“Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.”

English novelist, poet, and painter

David Herbert Lawrence was an English writer, critic, and painter, active in the early 20th century. He wrote novels, stories, poems, plays, essays, and travel writing, and is best known for his modernist fiction. His work looks closely at modern life, industrial society, and the strain of social alienation, while also giving strong place to sexuality, vitality, and instinct. Four of his best-known novels, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, became the subject of censorship trials because of their frank treatment of romance, sexuality, and language.