Richard Aldington and Lawrence of Arabia
Subtitle: a cautionary tale
By: Fred D. Crawford.
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Carbondale
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
Subjects: Aldington, Richard, 1892-1962.; Lawrence, T. E. 1888-1935.; Aldington, Richard, 1892-1962 -- Censorship.; British -- Middle East -- History -- 20th century.; Publishers and publishing -- Great Britain.; Freedom of the press -- Great Britain.
Description: If you plan to portray a national icon in less than heroic terms, you had better be prepared for a fight, as Richard Aldington learned even before the publication of his 1955 biography, Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry. Fred D. Crawford provides the first examination of all major parties and points of view embroiled in the controversy generated by Aldington's biography of T. E. Lawrence.

In two years of research, Aldington made major discoveries, including the extent to which Lawrence had cooperated with Lowell Thomas, Robert Graves, and B. H. Liddell Hart in the creation of the "Lawrence legend." For this and other reasons, Aldington concluded that Lawrence was a charlatan, a poseur, and a fraud.

Upon learning of Aldington's antagonism to Lawrence a year before Aldington's book appeared, a powerful group including B. H. Liddell Hart, Robert Graves, A. W. Lawrence, and other Lawrence partisans worked behind the scenes to suppress and denigrate Aldington's biography. These attempts, Crawford notes, reveal a great deal about how private interests can determine what the public is allowed to read.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-255) and index.