About LaChapelle's D. H. Lawrence

“Only the deep ecologist author of Sacred Land Sacred Sex could guide us so triumphantly into the richly potent, unfamiliar side of Lawrence. Previously absorbed in his literary persona, he rises here from a flatitudinous identity as a ‘nature lover’ to that of a new authentic ecological prophet.” —Paul Shepard

The importance of the work of D. H. Lawrence in the field of ecology and environmental awareness has been largely overlooked. LaChapelle argues that Lawrence deserves to be ranked alongside Thoreau and Muir.

Beginning with the effect of Lawrence’s childhood near Sherwood Forest, LaChapelle explores the intense relationship Lawrence had with all of nature so that his senses were as fully developed as those of a primitive hunter.

Lawrence believed in reestablishing an intimate relationship between humans and the rest of life, stating “the human race is… like a great uprooted tree, with its roots in the air. We must plant ourselves again in the universe.”

“LaChapelle’s book is a priceless gift. Through her erudite reading of his essays and novels, she walks us through the land Lawrence trod during his lifetime, but she doesn’t stop there… As she takes us to the end of his life, at about the time when she was born, we are saddened by her description of his untimely death yet convinced that the two, Lawrence and LaChapelle,… are spiritually connected in their unique understanding of the interplay of human and nonhuman elements of life on this planet.” —Florence R. Krall