1885 11 September: David Herbert Lawrence born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, third son of Arthur John (coalminer) and Lydia Lawrence.
1898–1901 Attends Nottingham High School.
1901 October–December: Clerk at Nottingham factory of J. H. Haywood; falls ill.
1902–5 Pupil-teacher in Eastwood and Ilkeston; meets Chambers family, including Jessie, in 1902.
1905–6 Uncertificated teacher in Eastwood; starts to write poetry, shows it to Jessie.
1906–8 Studies for teaching certificate at University College, Nottingham; begins first novel The White Peacock in 1906.
1907 Writes first short stories; first published story, ‘A Prelude’, appears in the Nottinghamshire Guardian (under Jessie’s name).
1908–11 Elementary teacher at Davidson Road School, Croydon.
1909 Jessie sends selection of Lawrence’s poems to the English Review; Ford Madox Hueffer (editor) accepts five and recommends The White Peacock to a publisher. Writes ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ (–1911) and first play, A Collier’s Friday Night.
1910 Engaged to Louie Burrows; death of his mother. First drafts of The Trespasser and ‘Paul Morel’ (later Sons and Lovers).
1911 The White Peacock published. Second draft of ‘Paul Morel’; writes and revises short stories. ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ published. Third draft of ‘Paul Morel’ (–1912). Falls seriously ill with pneumonia (November–December).
1912 Recuperates in Bournemouth; in February, breaks off engagement, returns to Eastwood and resigns teaching post. Meets Frieda Weekley (née von Richthofen), the wife of a professor at Nottingham University, and in May goes with her to Germany and then to Italy for the winter. The Trespasser published. Revises ‘Paul Morel’ into Sons and Lovers.
1913 Drafts Italian essays and starts to write ‘The Sisters’ (which will become The Rainbow and Women in Love). Love Poems published. April–June in Germany; writes ‘The Prussian Officer’ and other stories. Sons and Lovers published (May). Spends the summer in England with Frieda, then they return to Italy. Works on ‘The Sisters’.
1914 The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (play) published (USA). Finishes ‘The Wedding Ring’ (latest version of ‘The Sisters’) and returns to England with Frieda; her divorce finalised, they marry on 13 July. At the outbreak of war (August), Methuen & Co. withdraw from their agreement to publish ‘The Wedding Ring’. War prevents return to Italy; lives in Buckinghamshire and Sussex. Rewrites ‘The Wedding Ring’ as The Rainbow (–1915).
1915 Writes ‘England, My England’; works on essays for Twilight in Italy. Moves to London in August. The Rainbow is published in September but withdrawn in October, and prosecuted as obscene and banned a month later. Hopes to travel to USA with Frieda but at the end of December they settle in Cornwall (–October 1917).
1916 Rewrites the other half of ‘The Sisters’ material as Women in Love; it is finished by November but refused by several publishers (–1917). Reading American literature. Twilight in Italy and Amores (poems) published.
1917 Begins work on Studies in Classic American Literature (hereafter Studies). Revises Women in Love. Expelled from Cornwall with Frieda in October under Defence of the Realm Act; they return to London. Begins the novel Aaron’s Rod. Look! We Have Come Through! (poems) published.
1918 Lives mostly in Berkshire and Derbyshire (–mid 1919). New Poems published; first versions of eight Studies essays published in periodical form (–1919). War ends (November). Writes The Fox.
1919 Revises Studies essays in intermediate versions. Revises Women in Love for Thomas Seltzer (USA). In November leaves for Italy.
1920 Moves to Sicily (February) and settles at Taormina. Publication of Women in Love in USA, Touch and Go (play), Bay (poems) and The Lost Girl in England.
1921 Visits Sardinia with Frieda and writes Sea and Sardinia. Movements in European History (textbook) and Women in Love published in England; Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious and Sea and Sardinia published in USA. Travels to Italy, Germany and Austria (April–September) and then returns to Taormina. Finishes Aaron’s Rod, writes The Captain’s Doll and The Ladybird, revises The Fox.
1922 February–September: Travels with Frieda to Ceylon, Australia and USA. Aaron’s Rod published; writes Kangaroo in Australia. Arrives in Taos, New Mexico in September; rewrites Studies (final version). Fantasia of the Unconscious and England, My England and Other Stories published. Moves to Del Monte Ranch, near Taos, in December.
1923 The Ladybird (with The Fox and The Captain’s Doll) published. Travels to Mexico with Frieda. Studies published in August (USA). Writes ‘Quetzalcoatl’ (early version of The Plumed Serpent). Kangaroo and Birds, Beasts and Flowers (poems) published. Rewrites The Boy in the Bush from Mollie Skinner’s manuscript. Frieda returns to England in August; Lawrence follows in December.
1924 In France and Germany, then to Kiowa Ranch, near Taos. The Boy in the Bush published; writes ‘The Woman Who Rode Away’, St. Mawr and ‘The Princess’. Death of his father. Goes to Mexico with Frieda.
1925 Finishes The Plumed Serpent in Oaxaca; falls ill, nearly dies and is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Returns to Mexico City and then to Kiowa Ranch. St. Mawr Together with The Princess published. Travels via London to Italy. Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine (essays) published; writes The Virgin and the Gipsy (–January 1926).
1926 The Plumed Serpent and David (play) published. Visits England for the last time; returns to Italy and writes first version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, then second version (–1927).
1927 Tours Etruscan sites with Earl Brewster; writes Sketches of Etruscan Places; writes first part of The Escaped Cock (second part in 1928). Suffers series of bronchial haemorrhages. Mornings in Mexico (essays) published. Starts third version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
1928 The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories published. Finishes, revises and privately publishes third version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in limited edition (late June); distributes it through network of friends but many copies confiscated by authorities in USA and England. Travels to Switzerland for health, and then to Bandol in the south of France. The Collected Poems of D. H. Lawrence published; writes many of the poems for Pansies.
1929 Organises cheap Paris edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover to counter piracies. Typescript of Pansies seized by police in London. Travels to Spain, Italy and Germany; increasingly ill. Police raid exhibition of his paintings in London (July). Expurgated (July) and unexpurgated (August) editions of Pansies published; The Escaped Cock published. Returns to Bandol.
1930 2 March: Dies of tuberculosis at Vence, Alpes Maritimes, France, and is buried there. Nettles (poems), Assorted Articles, The Virgin and the Gipsy and Love Among the Haystacks & Other Pieces published.
1932 Sketches of Etruscan Places published (as Etruscan Places). Last Poems published.
1933–4 Story collections The Lovely Lady (1933) and A Modern Lover (1934) published.
1935 Frieda has Lawrence exhumed and cremated, and his ashes taken to Kiowa Ranch.
1936 Phoenix (compilation) published.
1956 Death of Frieda.
1960 Penguin Books publish the first unexpurgated English edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, following the famous obscenity trial.