Lawrence is a man of endless energy, and so being bed-ridden and reliant on others impacts his mood...
It is somewhat of a consolation to discover that Emigration officers at the Mexico border have always been rude. Lawrence berates Americans as ‘the worst ever’ who are ‘filthy with insolence’.
He arrives at the Del Monte ranch on 1 April and paints an evocative picture of life high up in the mountains of New Mexico: ‘Here the grass is only just moving green out of the sere earth, and the hairy, pale mauve anemones that the Indians call Owl flowers stand strange and alone among the dead pine needles, under the wintry trees.’
He’s still feeling very weak and somewhat lost: ‘I’m not altogether here yet: bits of me still on the way, like luggage following.’ He had received a positive tuberculosis diagnosis and so is reliant on others to help him. But more ominous is his lack of energy for writing, ‘I feel it will be a long time before I do another novel.’
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, from 1923, click here, from 1924, click here, from 1925, click here.
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