D.H. Lawrence Taos & Kiowa Ranch: A Collector's Authority Guide
By Josh Eldred · New Mexico Literacy Project · · ~5,200 words
On September 11, 1922, David Herbert Lawrence and his wife Frieda arrived by AT&SF Railway at Lamy NM at the invitation of Mabel Dodge (not yet Luhan — she would marry Tony Lujan of Taos Pueblo seven months later). They stayed at her Los Gallos residence on Morada Lane in Taos for several weeks, then moved north to the Lobo Mountain property at 8,600 feet elevation (which Mabel would gift to Frieda in March 1924 in exchange for the Sons and Lovers manuscript). Over the next three years across three substantial residencies — September 1922 to March 1923, March to October 1924, and April to September 1925 — Lawrence produced some of the major late work of his career: Mornings in Mexico (Knopf and Secker 1927), The Plumed Serpent (Knopf and Secker 1926, principally drafted at Kiowa Ranch and finished in Italy), St. Mawr (Knopf and Secker 1925, the foundational NM-residency novella with substantial Lobo Ranch landscape content), and The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories (Knopf and Secker 1928). After Lawrence's 1930 death from tuberculosis in Vence France, Frieda returned to NM in 1935 with his ashes, built the Lawrence Memorial Shrine on Kiowa Ranch, and lived on the property until her own 1956 death. The Lawrence Ranch property was willed to the University of New Mexico in 1955 and remains the only literary shrine in NM containing the ashes of a major Anglo-American twentieth-century author. This is the collector's guide to that period and the broader Lawrence canon.
Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred
The Three NM Residencies, 1922-1925
D.H. Lawrence (David Herbert Lawrence, September 11, 1885 — March 2, 1930, closed pool, born Eastwood Nottinghamshire England) made three substantial residencies in Taos NM between September 1922 and September 1925.
FIRST RESIDENCY (September 1922-March 1923): Lawrence and Frieda arrived in Taos September 11 1922 at the invitation of Mabel Dodge, following her sustained correspondence with Lawrence. They stayed initially at Mabel's Los Gallos residence in Taos, then wintered as guests at the Del Monte Ranch (approximately 7,500 feet elevation north of San Cristobal NM) where they remained through March 1923. The substantial ranch-for-manuscript exchange happened a year later: in March 1924 Mabel transferred the higher Lobo / Kiowa Ranch property (at 8,600 feet on Lobo Mountain) to Frieda, and Frieda shortly after gave Mabel the original manuscript of Sons and Lovers in exchange (the Sons and Lovers manuscript is now held at UC Berkeley Bancroft Library).
SECOND RESIDENCY (March-October 1924): Lawrence returned with Frieda and the Honorable Dorothy Brett (1883-1977, English painter and Lawrence circle member who remained in Taos until her 1977 death). The Lawrences moved into the Lobo Ranch upper-mountain cabin (which would later become the principal Lawrence Cabin at the D.H. Lawrence Ranch), wrote substantial parts of St. Mawr, the Mornings in Mexico essays, and the principal sections of The Plumed Serpent during this residency.
THIRD RESIDENCY (April-September 1925): Final residency, principally focused on completing The Plumed Serpent revisions and writing the substantial Lobo Ranch essays. Lawrence's worsening tuberculosis forced the departure for Italy in September 1925; he died in Vence France March 2, 1930 from the same tuberculosis.
After Lawrence's death, Frieda returned to Kiowa Ranch in 1935 with Lawrence's cremated ashes (now interred in a small concrete shrine on the property that remains a literary pilgrimage destination), then married Angelo Ravagli, and lived at Kiowa Ranch until her own 1956 death. Frieda is buried adjacent to the Lawrence Memorial Shrine.
The Major NM-Period Works
Mornings in Mexico (Martin Secker, London, 1927 first English; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1927 first American; published simultaneously) is the principal Lawrence NM-period publication — a substantial collection of essays principally written at Kiowa Ranch during 1924-1925 with content drawn from Lawrence's 1923 Mexico travels and his sustained NM-and-Pueblo cultural engagement. Major essays in the volume: 'Corasmin and the Parrots,' 'Walk to Huayapa,' 'The Mozo,' 'Market Day,' 'Indians and Entertainment' (NM Pueblo dance observations), 'Dance of the Sprouting Corn' (substantial San Juan Pueblo corn dance essay, substantially controversial in contemporary readings for Lawrence's Anglo-tourist appropriation but valuable alongside the broader Native American literary tradition), 'The Hopi Snake Dance' (the substantial Hopi Reservation snake dance observation that anchored Lawrence's late mystical-and-religious writing), 'A Little Moonshine with Lemon' (the substantial Lobo Ranch landscape essay). The 1927 Secker and Knopf first editions with original dust jackets are the principal Tier 1 Lawrence NM-period collector targets.
St. Mawr Together with The Princess (Secker 1925 first English; Knopf 1925 first American) is the foundational NM-residency novella featuring substantial Lobo Ranch landscape content. The substantial title novella St. Mawr concerns a stallion horse and the substantial Anglo-American transcultural-encounter narrative that begins in England and moves to the New Mexico landscape, with substantial fictionalization of aspects of the Mabel-Luhan-circle Taos environment. The companion novella The Princess continues the New Mexico setting. The 1925 Secker and Knopf first hardcovers with original dust jackets are Tier 1 NM-period Lawrence collector targets.
The Plumed Serpent (Martin Secker London 1926 first English; Alfred A. Knopf New York 1926 first American) is Lawrence's principal Mexico novel, drafted principally at Kiowa Ranch during his 1924-1925 NM residencies. Originally drafted as Quetzalcoatl (the Aztec serpent-god name that gives the novel its title), the novel is Lawrence's most ambitious religious-and-political novel of the late period. The 1926 Secker British first hardcover with original dust jacket is the Tier 1 collector target; the 1926 Knopf American first hardcover with dust jacket is the parallel American Tier 1 target. The novel remains contested in contemporary readings for Lawrence's substantial Anglo-tourist appropriation of Indigenous religious traditions and the substantial fascist-adjacent political-theology that emerged from Lawrence's late-period mysticism.
The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories (Secker 1928 first English; Knopf 1928 first American) is the substantial NM-and-Mexico story collection — title novella The Woman Who Rode Away features an Anglo-American woman protagonist who rides into the mountains and encounters an Indigenous-mystical community based on Lawrence's Hopi-and-Pueblo observations, the substantial Sun Men of Hueycac story, and companion stories. The 1928 Secker and Knopf first hardcovers with original dust jackets are Tier 2 NM-period Lawrence collector targets.
Companion NM-essay collections: Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays (Centaur Press Philadelphia 1925 first hardcover, the substantial Knopf-distributed NM-essay collection); the substantial essay-and-fragment corpus collected posthumously in Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D.H. Lawrence (Heinemann 1936 edited by Edward D. McDonald) and Phoenix II: Uncollected, Unpublished, and Other Prose Works (Heinemann 1968 edited by Warren Roberts and Harry T. Moore).
The D.H. Lawrence Ranch (UNM-Owned)
The Lawrence Ranch property includes the Lawrence Cabin (the principal residence cabin), the Lawrence Memorial Shrine (a small concrete chapel-like structure with Lawrence's ashes incorporated into the altar, designed by Frieda's then-partner Angelo Ravagli and built 1935), and substantial grounds. Frieda willed the property to the University of New Mexico in 1955; UNM has owned and managed the property as the D.H. Lawrence Ranch literary preservation site since 1955. Public access is limited and typically requires advance reservation through UNM. The Lawrence Memorial Shrine is the only literary shrine in NM containing the ashes of a major Anglo-American twentieth-century author and is a substantial literary pilgrimage destination.
Companion Lawrence-NM publications: Frieda Lawrence Not I, But the Wind (Viking 1934 first hardcover, the foundational Frieda memoir of her life with Lawrence); E.W. Tedlock Jr. ed. Frieda Lawrence: The Memoirs and Correspondence (Knopf 1964); Edward Nehls D.H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography (Wisconsin 1957-1959 three volumes the foundational Lawrence biographical compilation); D.H. Lawrence in New Mexico (UNM Press 1955 first hardcover, the foundational UNM Press Lawrence-NM-period compilation marking Frieda's 1955 ranch donation); Dorothy Brett Lawrence and Brett: A Friendship (Lippincott 1933 the foundational Brett memoir).
The Mabel Dodge Luhan Circle
Mabel Dodge Luhan (February 26, 1879 — August 13, 1962, closed pool) was the wealthy New York-and-Greenwich-Village salon host who moved to Taos NM in 1917, married Tony Lujan of Taos Pueblo in 1923, and operated a Taos residence at 240 Morada Lane — Los Gallos — that became the most consequential American literary and art salon of the early-to-mid twentieth century. Lawrence's 1922 Taos arrival was the principal Mabel-Luhan-circle event.
Subsequent Mabel-Luhan-circle guests included Aldous Huxley (1937 substantial visit), Willa Cather (Mabel hosted Cather during Cather's NM research trips for Death Comes for the Archbishop documented at /willa-cather-death-comes-archbishop-collecting), Georgia O'Keeffe (first visit 1929 then sustained residency), Carl Jung (1925 visit), Robinson Jeffers, Ansel Adams, Marsden Hartley, Andrew Dasburg, Mary Austin, and dozens of other artists, writers, and intellectuals.
Luhan's four-volume autobiography Intimate Memories (Harcourt Brace 1933-1937: Background 1933, European Experiences 1935, Movers and Shakers 1936, Edge of Taos Desert 1937) is the canonical primary source for the Taos arts community of the 1920s-1940s, documented in detail at /taos-society-of-artists-books-collecting. The Lawrence-Luhan relationship was substantially fraught — Lawrence's NM novella St. Mawr fictionalizes aspects of the Mabel-Luhan circle. The principal Luhan biography is Lois Palken Rudnick Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds (UNM Press 1984 first hardcover). The Los Gallos residence at 240 Morada Lane Taos operates today as the Mabel Dodge Luhan House guesthouse and conference center.
The Broader Lawrence Canon
The substantial Lawrence canon beyond the NM-period works includes the canonical novels: Sons and Lovers (Duckworth 1913 first British hardcover, the autobiographical Eastwood-coal-country novel); The Rainbow (Methuen 1915 first British hardcover, banned in Britain shortly after publication for obscenity); Women in Love (Privately printed for subscribers 1920 first American limited edition; Secker 1921 first British trade edition); The Lost Girl (Secker 1920); Aaron's Rod (Secker 1922); Kangaroo (Secker 1923 the Australian-residency novel); Lady Chatterley's Lover (Privately printed Florence 1928 first Tipografia Giuntina edition the foundational unexpurgated text, suppressed in Britain and the US until the 1960 Penguin trial — the 1928 Florence first edition with substantial provenance documentation is the Tier 1 Lawrence collector trophy and trades five-figure at specialist literary-first-edition auction).
The principal Lawrence travel-and-essay corpus: Sea and Sardinia (Thomas Seltzer 1921 American first), Mornings in Mexico (1927), Etruscan Places (Secker 1932 posthumous), Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D.H. Lawrence (Heinemann 1936 edited by Edward D. McDonald) and Phoenix II (Heinemann 1968). Poetry: Birds, Beasts and Flowers (Secker 1923 with substantial NM-and-Mexico content — a collection that belongs alongside the broader New Mexico poetry tradition), Pansies (Secker 1929), Last Poems (Florence 1932 posthumous).
The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D.H. Lawrence (Cambridge University Press 1979-present, ongoing scholarly edition) provides the contemporary scholarly text for all canonical Lawrence.
Three-Tier Collector Market
Tier 1 trophy (low-four-figure to five-figure or higher): Lady Chatterley's Lover Privately printed Florence Tipografia Giuntina 1928 first edition signed by Lawrence (the principal Lawrence trophy across the entire canon, fine signed Florence 1928 firsts trade five-figure at specialist literary-first-edition auction given 1930 closed pool); signed D.H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico Secker 1927 first British hardcover with original dust jacket; signed Lawrence St. Mawr Secker 1925 first British hardcover with dust jacket; signed Lawrence The Plumed Serpent Secker 1926 first British hardcover; signed Lawrence The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories Secker 1928 first British hardcover; Women in Love Privately printed for subscribers 1920 first American limited edition; Sons and Lovers Duckworth 1913 first British hardcover; The Rainbow Methuen 1915 first British hardcover (banned-in-Britain status adds collector premium); parallel signed American Knopf firsts of NM-period works (Mornings in Mexico Knopf 1927, St. Mawr Knopf 1925, The Plumed Serpent Knopf 1926, Woman Who Rode Away Knopf 1928).
Tier 2 collector targets (mid-three-figure to low-four-figure): Unsigned Tier 1 firsts in fine condition with original dust jackets; signed Frieda Lawrence Not I, But the Wind Viking 1934 first hardcover (the foundational Frieda memoir); E.W. Tedlock Jr. ed. Frieda Lawrence: The Memoirs and Correspondence Knopf 1964; Edward Nehls D.H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography Wisconsin 1957-1959 three volumes; Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine Centaur Press 1925 first; D.H. Lawrence in New Mexico UNM Press 1955 first hardcover; Lois Palken Rudnick Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds UNM Press 1984; Phoenix Heinemann 1936 first; Phoenix II 1968 first; The Letters of D.H. Lawrence Heinemann 1932 edited by Aldous Huxley first; Cambridge Edition of the Works of D.H. Lawrence individual volumes.
Tier 3 working library (upper-two-figure to low-three-figure): Subsequent Secker / Knopf / Heinemann / Penguin trade-paperback editions; Penguin trade-paperback Lady Chatterley's Lover post-1960 trial editions; Penguin Modern Classics editions of all canonical Lawrence; Vintage Contemporaries trade paperback editions; Cambridge Edition trade-paperback re-issues; academic monographs on Lawrence and Lawrence in NM; D.H. Lawrence Review journal back issues; D.H. Lawrence Ranch UNM publications and visitor guides.
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NMLP Intake Position
D.H. Lawrence books arrive in NMLP donation pickups regularly given the substantial Taos and Santa Fe Anglo Lawrence-reader demographic. Donor surface concentration: UNM English Department faculty estates (substantial Lawrence scholarly publication and signed Lawrence first editions); Taos and Santa Fe Anglo professional retirees with substantial Lawrence-and-Taos-circle library accumulation; Taos resident estates (the Lawrence-Luhan-Brett Anglo-Taos-circle legacy reader demographic); D.H. Lawrence Ranch (UNM-owned) docent-and-volunteer estates; Mabel Dodge Luhan House docent-and-volunteer estates; UNM Anglo Modern British Literature faculty and Sandia/Kirtland Anglo professional retirees with substantial twentieth-century-British-literature collecting interests.
NMLP routes Tier 1 trophy items to specialist literary-first-edition dealers (Heritage Auctions Books and Manuscripts, William Reese Company New Haven CT, Swann Galleries Modern Literature sales, specialist British Modernist dealers including the UK-based Bloomsbury-and-Lawrence collector network). Tier 2 trade firsts route through SellBooksABQ standard hand-sort. Tier 3 trade-paperback Lawrence editions route extensively to APS Title I schools, UNM English Department classroom-set acquisitions, regional research-library partnership network, Bernalillo County Adult and Family Literacy Programs, and D.H. Lawrence Ranch / Mabel Dodge Luhan House institutional donations. If you're handling an estate in the Taos area with Lawrence or Mabel Dodge Luhan material, my Taos estate cleanout service covers the full Taos County corridor. Your donation supports literacy programs statewide. Free statewide pickup — schedule your pickup or text/call 702-496-4214.
External References
- Wikipedia: D.H. Lawrence
- Wikipedia: Frieda Lawrence
- Wikipedia: D.H. Lawrence Ranch
- Wikipedia: Mabel Dodge Luhan
- Wikipedia: Dorothy Brett
- D.H. Lawrence Ranch — UNM-managed property
Related on This Site
- Closed Signature Pools — Albuquerque/NM Authors — D.H. Lawrence (closed 1930), Frieda Lawrence (closed 1956), Mabel Dodge Luhan (closed 1962), Dorothy Brett (closed 1977)
- Taos Society of Artists Books — Mabel Dodge Luhan circle and Intimate Memories four-volume autobiography context
- Willa Cather & Death Comes for the Archbishop — parallel Mabel-Luhan-circle host context
- Pueblo Revival Architecture Books — the substantial Anglo-Pueblo Revival cultural-and-architectural context
- Photographing New Mexico — the Anglo-Modernist Taos circle photographic record
- Book Authentication Methodology — 1928 Florence Lady Chatterley's Lover authentication standards
- NM Ranching & Cowboy Literature — the pastoral ranch-life New Mexico that Lawrence encountered; Agnes Morley Cleaveland's No Life for a Lady documents the same 1920s ranching landscape Lawrence rode through at Kiowa Ranch
- NM Archaeology Books — the Pueblo archaeological context Lawrence absorbed at Taos; Bandelier and Hewett were documenting the same Indigenous culture Lawrence fictionalized
Cite This Guide
Eldred, J. (May 2026). D.H. Lawrence Taos & Kiowa Ranch: A Collector's Authority Guide. New Mexico Literacy Project.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/dh-lawrence-taos-kiowa-ranch-collecting
Content is original research by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite with attribution.