It pleased Alvarez to say that he made his first marriage, aged 16, to John Donne, on first reading Witchcraft by a Picture. His first proper union was with Frieda Lawrence's granddaughter, Ursula Barr, in 1956. It forged an apostolic line with an author with whom he was, at the time, besotted. DH Lawrence, he later felt, was a bad influence and the marriage "a very bad marriage." The couple divorced five years later. In 1966 he married, lastingly, Anne Adams.
Kumjabulisile u-Alvarex ukusho ukuthi lapho eneminyaka engu-16 washada no-John Donne, ekufundeni kokuqala i-Witchcraft by a Picture. Ukuhlangana kwakhe kokuqala kwangempela kwakunomzukulu ka-Frieda Lawrence, u-Ursula Barr, ngo-1956. Kwabangela ukuxhumana nombhali ayemthanda kakhulu ngaleso sikhathi. Kamuva waba nomuzwa wokuthi u-DH Lawrence wayeyithonya elibi nokuthi "kwakuwumshado omubi kakhulu." Badivosa ngemva kweminyaka emihlanu. Ngo-1966, washada no-Anne Adams futhi abazange bahlukane. 