John Worthen taught at universities in North America and Wales before becoming Professor of D H Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham, where he remains Emeritus Professor. His career as Lawrence's biographer began in the 1980s and culminated in the celebrated D.H Lawrence: The Early Years, the first part of the definitive three-volume Cambridge biography (Cambridge University Press, 1991–8). Material from this project later formed the foundation of Worthen's single volume study, D H Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider (2005).
Though based in Lawrence's hometown of Nottingham, he has researched and travelled around the world to complete this portrait of the writer. He is now working on a life of Freida Lawrence and a biography of the musician Robert Schumann.
In addition to this biographical work, Professor Worthen has edited individual volumes in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D H Lawrence series.