The Man Who Died
Lawrence, D. H. The Man Who Died. New Directions, 1950 (2nd Printing). Hardbound. Quintessential literary modernist Lawrence meets quintessential mid-century modernist Alvin Lustig in this ND New Classics edition of the controversial novelist's retelling of the passion of Christ. Originally called The Escaped Cock, London publisher Martin Secker most likely rejected this title because of the double entendre, although Lawrence biographer Brenda Maddox insists the author 'refused to acknowledge that "cock" connoted anything but a rooster, just as he denied the blasphemous pun contained in the story's climactic line, uttered as the man observes the miracle between his legs: "I am risen!"' Lustig's jacket communicates the protagonist's conflicted existence between the material and metaphysical by depicting three abstracted figures in the process of resurrection, suggesting both the body/soul/spirit paradigm and the number of days Christ spent entombed. Over these meticulously drafted forms hovers a hasty cluster of scribbles—a cloud of divine inspiration or pubic hair?
