The Date of Composition of D. H. Lawrence’s “Insouciance”

The date of composition of D. H. Lawrence’s journalistic article, “Insouciance,” has remained largely under-examined within scholarly discourse on the author and his late engagement with popular journalism (1928–30). The year 1928 was pivotal in Lawrence’s literary career: he completed some of his most renowned works, including the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the first draft of the poetry collection Pansies, and made a successful presence in the journalistic marketplace with an article titled “The ‘Jeune Fille’ Wants to Know” (published under the title “When She Asks ‘Why?’”) in the London Evening News. Intrigued by the prospect of writing a “four-pager now and then” (6Letters: 401) for popular journalism, Lawrence accepted an offer from Arthur E. Olley, the literary editor of the Evening News, to contribute four articles to the newspaper and sought Olley’s suggestions on topics. Despite a willingness to adapt his journalistic persona for a broader readership, Lawrence found himself unable to produce an article on “Men Must be Master Again” under the pressure of a tight deadline imposed by Olley. It was under these circumstances that Lawrence wrote “Insouciance,” a short piece in which he recounts an incident where the narrator finds himself reluctantly embroiled in a conversation about international politics across the balconies with an elderly English lady living in the adjacent hotel room.