David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence is one of the most versatile and influential figures in 20th-century literature. Best known for his novels, Lawrence was also an accomplished poet, short story writer, essayist, critic, and travel writer. The controversial themes for which he is remembered - namely, the celebration of sensuality in an over-intellectualized world - and his relationship with censors sometimes overshadow the work of a master craftsman and profound thinker.
Lawrence was born on Sept. 11, 1885 in the small coal-mining village of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire in central England. Lawrence's father, Arthur, was a miner, and the mining boom of the 1870s had taken the family around...