D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study

Anais Nin's first book, published in 1932 by Edward Titus in Paris, was a critical examination of the work of controversial British author D. H. Lawrence. Of all the books written about Lawrence, his widow Frieda said this one "was the best." Nin was inspired to do the book after Lawrence had been villified by puritanical critics, but only had a pile of notes when she mentioned it to Titus. Titus asked to see something quickly, and in 13 days, Nin turned her notes into a cohesive and insightful study. In it, she declared: "Reading Lawrence should be a pursuit of his intuitions to the limit of their possibilities, a penetration of his world through which we are to make a prodigious voyage. It is going to be a prodigious voyage because he surrenders fully to experience, lets it flow through him, and because he had that quality of genius which sucks out of ordinary experience essences strange or unknown to men." Nin's study remains the most informative and deepest guide to Lawrence today.