[D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)] – Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Love Poems. London: John Long, 1908.
16mo (150 x 100mm). Two photographs of Lawrence pasted in, one with Margaret Brinton captioned ‘D.H. Lawrence & Meg Brinton at Kew Gardens’ (66 x 64mm) on front endpaper, the other of Lawrence alone taken on the same occasion captioned ‘D.H. Lawrence’ (79 x 103mm) on a blank page opposite the first poem, newspaper illustration of Lawrence tipped onto front pastedown. Original red cloth (light wear, some slight splitting to textblock). Provenance: Margaret ‘Peg’ Brinton (presentation inscription from D.H. Lawrence on endpaper) – by descent and sold Sotheby’s, London, 21-22 July 1983, lot 457, where bought by – Sotheran’s, booksellers – Sotheby’s, London, 14 December 1992, lot 125.

Presentation copy of Browning’s Love Poems, playfully inscribed by D.H. Lawrence: ‘To Peg / these lessons in love / Hoping she may profit by them / from her adoring / Baby / alias David Herbert Richards Lawrence / Compton House / Bournemouth Jan 1912’. We are unable to trace any other Lawrence presentation inscription in which he uses his full name.

According to family tradition recorded in the auction catalogue of 1983 where this volume was first sold, the recipient of Lawrence’s gift was Margaret ‘Peg’ Brinton, who had been resident in the same boarding-house as Lawrence during his convalescence from a near-fatal attack of pneumonia the previous year. The two photographs pasted into the volume were probably taken on the same day, April 26 1912, by Margaret's sister, Irene Brinton during a visit to Kew Gardens. It is understood that Margaret destroyed Lawrence's letters to her when she married.