Peter Preston
D. H. Lawrence Research Centre, The University of Nottingham, UK
Scribbling on Catherine: Murry vs. Carswell
During the decade after 1930 there was a steady flow of memoirs of Lawrence by his friends, acquaintances and members of his family, a dozen of which had appeared by 1935. They range from brief considerations to full-length biographies, and taken together they reveal an intense competitiveness, as their authors claim a more intimate relationship, a special knowledge or an authoritative understanding of Lawrence's life and work. In one case, however, the publications led to a more direct confrontation – that between John Middleton Murry and Catherine Carswell. Murry's objections to Carswell's adverse comments on his Son of Woman (1931) led to the withdrawal of Carswell's own book, The Savage Pilgrimage (1932) and its reissue in a revised form. The Manuscripts and Special Collections Department at the University of Nottingham holds a copy of The Savage Pilgrimage annotated by Murry, and this paper will explore what can be learned from Murry's pencilled comments about the nature of his objections to Carswell's remarks. Furthermore, correspondence between Carswell and Murry, also held at Nottingham, throws light not only on Lawrence's relationships with both authors, but also on the interactions between Lawrence's immediate circle of friends and on his reputation in the 1930s.