“I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts, or my thoughts the result of my dreams.” These are the words of D. H. Lawrence. He had many inspiring words to share. He had several hardships in his life, including health problems, poverty, and the death of his mother (D. H. Lawrence Biography).
D. H. Lawrence, born David Herbert Lawrence, was born on September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, Nottingham shire, United Kingdom (D. H. Lawrence). His father was a coal miner who was hardly literate. However, his mother was educated and she was determined to make sure David and his brothers did not become miners (Simkin). After he finished grammar school, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Nottingham High School (D. H. Lawrence Biography). He did not do well in school, and dropped out when he was sixteen. He found a job working as a clerk in a surgical appliance factory. In 1902, he contracted pneumonia and left his job. He became a teacher for miner's children in Eastwood. He taught there for about three years when he had finally saved a sufficient amount of money to attend Nottingham University College (Simkin).
In 1908, Lawrence was a qualified teacher and found a job at the Davidson Road School in Croydon (Simkin). While he was working as a teacher there, some of his poetry was noticed by an editor of The English Review. Some of Lawrence's work was published and his literature career began. Soon after his first novel, The White Peacock, was published in 1910, his mother died following a long illness. Some people think that David assisted in his mother's death by giving her an overdose of medication. Lawrence was struck with pneumonia again shortly after his mother's death.
This pneumonia led to his tuberculosis. He decided to stop teaching and focus on his writing (D. H. Lawrence). In 1912, he eloped with Frieda Weekley, his former modern languages professor's wife. They returned to England in 1914, soon after the outbreak of World War I. The authorities accused Frieda of being a spy and charged her of sending coded messages to German U-Boats (Simkin). Their cottage was searched and the Lawrences were forced to leave the region. David was also having trouble with the authorities. In 1915, he was prosecuted for obscenity for his novel
The Rainbow. The publisher decided to remove the book from the shelves, which made Lawrence livid (Simkin).
David and Frieda spent a lot of their time traveling. They visited places such as France, Italy, Australia North America, and Mexico. David had a dream of creating a Utopian community on the ranch in New Mexico, where he had lived for quite a few years. However, he was never able to fulfill that dream because pneumonia forced him to return to his home in Italy (D. H. Lawrence). He wrote many books throughout his life, including The White Peacock, The Trespasser, Sons and Lovers, and The Rainbow (Simkin). He died of tuberculosis on March 2, 1930 in Venice, France (D. H. Lawrence).
