David Herbert Lawrence (1885–1930) led a restless, colorful, controversial life. Born in Nottinghamshire, he was the son of a rough coal miner and a genteel mother. Lawrence's mother longed to have her children rise above their working-class origins, and the young boy identified strongly with her. However, as an adult, Lawrence came to appreciate the primitive, natural integrity of his father and others of his class as opposed to the smothering conventional aspirations of his mother and other members of the higher social classes. In 1909, Lawrence published his first poems, and in the following year a novel. He taught school for a while but gave this up after meeting Frieda von Richthofen, a German woman whom he married. Lawrence's first major novel, the autobiographical Sons and Lovers, was finished shortly thereafter. The novel deals with a boy's attempt to break away from a domineering mother and to establish his own identity. This novel was followed by The Rainbow, the first of several of Lawrence's works to be banned in England because of their controversial treatment of human sexuality.

Lawrence traveled widely and lived, at different times, in Germany, Italy, Mexico, Australia, and New Mexico. He and his wife Frieda were at the center of the artists' colony in Taos, New Mexico. In addition to his novels, Lawrence wrote poetry, criticism, short stories, and colorful travel sketches. He was also a gifted painter. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover became the focus of a legal battle in the United States, ending in a famous victory over censorship. In his mature work, Lawrence championed the primitive, basic instincts of men and women over what he believed to be the artificial, mechanical impositions of contemporary civilized society.