Body of Truth: D.H. Lawrence: The Nomadic Years, 1919-1930

Philip Callow's BODY OF TRUTH, the second and last volume of a biography (the first was "Son and Lover") is written in an engaging style and is easy to read. And it's the story of a man who, despite his volatility and rages, I think is a real prophet. Included are discussions of many of Lawrence's later works, such as "The Plumed Serpent" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover," and records of his encounters with many people, some well-known and some not so. One thing that comes through is Lawrence's vitality, a vitality that lasted until his untimely death in 1930. He died of tuberculosis, as had Katherine Mansfield before him. But unlike her and one of his correspondents, Lawrence would not go to a sanatorium, nor even admit he had the disease. The subtitle is "The Nomadic Years: 1919-1930. Lawrence and Frieda were travel addicts (not always together), and this volume takes us all over Europe, as well as to Australia and America, specifically, Taos NM and environs. It was in Taos that he encountered the formidable Mabel Dodge Luhan, who sought to interpose herself between Lawrence and Frieda. But Lawrence would have none of it, or of her. In many ways, he was a Puritan, and was certainly against adultery or any casual or promiscuous sex. One thing he had to deal with was his wife infidelities. But despite this, he found her necessary to his emotional being. (After his death, she wrote an account of their years together, "Not I, But the Wind.")

In 1919 Lawrence arrived in Venice with a banned book to his name, living on very little and concerned with health problems. His last years in Venice were to include a relationship with Frieda and travels between America, Europe and England - Body Of Truth: D.H. Lawrence, The Nomadic Years, 1919-1930 re-creates his movements and his nomadic years, and his eventual reconciliation with the literary world.