June 19 tour guides to offer insights on New Mexico ranch of famed author D.H. Lawrence

June 19 tour of author D.H. Lawrence’s NM ranch

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Fans of the English author D.H. Lawrence will be able to tour his New Mexico ranch on June 19.

The ranch is located in the mountains north of Taos along an ancient Kiowa Indian trail. The tour is being offered by experts from the Friends of D.H. Lawrence, a local nonprofit group.

Lawrence took over the 160-acre spread from socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan during the early 1920s. Luhan tried to give the ranch to Lawrence’s wife, Frieda, but Lawrence insisted that they pay for the property. That payment came in the form of Lawrence’s manuscript for “Sons and Lovers.”

The Lawrences spent 18 months at the ranch over three years. His wife wrote in her memoirs that of all the places the couple had lived, Lawrence loved the ranch most. Famous visitors during their time there included artist Georgia O’Keeffe and playwright Tennessee Williams.

Poems in Lawrence’s “Birds, Beasts and Flowers” are set at the ranch, and passages in his short novel “St. Mawr” vividly describe the property.

Several miles down a dirt road off the highway, the ranch — owned by the University of New Mexico — features Lawrence’s memorial, two cabins and a home that was built by Frieda Lawrence following her husband’s death.

Lawrence is probably best-known for his novel “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” which was at one time banned as indecent for its sexual content.

Taos resident and author Steve Fox described the ranch as “sacred ground” for literature scholars.

“Lawrence and Frieda were part of that Mabel Dodge Luhan salon group that included almost everybody in the modernist movement in the U.S., everybody from Ansel Adams to Paul Strand to Georgia O’Keeffe,” Fox said. “Lawrence and the ranch are not kind of a funny little vacuum. They are part of this whole network of American modernists that made Taos probably the most densely artistic and literate of the little towns in the West.”

If You Go…

D.H. LAWRENCE RANCH PRESENTATION AND GUIDED TOUR: June 19, friendsofdhlawrence.org/. Free. Event begins 10:15 a.m. at the Taos Public Library, 402 Camino de la Placitas in Taos, followed by an 11:30 a.m. departure to the ranch and guided tour there, noon-1:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. return to the library.