D. H. Lawrence Interviews and Recollections Volume 2 Also by Norman Page Dickens: Bleak House (editor) Dickens: Hard Times, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend-Casebook (editor) E. M. Forster's Posthumous Fiction Hardy: Jude the Obscure (editor) Speech in the English Novel Tennyson: Interviews and Recollections (editor) The Language of Jane Austen Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy: the Writer and his Background (editor) Wilkie Collins: the Critical Heritage (editor) D. H. LAWRENCE Interviews and Recollections Volume 2 Edited by Norman Page Proftssor of English University of Alberta Selection and editorial matter © Norman Page 1981 Softcover reprint of the hardcover rst edition 1981 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 19l1I by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world First published in the USA 1981 by BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS 81, Adams Drive Totowa, New Jersey 07512 ISBN 978-1-349-04825-0 ISBN 978-1-349-04823-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04823-6 BARNES AND NOBLE ISBN 978-0-389-20070-3 Contents Acknowledgements vi Florence Rebecca West 153 In Capri Earl H. Brewster 158 In Ceylon Achsah Brewster 159 In Australia Frieda Lawrence 166 In New Mexico Mabel Dodge Luhan 168 First Impressions Witter Bynner 171 The Lawrences: A Portrait Mabel Dodge Luhan 174 Lawrence Talking Maurice Lesemann 177 In Mexico Witter Bynner 180 The Cafe Royal Episode Catherine Carswell 191 The Cafe Royal Episode: Another Version Dorothy Brett 198 In Hampstead Dora Carrington 202 'An Urge for Life' Harriet Monroe 204 In New Mexico Again Dorothy Brett 205 An Interview with Lawrence Kyle S. Crichton 215 A Visit from Lawrence Richard Aldington 222 A Literary Tea-party William Gerhardi 225 Reminiscences: 1923-8 Barbara Weeklry Barr 229 In Capri Again Dorothy Brett 240 Lawrence as a Companion Aldous Huxlry 242 A Visit to the Villa Mirenda Osbert Sitwell 244 Illness Achsah Brewster 246 lie de Port-Cros Brigit Patmore 248 Lawrence in Bandol Brewster Ghiselin 253 Lawrence in Bandol: Another Account Rhys Davies 262 In Paris Rhys Davies 272 'An Inspired Provincial' Norman Douglas 275 Lawrence as Gossip Catherine Carswell 276 The Last Days Frieda Lawrence 277 The Last Days: Another Account Barbara Weeklry Barr 283 Some Letters and an Interview Aldous Huxlry 289 Obituary John Middleton Murry 293 'A Man of Destiny' John Middleton Murry 295 'A Man in Bondage' Jessie Chambers 296 Index Acknowledgements The editor and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, for the extracts from Bertrand Russell's Autobiography, vol. II: 1914-1944. Associated Book Publishers Ltd, for the extract from D. H Lawrence by Hugh Kingsmill, published by Methuen and Co. Ltd. Cambridge University Press and the Estate of the late Helen Corke, for the extracts from her book In Our Infancy: an Autobiography. Jonathan Cape Ltd, Sophie Partridge Trust and Holt. Rinehart and Winston Inc., for the extract from Carrington: Letters and Extracts from her Diaries, edited by David Garnett Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, for the extracts from D. H Lawrence: a Personal Record by E. T. Oessie Chambers). Chatto & Windus Ltd and Harcourt. Brace, Jovanovich Inc., for the extracts from The Golden Echo, © 1953, and The Flowers of the Fores~ © 1955, by David Garnett Chatto & Windus Ltd and Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., for the extracts from The Letters of Aldous Huxley, edited by Grover Smith; copyright © 1969 by Laura Huxley and Grover Smith. Chatto & Windu s Ltd and Viking Penguin Inc., for the extracts from the introduction to The Letters of D. H Lawrence, edited by Aldous Huxley; © 1932 by the Estate of D. H. Lawrence; © renewed 1960 by Angelo Ravagli and C. Montague Weekley. A. W. Coates, on behalf of Dr J. D. Chambers, Mrs Olive Hopkin, and the University of Wisconsin Press, for the extracts from D. H Lawrence: a Composite Biography, vol. 1, edited by Edward Nehls. Rosica Colin Ltd, on behalf of the Estate of Richard Aldington, for the extract from Life for Life's Sake. Curtis Brown Ltd, New York, for the extract from Memoirs of a Polyglot by William Gerhardi. Faber & Faber Ltd and Alfred A. Knopf Inc., for the extracts from Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell and Ottoline at Garsington: Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, 191 5-1918, both edited by R Gathorne-Hardy. Granada Publishing Ltd, for the extracts from Two Memoirs by J. M. Keynes, published by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd in 1949. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Vll Harper& Row, Publishers, Inc, for the extracts frorn]ourney with Genius by Witter Bynner (The John Day Co. Inc.); © 1951 by Witter Bynner. William Heinemann Ltd and Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc., for the extract from The Priest of Love by Harry T. Moore; © 1954, 1962, 1974 by Harry T. Moore. David Higham Associates Ltd, on behalf of Ford Madox Ford, and Liveright Publishing Corp., for the extracts from Return to Yesterday; © 1932 by Ford Madox Ford; © renewed 1959 by Janice Ford Biala David Higham Associates Ltd, on behalf of Malcolm Muggeridge, for' An Interview with Helen Corke' from The Listener, 25 July 1968. London Magazine, for 'Lawrence in Ban dol' by Brewster Ghiselin, from London Magazine, no. 5, December 1958; and the extracts from 'Conversations with Lawrence' by Brigit Patmore, from London Magazine, no. 4, June 1957. Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd, for the extract from Life Interests by Douglas Goldring. Maxwell Aley Associates, on behalf of the Estate of Ford Madox Ford, for the extracts from Portraits from Life: Memories and Criticisms. Henry S. Monroe and the Modern Poetry Association, for the extract from Poetry, no. 34, May 1930. A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd, on behalf of Rebecca West, for the extract from Ending in Earnest: a Literary Log. Laurence Pollinger Ltd and the Estate of the late Mrs Frieda LaWTence Ravagl~ for the extracts from Not I, but the Wind by Frieda Lawrence. Anne Powys-Lybbe, on behalf of John Manchester, for the extracts from Lawrence and Brett· a Friendship. The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of John Middleton Murry, for the extracts from Reminiscences of D. H Lawrence and Son of Woman. Times Newspapers Ltd, for the extract by John Middleton Murry from The Times Literary Supplemen~ 13 May 1930. Viking Penguin Inc., for the extract from Writers at Work: the 'Paris Review' Interviews, second series ( 1963), edited by G. Plimpton. A. P. Watt Ltd, on behalf of the Estate of Cecil Gray for the extracts from Peter Warlock: a Memoir of Philip Heseltine. Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, for the extracts from D. H Lawrence: Nove/is~ Poe~ Prophe~ edited by Stephen Spender. FLORENCE 153 Florence* REBECCA WEST [Lawrence) was staying in a poorish hotel overlooking what seems to me, since I am one of those who are so enamoured of Rome that they will not submit themselves to the magic of Florence, to be a trench of drab and turbid water wholly undeserving of the romantic prestige we have given the Arno. Make no mistake, it was the hotel that overlooked the Arno, not Lawrence. His room was one of the cheaper ones at the back. His sense of guilt which scourged him perpetually, which was the motive-power of his genius, since it made him inquire what sin it was which he and all mankind have on their conscience, forbade him either enjoying comfort or having the money to pay for it, lest he should weaken. So it was a small, mean room in which he sat tapping away at a typewriter. Norman Douglas1 burst out in a great laugh as we went in and asked if he were already writing an article about the present state of Florence; and Lawrence answered seriously that he was. This was faintly embarrassing, because on the doorstep Douglas had described how on arriving in a town Lawrence used to go straight from the railway station to his hotel and immediately sit down and hammer out articles about the place, vehemently and exhaustively describing the temperament of the people. This seemed obviously a silly thing to do, and here he was doing it. Douglas's laughter rang out louder than ever, and malicious as a satyr's. But we forgot all that when Lawrence set his work aside and laid himself out to be a good host to us. He was one of the most polite people I have ever met, in both naive and subtle ways. The other two knew him well, but I had never seen him before. He made friends as a child might do, by shyly handing me funny little boxes he had brought from some strange place he had recently visited; and he made friends too as if he were a wise old philosopher at the end of his days, by taking notice of one's personality, showing that he recognised its quality and giving it his blessing. Also there was a promise that a shy wild thing might well give and exact from its fellows, that he would live if one would let him live. Presently he settled down to give, in a curious hollow voice, like the soft hoot of an owl, an account of the journey he had made, up from Sicily to Capri, from Capri to * From Ending in Earnest: A Literary Log (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1931) pp. 266-76. I54 D. H. LAWRENCE: INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS Rome, from Rome to Florence. There seemed no reason why he should have made these journeys, which were all as uncomfortable as cheap travelling is in Italy, nor did there seem any reason why he was presently going to Baden-Baden. Yet, if every word he said disclosed less and less reason for this journeying, it also disclosed a very definite purpose. These were the journeys that the mystics of a certain type have always found necessary. The Russian saint goes to the head of his family and says good bye and takes his stick and walks out with no objective but the truth. The Indian fakir draws lines with his bare feet across the dust of his peninsula which describe a diagram, meaningless to the uninitiated, but significant of holiness. Lawrence travelled, it seemed, to get a certain Apocalyptic vision of mankind that he registered again and again and again, always rising to a pitch of ecstatic agony. Norman Douglas, Reggie Turner, 2 and I, none of whom would have moved from one place to another except in the greatest comfort procurable and with a definite purpose, or have endured a disagreeable experience twice if we could possibly help it, sat in a row on the bed and nodded. We knew that what he was doing was right. We nodded and were entranced. The next day Norman Douglas and I went a walk with Lawrence far out into the country, past the Certosa.lt was a joy for me to leave the city, for I cannot abide trams and Florence is congested with them. Impossible to pass through the streets without feeling that one is being dogged by a moaning tram one had betrayed in one's reckless youth; and it had been raining so hard that there had for long been no opportunity to walk in the country. Now there had been a day's sunshine, and the whole world was new. Irises thrust out of the wet earth like weapons suddenly brought into action. The cypresses, instead of being lank funereal plumes commemorat ing a foundered landscape, were exclamation marks drawn in Chinese ink, crying out at the beauty of the reborn countryside. About the grassy borders of the road there was much fine enamel work in little flowers and weeds as one has seen it on the swards ofBotticelli. Of the renascent quality of the day Lawrence became an embodiment. He was made in the angelic colours. His skin, though he had lived so much in the Southern countries, was very white, his eyes were light, his hair and beard were a pale luminous red. His body was very thin, and because of the flimsiness of his build it seemed as if a groove ran down the centre of his chest and his spine, so that his shoulder blades stood out in a pair of almost wing-like projections. He moved quickly and joyously. One could imagine him as a forerunner, speeding faster than spring can go from bud to bud on the bushes, to tell the world of the season that was coming to save it from winter. Beside him Norman Douglas lumbered along stockily. Because he knew what emperor had built this road and set that city on a hill, and how the Etruscans had been like-minded in their buildings before him, he made one feel that there have been so many springs that in effect there is no spring, but that that is of no great moment. Bending over a filemot-coloured flower that he had not