'LAWRENCE ...LOVED HUMANITY MORE THAN ME'

LAWRENCE (FRIEDA, 1879-1956, wife of D.H. Lawrence, d. 1930) FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('F'), a warm and affectionate letter to Desmond [Hawkins], commenting on D.H. Lawrence's importance and value ('...his awareness of all things round him...') and recounting her displeasure that Lawrence loved humanity more than her:

'...I felt cross with Lawrence too, there [sic for then] loved humanity more than me, humanity did nothing for him, but I did & my soul laboured for him -- and he gave it to them -- I had never thought that before -- I may be wrong & selfish -- It may have been the greatest he could do for us both -- But I dont like humanity, I only love individuals...'

and expressing her warmth and gratitude to Desmond Hawkins in fairly passionate terms ('...I was unhappy & bitter when we met, so were you & then because we were lucky enough to be a bit aware of each other it all seemed light & was, no more -- like a miracle! One isn't an anarchist, because one is more engaged in sticking to that other golden city then [sic] in destroying their old stuffy town...'); she also tells him that her daughter Barby is 'just wringing up' and coming over so she will burn his letter, commenting 'Isn't it a pleasure to know this secret of another life, one does feel secretive about it -- not the "dirty little secret", but the real secret of the other life -- And one mustn't betray it, that is the sin against the holy ghost...'; mentions [Angelo Ravagli, her lover and later her third husband] ('...wrote a most awful letter to Angelino, letting all the bitterness out, so I can love him again...'); agrees to write an introduction to Hawkins's book ('...Will it help? Won't they only say you are a Lawrence fan?...'); and issuing a warning to him on Lawrence's behalf ('...watch it, watch it carefully that they dont destroy you -- Know your enemies! One is so affectionate when one's young...'), 3 pages, quarto, lined paper, filing holes no place or date [c. 1932]

Desmond Hawkins had a brief but intense encounter with Frieda Lawrence in 1932. He was taken under her wing as she tried to sort out Lawrence's business affairs (his will had been lost) and to see her children from her first marriage. Together they went to Paris to see a producer who was interested in making a film version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, with her daughter Barbara in the title role. Hawkins collaborated with Frieda on the translation of two letters written by Lawrence in German to her mother, publishe id in Twentieth Century in January 1933.

In his autobiography, When I Was, where the present letter is published, Desmond Hawkins recalled Frieda 'now in a timeless way as an intervention in my life of startling intensity...she enlarged my world in many ways. It so happened we both needed a confidant at that time: although we were so oddly matched in age and background we somehow found a rare accord...'

Hawkins edited a selection of Lawrence's stories, essays and poems.

Letters of Frieda Lawrence are rarely available for purchase -- only two lots have appeared at auction in the last twenty years.

In his poem 'Humanity needs pruning' Lawrence wrote that '...the tree of human existence needs badly pruning/ or the whole tree may fall rotten.' His 'Retort to Walt Whitman' was: 'And whoever walks a mile full of false sympathy/ walks to the funeral of the whole human race.'

£1,250