Blog thirteen: Eastwood "Bert" in New Mexico

Bert and Frieda in Taos, New Mexico circa 1922.

Ahead of my visit to the Taos ranch in the autumn/fall (dependent on which side of the Atlantic you’re on), I met with Dr Andrew Harrison from the DH Lawrence Research Centre at the University of Nottingham to talk about “Bert’s” time there (both in Taos and his brief time at University College Nottingham between 1906 and 1908), his output whilst in New Mexico and how this differed from the writings he produced in other periods in his career in other places. Andrew is a thoroughly committed Lawrence-ite and even lives in the writer’s home town of Eastwood, where he is still remembered mostly as the man who wrote the mucky books (Lawrence, not Andrew).

I’m not going to dive into a biography of Lawrence, a very good one can be found here, but instead explain his coming to Taos. Lawrence had to be enticed, somewhat begrudgingly to New Mexico by the wealthy Mabel Dodge Luhan who, having read some of Lawrence’s writings, wanted him to come to Taos and capture the spirit of the place and the native population in the way he had for the peasants of Italy in his book Sea and Sardinia. A woman of considerable means, Mabel sent Lawrence a series of letters filled with native herbs (which he remarked tasted of liquorice) and a necklace from a local craftsman for Freida, although this was lost in the post. He arrived with Frieda in late 1922, but after numerous disagreements with Mabel and her husband, Tony, they left for Mexico in early 1923.

They returned in 1923 and disagreements started again, when Mabel proposed that they give the Lawrences the Kiowa Ranch, some 20 miles from Taos, now known as the DH Lawrence ranch. While the couple spent a relatively short time there, the ranch became the only property that they ever owned during their marriage and it became a place of rest and relaxation, where Lawrence wrote much of his novel, St Mawr and began The Plumed Serpent, during five months of the summer of 1924. He also wrote his short stories The Princess and The Woman who Rode Away in this period. Aldous Huxley is known to have visited the Lawrences at the ranch.

By October 1924, Lawrence and Frieda left for Mexico and it was while they were in Oaxaca that he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The couple returned to the US with Lawerence wearing rouge on his cheeks to disguise his illness from American immigration officials, and by April 1925 they were back at the Ranch where they spent the summer, Lawrence continuing work on the novel which became The Plumed Serpent. However, with his better health and their six-month visa about to expire, Lawrence was determined to return to Europe. They left Taos on September 11, Lawrence's 40th birthday, and settled again in Italy.

It was great to tap Andrew for this information as elements like the necklace going missing, the taste of herbs or the rouge on Lawrence’s cheeks to hide his TB (not to mention finding out that in New Mexico he had a pet cow called Susan) was invaluable as this colour to the story makes it so much more real. We then talked about the archive holdings that the university has around Lawrence, including his palette, shoes and poncho from his time in Taos. I want to bring over something of Lawrence and his time in Nottingham to Taos as a gift from us here and we chatted about looking through the archive for some early dialect poems which we could reproduce and frame. Andrew and I have an idea which one but we’re not saying yet!

PS: after writing this, in a coffee shop in Nottingham, I wandered down to Castle Gate and took a snap of this where Lawrence worked when he was 16, which is next door to where I did my two weeks work experience when I was the same age! Spooky!