David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence was one of the most versatile and influential writers 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...
