June 1921 to March 1924. Lawrence decides to leave the old world - 'my heart - and my soul are broken in Europe' - to live in Taos, New Mexico. This period is characterised by the travelling he and Frieda do, from Australia to New York, via Mexico, back to England and finally to New York again. Lawrence's writings of the period reflect his restlessness. The action of Aaron's Rod shifts from a coal-mining town in England to Florence and Kangaroo conveys Lawrence's perceptions of Australia. By 1924, Lawrence is returning to Taos to write his Mexican novel, 'Quetzacoatl', published as The Plumed Serpent. His difficulties with agents and publishers continue to appear in the letters. New correspondences are started with Australians, including Mollie Skinner, the co-author of The Boy in the Bush, and Americans, such as Mabel Luhan, Idella Purnell and Witter Bynner.

This volume, covering three years from March 1924 to March 1927, comprises over 890 letters, of which about 350 are previously unpublished. In 1924 Lawrence is again in the USA. He and Frieda, with his disciple the Honourable Dorothy Brett, return to Taos, New Mexico where Frieda soon becomes the owner of a ranch, Kiowa. The tensions among them contribute to Lawrence's falling dangerously ill. He recovers at Kiowa; he and Frieda go to England and Germany in Autumn 1925; they then settle in Italy, where - except for his final visit the next summer to the Midlands - they remain. After leaving the USA he writes short and long stories with European settings, book reviews, and the first two versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover. It is a productive period, but Lawrence's health becomes a serious concern. The volume provides annotation identifying persons and allusions, and includes a biographical introduction.

This volume contains Lawrence's letters written between March 1927 and November 1928: almost 770 letters in just a year and nine months. The letters cover the period of Lawrence's Etruscan tour in the spring of 1927 as preparation for the writing of Sketches of Etruscan Places; the performance of his play, David, in London in May, and - above all - the writing, typing, private publication, promotion and immediate consequences of Lady Chatterley's Lover. He makes new acquaintances with writers and publishers in Europe (Max Mohr, Hans Carossa, Harry and Caresse Crosby); renews friendships which will stand him in good stead in times of poor health (the Huxleys, Aldington, the Brewsters); and rediscovers the bonds of family and old Eastwood friends. The volume provides annotation identifying persons and allusions, and includes a biographical introduction, illustrations, a full chronology and index.

This volume contains almost all of the letters D. H. Lawrence wrote in the last fifteen months of his life: 763 letters, the majority previously unpublished. Despite his failing strength, Lawrence was in constant communication with publishers and agents. He continued to write frequently to his sisters and friends. There is no new fiction for Lawrence to discuss, but there are paintings, poems, the major essays Pornography and Obscenity and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', articles, and his last work Apocalypse. The most dramatic episodes of these months were the seizure of the Pansies manuscript, and the police raid on an exhibition of Lawrence's paintings and the subsequent trial. The subject of his illness becomes ominously more prominent, and Lawrence apologises for letters which lack his customary vitality. The volume includes an introduction, maps, illustrations, chronology and index; full notes identify persons and explain Lawrence's allusions.

This final volume of The Letters of D. H. Lawrence has a threefold purpose. The first is to publish 148 letters to or from Lawrence, and two from Frieda Lawrence, which came to light too late to be entered in their correct chronological positions in earlier volumes. The second is to correct errors in the first seven volumes and offer additional annotation which clarifies some obscurities as well as enhancing our response to the letters. And the third is to provide a comprehensive critical index to the entire edition. The index includes not only specific persons and places but also general topics from Animals and Architecture to War and Youth, via such subjects as Insects, Literary Agents, Religion and Sexuality. The Cambridge Edition of Lawrence's letters has been described by one reviewer as creating itself 'a major new literary work'. This volume brings that work to a fitting conclusion.

Volume I of the Letters, edited by James T. Boulton, gives the first 580 letters in the series, covering the period September 1901 to May 1913. This is the time of Lawrence's youth in Eastwood, his first year out of England - in Italy with Frieda - to the publication of Sons and Lovers. There are letters to his early loves, Jessie Chambers, Louie Burrows and Helen Corke. He writes The White Peacock, The Trespasser, Sons and Lovers, the early stories and poems. He is welcomed into the literary world by editors such as Ford and Garnett; he meets Pound and other writers; he reads widely. His mother dies; he grows away from the younger women; he meets Frieda and elopes with her. Professor Boulton's discreet annotation conceals an enormous labour of patient detection. There are over thirty photographs of his friends and correspondents and a newly discovered portrait miniature of Lawrence.

This volume, covering three years from March 1924 to March 1927, comprises over 890 letters, of which about 350 are previously unpublished. In 1924 Lawrence is again in the USA. He and Frieda, with his disciple the Honourable Dorothy Brett, return to Taos, New Mexico where Frieda soon becomes the owner of a ranch, Kiowa. The tensions among them contribute to Lawrence's falling dangerously ill. He recovers at Kiowa; he and Frieda go to England and Germany in Autumn 1925; they then settle in Italy, where - except for his final visit the next summer to the Midlands - they remain. After leaving the USA he writes short and long stories with European settings, book reviews, and the first two versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover. It is a productive period, but Lawrence's health becomes a serious concern. The volume provides annotation identifying persons and allusions, and includes a biographical introduction.

This final volume of The Letters of D. H. Lawrence has a threefold purpose. The first is to publish 148 letters to or from Lawrence, and two from Frieda Lawrence, which came to light too late to be entered in their correct chronological positions in earlier volumes. The second is to correct errors in the first seven volumes and offer additional annotation which clarifies some obscurities as well as enhancing our response to the letters. And the third is to provide a comprehensive critical index to the entire edition. The index includes not only specific persons and places but also general topics from Animals and Architecture to War and Youth, via such subjects as Insects, Literary Agents, Religion and Sexuality. The Cambridge Edition of Lawrence's letters has been described by one reviewer as creating itself 'a major new literary work'. This volume brings that work to a fitting conclusion.

An authoritative selection of letters by one of the great English letter-writers, first published in 1997, is also available in paperback.

An authoritative selection of letters by one of the great English letter-writers, first published in 1997, is also available in paperback.