Many Drafts of D. H. Lawrence : Creative Flux, Genetic Dialogism, and the Dilemma of Endings

Winner of the DHLSNA Biennial Award for a Book by a Newly Published Scholar Exploring draft manuscripts, alternative texts and publishers’ typescripts, The Many Drafts of D. H. Lawrence reveals new insights into the writings and writing practices of one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Focusing on the most productive years of Lawrence’s writing life, between 1909 and 1926 – a time that saw the writing of major novels such as Women in Love and the controversial The Plumed Serpent, as well as his first major short story collection – this book is the first to apply analytical methods from the field of genetic criticism to the archives of this canonical modernist author. The book unearths and re-evaluates a variety of themes including the body, death, love, trauma, depression, memory, the sublime, selfhood, and endings, and includes original transcriptions as well as reproductions from the manuscripts themselves. By charting Lawrence’s writing processes, the book also highlights how the very distinction between ‘process’ and ‘product’ became a central theme in his work.

Elliott Morsia is an Independent Scholar and former Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

David Tucker is Associate Professor of Defense Analysis and Co-Director of the Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, USA. He has served in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict as the Deputy Director for Special Operations and as a Foreign Service Officer in Africa and Europe. He is the author of many books and articles.

Erik Tonning is Professor of English at NLA University College, Norway, and Professor II of British Literature and Culture at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is co-editor of the Modernist Archives series and the Historicizing Modernism series, both published by Bloomsbury. He is the author of Samuel Beckett's Abstract Drama and Modernism and Christianity, as well as the editor of a number of volumes on modernism.

Matthew Feldman is Emeritus Professor in the Modern History of Ideas, Professional Fellow at the University of York, UK.