Edward Garnett

Edward William Garnett (5 January 1868 – 19 February 1937) was an English writer, critic and literary editor, who was instrumental in the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.

Early life and family

Edward Garnett was born in London. His father, Richard Garnett (1835–1906), was a writer and librarian at the British Museum. On 31 August 1889 Edward married Constance Black, subsequently known for her translations of Russian literature; the writer David Garnett (1892–1981) was their son.

Career

Garnett had only a few years' formal education at the City of London School, leaving at the age of 16, but he educated himself further by reading widely. He gained a high reputation at the time for a mixture of good sense and sensitivity in relation to contemporary literature. His influence through his encouragement of leading authors exceeded by far that of his own writing. His literary contacts and correspondents spread far and wide, from Peter Kropotkin to Edward Thomas.

He worked as an editor and reader for the London publishing houses of T. Fisher Unwin, Gerald Duckworth and Company, and then Jonathan Cape. He brought together in 1898 Joseph Conrad, an Unwin author to whom he acted as a mentor as well as a friend, and Ford Madox Ford; they collaborated in the first few years of the twentieth century. Garnett befriended D. H. Lawrence, and for a time influenced him in the direction of realist fiction. In preparing Sons and Lovers for publication by Duckworth, Garnett went through the manuscript, censoring some passages and cutting others until the novel was ten per cent shorter; he did not negotiate these changes with Lawrence, but sent the manuscript direct to the printers. The changes including replacing 'hips' with 'body' and 'thighs' with 'limbs.' He removed the word 'natural' from 'He could smell her faint natural perfume.' Lawrence accepted the changes, saying "It's got to sell, I've got to live."