The Mystery of a Postcard….

The search for D.H. Lawrence, as you know by now, took some fascinating turns.

Among them, the identification of a postcard found by Dr. Tomas Jaehn, Director of the Archives, New Mexico History Museum in his collections, that is supposedly from Lawrence. Tomas sent it to me and I consulted the facsimile of the manuscript of Sons and Lovers and said that—even though the locale of mailing was an issue (mailed from NY, when he was in Majorca)—I felt it was solvable.  Not so fast, Linda.

I sent it to David Farmer, Taos resident and creator of the Cambridge version of Women in Love. He was doubtful and sent it on to two experts on Lawrence: Lindeth Vasey and James Boulton.  Neither thought it was actually sent from Lawrence.  James’ response is below:

Dear Lin, (to Lindeth, I assume)

I’m confident that the pc didn’t come from DHL:

1. On 15 May 1929 DHL was on Majorca; he could not have sent a pc

postmarked Grand Central Station, NY.  See Letters, vii. 278-80.

2.  The handwriting is definitely not DHL’s.

3.  The signature ‘Lawrence’ was never used by DHL

As ever,  Jim

As an amateur on Lawrence, I am quite daunted by these responses, but love the discussion. So here is my response:

• For several months prior to May, 1929, Lawrence’s mail was being confiscated in England—enough to make anyone doubt the safety of mail.  I think he probably handed several postcards/even perhaps undiscovered letters to someone traveling to America.  Grand Central Station would be a natural transfer point.

• I compared the handwriting to the facsimile of Sons and Lovers owned and published by UC Berkeley.  As far as I can detect, the letters T, I, f, and e are almost exact. He was quite ill by this time, so undoubtedly some of his handwriting would have changed.

• He had an unusually tranquil relationship with Foster, informal, uncomplicated.  This seems like the kind of message he would send.

• The postcard is inane; why would anyone forge it?  Would love to know what the “elephant feet” were!

• The issue about the signature I can’t fathom, although my husband changed from his middle name Dale to his first name, Morgan, when he was 64.

How delicious for a novelist!  (SEE POSTCARD BELOW) To be continued….

Linda

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