Nancy Pearn, D.H. Lawrence’s “queen of the magazines and newspapers” in his Home Country

Abstract

In April 1921, Albert Curtis Brown, who was to develop a substantial international literary agency, took over as Lawrence’s literary agent in England. His best-known employee was Laurence Pollinger, who by April 1927 had taken over much of the “book side” of Lawrence’s work. However, although royalties from Lawrence’s novels were overall the greater part of his increasing income, particularly after Thomas Seltzer and his wife Adele expanded his sales in the USA, income from periodicals was also important for a writer such as Lawrence who wrote so much short fiction. The payments received were significant relative to the length of what was published, so income was easier to come by. With assistance from Curtis Brown’s Magazine Department manager, Nancy Pearn, who worked with Lawrence from 1924 on developing in his home country of England, his income from periodicals became substantial too.This essay will examine the history of Lawrence’s developing income from periodicals in England (not just from the shorter fiction published in it, but also from his shorter non-fiction, in particular the results of his later interest in journalism, sometimes specifically tailored to readers in his homeland), the extent of Nancy Pearn’s role in that, and her relationship with Lawrence. Not infrequently, Lawrence had difficulties with his publishers and literary agents, but his relationship with her was an unusually good one, one of mutual respect, which as this first detailed study will show is reflected in their correspondence. For example, he recommended her to Catherine Carswell, describing her as a “quite golden” “magazine girl” (5L 459). Almost uniquely for someone in her position, he also inscribed a copy of one of his books to her, the Secker first English edition of Sea and Sardinia (1921).