Two notebooks filled with unpublished early drafts of poetry by D. H. Lawrence, along with previously unseen postcards that he sent to his favourite nephew, are part of a collection that has been brought into the public domain.

Two large boxes filled with manuscripts of short stories and essays, letters and legal documents - as well as two of his own paintings - will keep scholars busy for decades after they were deposited at Nottingham University by the granddaughter of his younger sister, Ada Clarke. The collection would fetch several million pounds on the open market, but she wanted it to go to the university.

David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) studied at the university between 1906 and 1908. He used it as the inspiration for Ursula’s college career in The Rainbow, and it has a major international research collection relating to him.

One of the notebooks dates from his period as a student, and he continued to use it until 1911. It contains a plot summary for a section from “Paul Morel”, corresponding to Chapter 10 in Sons and Lovers.The second dates from 1916 to 1918. Both notebooks are full of feverish crossings-out and amendments, which give an extraordinary insight into Lawrence’s creative process.

One of the poems is called To Lettice my Sister Lettice was her first name. It was published in a later version as Brother and Sister, with a number of changes, some of which appear to make the words less immediately personal.

Dorothy Johnston, keeper of the university’s manuscripts and special collections, said: “One of the critical things about Lawrence is that he reworked everything. He also used everybody he ever knew in his writing.

“The Clarke papers are perhaps the last great collection of the writer’s works to include both substantial Lawrence family archive material and significant original texts.”

Ada was close to her brother, who maintained a correspondence with her during his travels abroad and sent her copies of his works. She had two sons, including John Lawrence (Jack), to whom Lawrence sent many postcards.

Sean Matthews, director of the D. H. Lawrence Research Centre, said: “They’re like e-mails. Wherever he is he sends a postcard, a little record of what he’s observed.”

Some of the material is currently on display at the D. H. Lawrence Festival in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.

Brother and Sister

“My heart, disturbed in its dreams, slow-stepping, alarms Me lest you, my sister, should go heaped with such shadow of woe”

“But my heart stands still, as a new, strong dread alarms Me; might a young girl be heaped with such shadow of woe?”

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