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An unearthed copy of a DH Lawrence book owned by HG Wells, decorated with scribbles of a phallus, has revealed exactly what the latter really thought of the 20th-century author.
Sketches made by Wells on a signed first edition of Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover show multiple ink drawings ridiculing its rival author.
In one, Wells portrays Lawrence naked with an extremely large outsized member, captioned “Up Jenkins!”. Below Wells writes: ‘DHL by himself’.
On the corresponding page, lying at the base of what appears to be a tall column, Lawrence is depicted gazing at his much smaller genitals and asking, “Well, has another man his equal?”
Sketches made by Wells on a signed first edition of Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover show multiple ink drawings ridiculing its rival author
Next to him is a bottle with the inscription ‘tonic’ and the image is captioned: ‘The real DHL’
Wells also writes on the page opposite his doodles, “My God what stuff!”
The copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is up for auction at Bonhams in London – the auction house is set to sell for an estimated £15,000 – £25,000 in November.
Matthew Haley, Bonhams director and head of books and manuscripts, described the sketches as an attack of “literary bitchiness,” he told the Times.
He said Wells’ copy provided a “fascinating insight” into the relationship between the authors.
“Earlier in their careers, the two writers had written about each other’s work with admiration,” he said. Lawrence wrote of Wells’s 1909 novel Tono-Bungay that it was “the best novel Wells has written—it’s the best novel I’ve read—oh, how long?”
Wells Wells Wells: Lawrence’s scathing review of Well’s 1926 novel, The World of William Clissold, forced HG Wells to retaliate privately in his copy of Lady Chatterley. Pictured: HG Wells in the 1920s.
Haley added: ‘However, Lawrence’s scathing review of Wells’ 1926 novel The World of William Clissold was clearly shocking and Wells retaliated, albeit privately, in his copy of Lady Chatterley.
“The cartoons seem to suggest that Lawrence thought of himself as the male gamekeeper of the working-class Mellors, but in reality was more like Lady Chatterley’s husband, the paralyzed and deceived Sir Clifford.”
Wells’ 1928 edition of the Lawrence-signed novel was one of 1,000 self-printed in Italy.
Lawrence had not been able to find a British publisher to publish the book, as the book’s sexual content was deemed to be subject to British obscenity laws.
The novel, which focuses on the affair between Mellors and Lady Chatterley, became an infamous mark of the 20th century when Penguin Books attempted to publish it in the 1960s and was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act.
However, an Old Bailey jury ruled it was not obscene, and when it was published a month later, all 200,000 copies had been sold on its first day.
Haley said early editions of the novel often appeared with a “not very good copy” selling for £1,500 this year.
Lawrence had not been able to find a British publisher to publish Lady Chatterley’s Lover, as the book’s sexual content was deemed to be subject to British obscenity laws. Pictured: DH Lawrence
“You don’t normally get copies with inscriptions,” he added of Wells’s copy.
The November auction will also feature archive footage related to novelist EM Forster, who witnessed for Penguin at the trial.
Among the items sold is a letter from Forster to his biographer PN Furbank, asking him to arrange for the posthumous publication of Maurice, Forster’s story of homosexual love in 20th-century Britain.
Forster had stopped writing fiction in the 1920s, in part because of the British obscenity laws. The book was not published until 1971.
There are also letters to Furbank, who died in 2014, from Harry Daley, a police officer and suspected former lover of Forster.
Daley, who was publicly known as gay but avoided prosecution, became a public figure after a series of talks on the BBC about life as a police officer, which are said to have inspired the television series Dixon or Dock Green.