Having brought Studies in Classic American Literature to a point of completion in the autumn of 1919, Lawrence was anxious to leave England. So was Frieda. She would leave first, departing for Germany less than a week after he sent his manuscript to Benjamin Huebsch. Lawrence remained in England through October tying up loose ends before leaving for Italy. Never beholden to possessions, he divested himself of worldly goods to lighten his load and generate some quick cash for the trip. He sold some books and gave away others. Not even longtime favorites were sacrosanct. Books that had been with him since Higher Tregerthen now went by the wayside.

Lawrence gave Donald and Catherine Carswell a tattered set of Thomas De Quincey's works. A passion for De Quincey marks another point of contact between Melville and Lawrence. Melville first read Confessions of an Opium Eater when he was in London. He recorded his impressions of the book in his travel journal, calling it “wonderful … marvellous.” Before giving up his edition of De Quincey, Lawrence dipped into it one final time to reread an essay titled “Goethe as Reflected in His Novel of Wilhelm Meister.”

The reason why Lawrence liked De Quincey parallels the reason why he liked Melville: he saw both authors as kindred spirits. As he told Catherine Carswell, “I like him, De Quincey, because he also dislikes such people as Plato and Goethe, whom I dislike.” Recalling something Lawrence told him about Goethe, Aldous Huxley provided corroboration: “How bitterly he loathed the Wilhelm Meisterish view of love as an education, as a means to culture, a Sandow-exerciser for the soul!”

Precisely which books Lawrence brought with him to Italy remain unknown. He would continue to revise Studies in Classic American Literature over the next few years, but since he had finished the latest version of the book before leaving England, he might not have kept his entire collection of “Americans.” The extensive revisions he would make to his Melville chapters suggest that he may have kept Moby-Dick close at hand. Over the next few years he would read other books pertinent to Melville. Pieced together from Lawrence's letters and his friends’ reminiscences, the story of his reading life in Italy reflects Melville's enduring impact on his thought.