Lot 218
LAWRENCE, D.H.
LETTER SENT FROM OAXACA, MEXICO
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 19 June 2019 at 12:00 BST
Description
ALS, dated 16 Jan. 1924 [in fact, 1925], addressed to Mr Rickards, expressing thanks for forwarding his mail and writing: "Miss Brett thinks of leaving on Monday, arrive Mexico Tuesday morning, on her way to New Mexico. - She never heard a word of that miserable listening machine of hers, from the man in Vera Cruz. Best get it sent, if possible, straight to Mexico City...Though you must be as sick of the sound of it as I am.", signed "Yours sincerely D.H. Lawrence", 270 x 205mm; accompanied by Ross Parmenter's book, Lawrence in Oaxaca, 1984, which references this letter on p.206
Footnote
Note: Lawrence writes this letter to Constantine Rickards, the British Vice-Consul in Oaxaca. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda were renting a house in Oaxaca along with the artist Dorothy Brett. The "miserable listening machine" refers to Brett's Marconi Otophone - a hearing aid. Brett's departure for New Mexico was instigated by Frieda, who wrote in her own memoirs that she felt Brett was "...becoming too much part of our lives..."