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Lawrence, D.H

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:0.00 USD Estimated At:40,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Lawrence, D.H
Lawrence, D.H (1885-1930). Born David Herbert Lawrence. English novelist, poet, and critic; his most famous work is Lady Chatterly's Lover. Unfinished Autograph Manuscript of The Flying Fish, 40 pages (there are two page 3's), small 4vo, written in March 1925, after Lawrence fell ill in Oaxaca, Mexico. Frieda, his wife, stated that he wrote The Flying Fish while traveling by train from Mexico back to the United States. Lawrence seems to have dictated the first nine pages to Frieda around March 11-19 1925 while he was ill; he wrote the remainder of the fragment himself by March 25. The manuscript was unpublished in Lawrence's lifetime. It was first published in Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of DHL, edited by Edward D. McDonald (New York: Viking, 1936).

The protagonist of the story, Gethin Day, is a 40-year-old ex-soldier who is returning to England from southern Mexico after the death of his sister. The story recounts Day's thoughts and feelings as he travels back to his homeland. From the ship he observes the porpoises and flying fish cavorting in the Gulf of Mexico and Lawrence's descriptions of them are vivid. Lawrence had made such a journey in November and December of 1923 and like Gethin Day, Lawrence returned to England at the age of 40, never to see America again.
Estimated Value $40,000 - 50,000.

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