Book excerpt: This collection of original, concise essays by leading international scholars draws closely on the Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence to provide up-to-date insights into the key contexts to the author's life, career and legacy. It opens with an overview of Lawrence's life as it is explored in biographies and revealed in his letters and writing, before reassessing his relationship to the contemporary literary marketplace, and his response to - and intervention in - a range of literary/cultural and social/historical contexts. It ends with sections on Lawrence's changing critical reception and his powerful legacy in the work of later authors and filmmakers. The essays present a detailed and nuanced picture of Lawrence as an enterprising professional author with a truly cosmopolitan outlook who engaged deeply and strongly with his contemporary culture, and with currents of thought across a range of disciplines.