He’s off to see the Hopi Snake Dance in Arizona, meaning he must travel by car. Lawrence hates cars.
In August 1924, Lawrence joins P.E.N believing writers ‘are perhaps the only people who may be capable of imaginative international understanding’. P.E.N was founded in 1921 by Catherine Dawson with the intention of forging international co-operation across literature.
The Lawrence’s are living remotely on the foot of the Rockies and so are reliant on others to do their shopping for them, rendering Mabel Dodge Luhan an early iteration of Deliveroo. Frieda Lawrence requests ‘Three pairs of white thin woollen knickers’ as ‘mine are going and it’s too cold for thin things.’
Lawrence heads off on a thousand-mile motor tour to see the Indian Hopi Dance in Arizona where he witnesses ‘priests dancing with live Rattle Snakes in their mouths’ an experience that was ‘weird rather than beautiful.’ Although he ‘hates sitting in a motor car’ this new mode of transport has brought down the price of horses and he is able to purchase a black horse called Aaron for £8 – half the price of a saddle!
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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