Will 12 bottles of smuggled whisky and five wild horses tame D.H. Lawrence’s rage? Probably not. Here's what D.H. Lawrence was up to in June 1924
Keeping the Lawrence’s company in the Lobo Mountains were five wild horses and ‘12 bottles of smuggled whisky.’ Mabel Dodge Luhan makes Lawrence a chair that she wants him to write in, but Lawrence doesn’t like being told where to sit or what to do and nicknames it ‘the Iron Maiden’ after the infamous torture cabinet.
Lawrence was mentally exhausted after his latest excursion in Europe which was soured by memories of the war which ‘changed me forever’ and so he does what he does best, he gets stuck into a bit of DIY. On 4th June he reports: ‘I’ve done one of the hardest days work in my life today – cleaning the well (…) Lord, this is the week we promised ourselves rest. I’ve still got to go to the Hawks’ for milk – and it’s 7pm. Wish we had a cow.’
Despite not writing much, he is happy with his new routine. ‘Here, where one is alone with trees and mountains and chipmunks and desert, one gets something out of the air: something wild and untamed, cruel and proud, beautiful and sometimes evil, that really is America.’
These video essays are based on the letters of D.H. Lawrence one hundred years ago and are published monthly as part of the D.H. Lawrence Memory Theatre project.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1922, click here.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1923, click here.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1924, click here.
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