New-York tribune., 1920-01-10
By Gilbert Cannan

I hope | may be allowed q small
amount of space in which to correct
somewhat erroneous impression that
must have been given by your report
er's interview with Sir Ernest Holder
Williams regarding the work Of my
friend D. H. Lawrence. 1t is no doubt
true that my friends work is unknown
to the great mass of the reading public
in Great Britain; but in their day very
little was known Of Blake and Shelley.
to take random instances.
D. Fl. Lawrence is man of genius
who has been dogged by the i'll luck
Of his kind, which is not the kind Of
Frank Swinnerton or ]. c. Squire, both
of them very capable, Industrious, tai
ented men of letters. Sir Ernest speaks
from the point Of view of the publisher;
whose business it Is to sell books,
regardless Of their artistic merit. 1t
is D. Fl. Lawrence's business as man
of genius to write his books and to
less of his sales. Hence the misunder-
standing that has arisen in the book
trade. D. H. Lawrence naturally wants
to sell his books, but will not compro
mise in order to do so. Compromise is
rather the affair of the publisher than
Of the author. q do not refer, of
course, to Sir Ernest, VINO has merely
given me my opportunity and my
text)
D. Fl. Lawrence is test case. In the
pursuit Of the logic Of his genius, after
Sons and Lovers" the last work Of his
immature period, he was led to deal,
like the poet and mystic that he is,
with the subject Of sex, and the result
was "The Rainbow" in which sex is
symbolized and raised clear out Of the
region of actuality. Unimaginative
persons, reading his pages and reading
into them an animalism that is not
there, were horrifed and accused the
book of the corruption that was in
themselves. Proceedings were taken,
alarm and not understanding what had
happened, did not defend. "The Rain
bow" was suppressed, and Lawrence
was unable to find publisher for its
successor, Women and Love" in
which his genius had swept him stage
further, so that, while other writer's
have been able to publish tneir
works, to extend their regulations and
to win flattering opinions from their
Seniors, Lawrence has been blocked
and denied access to the public by the
publishers, who, in the person Of Sir
Ernest, express surprise that there
should be persons to speak Of Law
renee as man of genius and n person
of vital Importance to the Intellectual
and imaginative life of our time.
No senior writer has underlined his
Importance. No distinguished name
appears on the cover Of new Lawrence
book, praising it and telling the public
and the publishers that they will not
be wasting their money, possibly be-
cause Lawrence has not sought any
mans good opinion. He has certainly
never sought mine, which makes it the
easier for me to take up the cudgels
Ia his behalf and to inform the Amerl-
can public that D. Fl. Lawrence has a
book called "Women and Love-" which
has been withheld from them by the
confusion Of mind Of the puritanical
section of the public and of the pub
fishers, who are unreasonably afraid
of that section.
women and Love" may or may not
be n good book, but the real point
surely Is that a bad book by Lawrence
is 70 per cent better than IA good book
by almost any other writer OF the
present time. Books, nowadays, arc
written On two levels--those which are