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Lawrence, Eastwood and Working-Class Experience

The story of D. H. Lawrence's first meeting with Ford Madox Hueffer1 in September 1909, and of how Hueffer accepted Lawrence's work for publication in the journal he was then editing, the English Review, and became Lawrence's mentor, has often been told. This was one of two truly transformational events in Lawrence's early life, the other being his meeting with Frieda Weekley in early March 1912. They were pivotal moments in Lawrence's development as a person and an author, and as such they feature centrally in the biographies.

For their accounts of the context to Lawrence's meeting with Hueffer, biographers have had to rely on Jessie Chambers's memoir, D. H. Lawrence: A Personal Record (1935), while the only source which deals with the meeting itself is Hueffer's essay on Lawrence in his Portraits from Life (1937). Jessie recalls how Lawrence introduced the English Review to her family when he returned to Eastwood, the mining town on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border where he was born, to spend Christmas with his family at the end of his first term as an elementary school teacher at Davidson Road School in Croydon, south-east London. This would have been sometime between 23 December 1908 and 10 January 1909. He must have shown them the first number of the journal, of December 1908, which contained contributions from (among others) Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy and H. G. Wells. Jessie notes that they were 'delighted' with the English Review, and with her father's backing they decided to subscribe to it. She 'soon noticed that the Editor was prepared to welcome new talent' (Chambers 1935: 156) and she 'begged' Lawrence to submit some of his work, 'but he refused absolutely', stating that he was not anxious to 'get into print', and in any case the journal would 'never take it'. He agreed, however, to let her submit on his behalf any of his work she chose, so long as she gave him a nom de plume, since he said he did not want 'folk in Croydon to know I write poetry'.

Jessie picked out what she thought were the best poems Lawrence had sent to her since he left Eastwood to take up his teaching post in early October 1908. She copied them out 'one beautiful June morning' in 1909. She chose 'Discipline', 'Dreams Old and Nascent' and 'Baby-Movements', plus 'several other poems whose titles I don't remember'; she placed 'Discipline' first because she thought 'the unusual title might attract the Editor's attention' (Chambers 1935: 157). 'Discipline' and 'Dreams Old and Nascent' were poems dealing with Lawrence's early experiences as a teacher; 'Baby-Movements' was inspired by his affection for Hilda Mary Jones, the second daughter of John and Marie Jones (the couple in whose home he lodged in Croydon). In her cover letter, Jessie described Lawrence as 'a young man who had been writing for a number of years, and who would be very grateful for any recognition'; she gave his name 'but said that if any of the poems were printed they should appear under the nom de plume of Richard Greasley (Richards was an unacknowledged name of Lawrence's, and Greasley was his home parish)' (Chambers 1935: 158).2

Hueffer's reply arrived at some point between 1 and 14 August, while Lawrence was on holiday with his family on the Isle of Wight. Hueffer found the poems 'very interesting' and felt that the author had 'undoubted talent', but he injected a note of caution into his praise, commenting that 'nowadays luck played such a large part in a literary career'. He said that if Jessie would get Lawrence 'to come and see me some time when he is in London perhaps something might be done'. Jessie replied that when Lawrence was back from his holiday she was 'sure he would be glad to call on Mr Hueffer'. Soon after 14 August, she gave him Hueffer's letter. He murmured to her 'You are my luck' and took it to show his mother. Jessie 'never saw it again' (Chambers 1935: 158-159).

Lawrence travelled back to Croydon on Sunday 29 August and began teaching the following day. Jessie states that Lawrence went to see Hueffer in September. If so, the meeting happened at some point between Wednesday 1 September and Saturday 11 September. Unfortunately, Hueffer's account of the meeting, which took place at 84 Holland Park Avenue, his flat above a fishmonger and poulterer's shop which doubled as the offices of the English Review, is very brief and unreliable, for reasons which will soon become clear. He recalled that after Lawrence's arrival was announced by his secretary, Olive Thomas, his visitor stood in the doorway, like a fox 'going to make a raid on the hen-roost before him' (Ford 1937: 76). Hueffer records Lawrence saying 'This isn't my idea, Sir, of an editor's office'. When Hueffer defended his room, describing the 'feeling of thankfulness and satisfaction' he got from coming to it from outdoors, Lawrence is said to have replied: 'That's all very well. But it doesn't look like a place in which one would make money . The room may be all right for your private tastes . which aren't mine, though that does not matter. But it isn't one to inspire confidence in creditors. Or contributors' (Ford 1937: 77-78).

What else passed between them, he does not say. Surviving letters suggest, however, that Hueffer was encouraging and supportive. On his twenty-fourth birthday, 11 September, Lawrence reported to Louie Burrows, a friend whose family lived in the village of Cossall, around six miles south-east of Eastwood: 'It is supposed to be a secret, but I guess I shall have to tell you. The editor of the English Review has accepted some of my Verses, and wants to put them into the English Review, the November issue . The editor, Ford Madox Hueffer, says he will be glad to read any of the work I like to send him - which is a great relief, is it not?' (1L 137-138). He told Jessie that Hueffer was 'fairish, fat, about forty, and the kindest man on earth', and he boasted about the invitations to dinner with 'celebrities' and 'two R.A.s' (Chambers 1935: 163) that accrued from Hueffer's support.

Hueffer stresses Lawrence's 'shynesses' (Ford 1937: 76) in their first meeting. It is quite plausible that Lawrence hid his nervousness about meeting Hueffer by adopting the kind of confident, assertive, even brash demeanour that Hueffer ascribes to him. However, the phrases he puts into Lawrence's mouth are transposed in a revised form from Jessie's account in her memoir of her visit to Croydon almost three months later, on the weekend of 27-28 November, when Lawrence took her to meet Hueffer at his flat before they all went together to have lunch with Hueffer's partner, Violet Hunt, at her home, 'South Lodge', 80 Campden Hill Road.3 Most of the rest of Hueffer's essay is unreliable too. He states that he read 'The Fox' shortly before writing his essay, which accounts for the image he used for Lawrence's attitude as he stood in the doorway.4 Hueffer weaves together details from his recent reading of Jessie's memoir and some of Lawrence's writing with vaguely recalled information about Lawrence's early life (perhaps drawing in part on Sons and Lovers); he even erroneously suggests that he once met Lawrence's father.5

Setting aside the inaccuracies and inventions, however, the main problem with the essay is Hueffer's determination to present the Lawrence he first met as a working-class writer. He takes issue with Jessie by stating that she first wrote to him to ask if he 'would care to see anything - and then should it be poetry or prose' (Ford 1937: 72); he says he requested both, so she sent him the poems together with 'Odour of Chrysanthemums', a story of mining life set in Eastwood which Lawrence actually began writing later in the year. Ford therefore describes his own trepidation on meeting Lawrence as being all to do with class: 'If he really was the son of a working coal-miner, how exactly was I to approach him in conversation?' (Ford 1937: 75). Jessie notes that at Violet Hunt's gathering, Ezra Pound asked Hueffer 'How would you speak to a working man?', and Hueffer replied 'I should speak to a working man in exactly the same way that I should speak to any other man, because I don't think there is any difference' (Chambers 1935: 174). Ford repeats the anecdote as a sign that he 'automatically regarded every human being as my equal' (Ford 1937: 75), but his essay is full of class consciousness and class condescension.

In fact, the only person who directly claims that Jessie divulged details of the occupation of Lawrence's father in her initial letter to Hueffer is Violet Hunt. In her memoir, The Flurried Years (1926), Hunt suggests that Jessie described Lawrence as 'the son of a miner, and not very strong', but...