D.H. Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was one of the
most important, prolific and controversial English writers of
the 20th century, whose output spans novels, short stories,
poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations,
literary criticism and personal letters. These works, taken
together, represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising
effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them Lawrence
confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality,
spontaneity, sexuality, and instinctive behaviour, making him
iconic in an age influenced by Freud and Nietzsche. Lawrence's
unsettling opinions earned him many enemies and he endured
hardships, official persecution, censorship and the
misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second
half of his life, much of which he spent in voluntary exile,
self defined as a "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death
his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted
his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in a