The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical EditionVol. 4: English Lion, 1930-1933

D. H. Lawrence. To the Editor of The Nation and Athenaeum

The Nation and Athenaeum, 45 (5 Apr 1930) 11

Sir, – Mr. E. M. Forster, in a letter in your issue of March 29th, says “straight out” that the late D. H. Lawrence was “the greatest imaginative novelist of our time.” ¹

I am the last person to wish to disparage the genius of Lawrence, or to disapprove when a writer of the eminence of Mr. Forster speaks “straight out.” But the virtue of speaking straight out is somewhat diminished if what one speaks is not sense. And unless we know exactly what Mr. Forster means by greatest, imaginative, and novelist, I submit that this judgment is meaningless. For there are at least three “novelists” of “our generation” – two of whom are living – for whom a similar claim might he made. ²

Yours, etc.,

t. s. eliot