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Sale 38
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Lot 173
Lawrence, D.H (1885-1930) British novelist, critic, poet, and painter; one of the greatest figures in 20th century English literature. Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pp, 8½x7", Chalet Beau Site, Les Diablerets (Vaud), Suisse, 4 Feb. 1928. Very good; two minor corner repairs, and a few edge chips and small splits, affecting no text but one slightly affecting the "H" in the signature. To "Dear Mason" (Harold T. Mason of Centaur Books in Philadelphia), discussing the problems of publishing and circulating Lady Chatterley's Lover. "…I'm going over my novel here - the typescript - and I'm going to try to expurgate and substitute sufficiently to produce a properish public version for Alf Knopf, presumably, to publish. But I want to publish the unmutilated version myself in Florence - 1000 copies in all - half for England. I shall send out no review copies. I shall make no advertisement - just circulate a few little slips announcing the publication. Then, perhaps, if I post direct from Florence to all private individuals before I send any copies to England, so that there can be no talk beforehand - perhaps that would be safest. I'm terribly afraid a crate might arouse suspicion, and the whole thing be lost. We might crate 50 copies to you - or more even. You needn't look on them as ordered: perhaps to the other bookshops you mention too. But I daren't crate the whole damn thing. What do you think? I'll be glad if you'll help me. But I'll send a set of proofs. - Write to the Villa Mirenda, we shall be back there in early March, I suppose. We are here for the time in the snow to see if it'll do my chest any good. I think it does. Will you please send by book post a copy of that porcupine to Aldous Huxley….It's a shame it's still on your hands. It'll sell one day - too late for all of us probably. And thanks for the money. I shall send the MS to the printer as soon as I get it revised - but I don't want to bring out the unexpurgated edition long before the public one…."
Lady Chatterley's Lover was inspired by the affair between Lawrence's aristocratic German wife, Frieda, and an Italian peasant (who would become her third husband after Lawrence's death), and by Lawrence's struggle with sexual impotence. It was considered pornographic because of its explicit descriptions of sexual relations, its liberal use of four letter words, and the depiction of a love affair between a bourgeois female and a working-class male. Lawrence did publish the book privately in Florence in 1928. It was not published in the UK until 1960, at which time it became the subject of an obscenity trial. After several academic critics testified that the work had literary merit, a "not guilty" verdict was rendered and became the basis for publishing more explicit material in the UK. In the United States, Grove Press published an unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1959 and copies sent through the mail were confiscated. A lawsuit ensued, resulting in the ban being overturned against Lady Chatterley's Lover, as well as against Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 5,000.
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| Realized $3,795 |
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