Victoria U. Library Exhibition - T.E. Lawrence And The Book Thomas Edward Lawrence, popularly known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', was more than the dashing soldier of fortune depicted in David Lean's film. Lawrence was an authority on the history of the crusades, military history and archaelogy, and an expert in guerilla warfare who was well- versed in intelligence operations. His character provoked varying responses, and he seemed to be at once regarded as self-aggrandizing and self-effacing; a man who "backed into the limelight", but wrote poetry and essays, often requesting that his name not appear on his published work. He translated from Greek and French; and for a time he reviewed books regularly for a weekly journal. As his efforts towards the production of Seven Pillars of Wisdom suggests, Lawrence had a love for books and for printing and had hoped to have his own press after he retired from the military. He died before fulfilling this ambition. For more information on Lawrence, try the Lawrence of Arabia Factfile .

Seven Pillars of Wisdom The title, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, comes from the Book of Proverbs 9:1 where Wisdom is personified as a good woman enlightening mankind (the whole of Proverbs is a 'wisdom-book'): 'Wisdom hath builded a house: she hath hewn out her seven pillars. Give instruction to the wise man, and he will yet be wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.' However, it has been questioned whether the title had any relation to the subject matter of Lawrence's book. In 1913, Lawrence wrote a book entitled Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 'a moral symphony' which recounted adventures in seven cities of the East. He later burned his early effort, but in its memory, he named the later work. Three drafts were written and one earlier edition of the Seven Pillars was published prior to the 1926 edition. The earliest manuscript, written in 1919, was lost by Lawrence at Reading Train Station. A later draft, written from memory, was re-worked into a third draft.

Lawrence sold the first three chapters to Robert Graves and they were published between July and October 1921 in The World's Work, an American journal. The three chapters of Seven Pillars of Wisdom published in The World's Work are all that remain of the second version. Lawrence was dissatisfied with it and eventually burnt it with a blow lamp in 1922. Though Lawrence felt that the story in the third manuscript was "diffuse and unsatisfactory", eight copies were printed in 1922 by the Oxford Times staff. The volumes were large and the text was printed in double column lino-type. This is considered the first English edition of Seven Pillars, and it was not available for sale to the public. Of the original eight, six copies remain extant. The first readers of this edition included Bernard Shaw, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and Siegfried Sassoon. In December 1923, Lawrence, David Hogarth , Guy Dawnay, and Lionel Curtis conceived of the idea to produce 100 copies of Seven Pillars at thirty guineas a copy if sufficient subscribers could be found. An edition of 230 copies resulted.

Subscribers were requested to write to Lawrence for details and conditions. Published in December 1926, the book weighed five pounds. Copies of the book were privately printed by Manning Pike, an American studying at the London School of Printing, and C.H. Hodgson and bound by some of London's foremost bookbinders: Sangorski and Sutcliffe, Macleish, Wood, Harrison and Best. The copy in Victoria University Library is bound by Best. Other copies of the 1926 Subscribers' Edition are held by the New York Public Library. No author's name, printer's name, or place of publication, appears on the title page. In addition, each book had a different binding in order that there be no first edition, in the collector's sense. The Binding Victoria University Library's 1926 edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom is bound by Best. Text and decorations printed by Manning Pike with the assistance of H.J. Hodgson at 25 Charles Street London, W11. Plates by Charles Whittingham and Griggs.

The appearance of the printed page was so important to Lawrence that he altered the text in order that words not be divided at the ends of lines and all paragraphs finished in the second half of the line. Illuminated Initial Letters A major feature of the layout of the book is the use of illuminated initial letters, or 'bloomers', for the first letter of the first word of a new chapter or other pages commencing with a new paragraph, in the top left hand corner of the text. These decorative initials were executed in the 'vorticist' style by Edward Wadsworth and Blair Hughes-Stanton. Lawrence altered the text in order that no initial letter appear twice and going to the extent of inventing an Arab name beginning with the letter X (Xury, the Druse Emir of Salkhad, on p. 430 at the start of Chapter LXXXII) for the single appearance of that letter. From Not a Suitable Hobby for an Airman, by V.M. Thompson.

Oxford: Orchard Books, 1986 The Art of the Book The 1926 privately printed Subscribers' Edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an important visual document, for it preserves a partial cross section of English art of the 1920s. It contains a total of 125 illustrations, and the majority of them, apart from tail-pieces reproduced in the text, were in colour. The art ranges from landscapes, to portraits of the Arab and English principals of the Palestine-Arabia campaigns, to comic line drawings and 'vorticist' art. Works were commissioned from an impressive list of British and American artists. The art of Eric Kennington, Frank Dobson, Colin Gill, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, William Nicholson, William Roberts, William Rothenstein, Gilbert Spencer, Paul Nash, Blair Hughes-Stanton and John Singer Sargent are represented. A listing of these illustrations, providing the name of the artist and page references, is corrected and signed by Lawrence, with the initials T.E.S. Lawrence had legally changed his name to T.E. Shaw in 1927. Kennington did most of the portraits of the Arab principals.

However, Lawrence remarked that "English people all look alike, in dress anyway: so to make an extra variety I'm out to have the dozen drawn by different artists." General Sir Edmund Allenby (1861-1936) Commander-in-Chief in Egypt and Palestine, 1917-18. Later, Field Marshal and Viscount; High Commissioner in Egypt, 1919-25. Pastel Portrait by Eric Kennington George Lloyd (1879-1941) Arab Bureau. Later: Lord Lloyd. Governor of Bombay, High Commissioner in Egypt, Secretary of State for Colonies under Churchill. Oil Portrait by William Roberts Emir Feisal (1855-1933) On Allenby's staff. Assisted with the 1926 edition of Seven Pillars. Pencil Drawing by Henry Lamb Ronald Storrs (1881-1955) Oriental Secretary in Cairo. Lawrence called him "the most brilliant Englishman in the Near East." Later, Governor of Jerusalem, of Cyprus and of Northern Rhodesia.

Charcoal Portrait by John Singer Sargent Night Bombing It was the age of machinery, and 'vorticism', an artistic style which glorified the machine, is apparent in the work of William Roberts. Roberts' work became Lawrence's favourite of all the Seven Pillars art. Line drawing by William Roberts Camel March Pen and Wash Illustration by William Roberts After reading the Oxford edition of Seven Pillars, Eric Kennington was "moved to incongruous mirth" and produced a number of comic sketches which Lawrence felt lightened the load of the work. "Its good that someone is decent enough to find laughter in a stodgy mess of mock-heroic egotism." Wind Check for programme updates on our News page T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 Text A 'best text' edited by Jeremy Wilson from the manuscript and Lawrence's corrected copy of the Oxford Times proof printing Castle Hill Press 1997 Edition of 752 numbered sets This edition is out of print ABOUT THIS BOOK This text of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, completed in 1922 but unpublished until 1997, is a third longer than the version issued after Lawrence's death.

Despite its importance, it remained almost unseen for seventy-five years. What follows is based on the prospectus issued by Castle Hill Press in 1997. You can also read a detailed history of the origins of the Castle Hill Press edition. Following further research in 2004, Jeremy Wilson wrote an essay titled 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Triumph and Tragedy' . You can read this on the T.E. Lawrence Studies website. An amendment by Lawrence to Chapter 26 on a copy of the Oxford Times proof printing. History of Seven Pillars texts by Jeremy Wilson In 1922 T. E. Lawrence finished work on the third draft of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The first, written during 1919, had been incomplete when it was stolen from him at Reading station. The second had been a hurried re-write, dashed-off from memory. Using this as a basis, Lawrence worked for many months on a third version, which he corrected and polished. There were probably intermediate drafts of most chapters, because what finally emerged was a fair-copy manuscript. This, the earliest surviving complete text, is nearly 84,000 words longer than the version he later issued to subscribers.

Intending to produce his own private-press edition, Lawrence ordered colour collotypes of four of the projected illustrations from the lithographers Whittingham & Griggs. But then, while he was still working on the new manuscript, he began to drift into an unbalanced state of mind. In the belief that he could heighten his creative powers, he had deliberately subjected himself to near starvation and lack of sleep. He used to work at the book for many hours at a stretch. In the process, he had fallen victim to acute depression and self-doubt. He later wrote: 'I nearly went off my head this spring, heaving at that beastly book of mine.' In this physically and mentally exhausted state, he became obsessed with the idea that the text was not good enough. His ambition was to write a classic of world literature - something that would stand alongside Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov. But Seven Pillars had 'grown too long and shapeless'. By the time he reached the end of the narrative, the seven component 'books' he had planned (an echo of 'seven pillars') had grown to ten.

He decided that he must let his mind 'lie fallow for a time', after which he would attempt yet another revision. The medicine he prescribed for himself was enlistment in the ranks of the RAF under a false name. Determined not to lose the new draft like its predecessor, he had Seven Pillars typeset by the Oxford Times newspaper, this being cheaper than making typewritten copies. Over a period of months, eight uncorrected proofs were printed as single pages on a proofing press. To make it impossible for anyone else to assemble the book, he sent the chapters for typesetting un-numbered and in random order, keeping back the most sensational material until the very end. When the Oxford Times pages were delivered, he numbered and corrected a master set, making many slight amendments in the process. He repeated the corrections on four further sets of pages and had the five copies bound. They were then circulated for comment among friends, wartime colleagues, and literary critics. He warned that, while the text was largely accurate, the punctuation was 'the printer's own'. It was this 1922 text which convinced readers that Lawrence had written a masterpiece.

During the next few months Jonathan Cape, Constable, and other London publishers were keen to publish it in extenso. Failing that, Edward Garnett offered to make a popular abridgement. In January 1923 Lawrence came close to accepting Cape's proposals, but he withdrew when press attention led to his dismissal from the RAF. In March 1923 Lawrence re-enlisted, this time as a private in the Tank Corps. His mental state, far from improving, was causing his friends serious concern. They sought ways to help him and, at the end of that year, persuaded him to undertake an abridged subscription edition of Seven Pillars. The private-press production would be a project to occupy his mind. In the interim, the bank held copyright of the 1922 text as security. The 1922 text and the subscribers' abridgement compared Lawrence later claimed that, with a few exceptions, his sole criterion for revision was literary. The whole truth was less simple. He found the task far more difficult than he had expected, because the experiences of the book had 'gone remote' from him.

Worse still, his writing style had changed, reflecting his admiration for the contemporary writers whose work he had been reading avidly since the war. His disappointment with Seven Pillars intensified but, in place of the wholesale re-writing that he came to feel was needed, he found he could do little more than abridge it. He made cuts almost everywhere, while generally tightening up the prose. Overall, the final subscribers' text which he issued in 1926 was nearly 84,000 words shorter than the 1922 original. It is this 1926 abridgement that was published in a trade edition after his death in 1935. Among those who have read both the 1922 and 1926 texts, opinion about their relative merit has been equivocal. Robert Graves preferred the former: 'the greater looseness of the writing makes it easier to read. From a critical point of view no doubt the revised version is better. It is impossible that a man like Lawrence should spend four years on polishing the text without improving it, but the nervous rigour that the revised book gave me has seemingly dulled my critical judgement.' E. M.

Forster, who made suggestions to Lawrence during the final revision and therefore had reason to prefer it, compared the two texts in 1931 and concluded: 'I had to admit that the sentences in the revision were more concise and distinguished and showed a superior sense for the functions, and incidentally for the etymology, of the words employed in them. But the relation between the sentences seemed to me a little impaired: the correction, though logical, wasn't always easy.' Bernard Shaw, for his part, deplored the time Lawrence spent titivating a book that was already magnificent. He nevertheless took the opportunity of the revision to insist that Lawrence toned down the more obvious libels. As long as the 1922 text remained unpublished, few other critics were in a position to judge. My own opinion, after spending a great deal of time with the two texts, is that the 1922 version is more readable - a conclusion implied in the comments made by both Graves and Forster. Setting aside the omissions in the 1926 abridgement, which are discussed below, I think that a reader who knows the 1926 text well will find the 1922 version familiar yet easier.

The contrived 'literary' tone which can be intrusive in the 1926 revision is less often present. As a result, the text generally flows more naturally, as in Lawrence's letters. The special value of the 1922 text Seven Pillars is also important as autobiography and as history. In both these fields the 1922 text is, without question, superior to that of 1926. In the process of 'literary' abridgement, Lawrence cut out numerous personal reflections, some of which were important. Examples are the discussion of his motives for the secret ride to Damascus in the summer of 1917, his confession that the flogging at Deraa left him with a masochistic longing 'like a moth towards its flame', and his recollection of this event a few weeks later when he was present at Allenby's official entry into Jerusalem. The historical record, likewise, often fell victim to abridgement. Scholars have been perplexed by a published narrative which, because of the cuts, does not always account for Lawrence's time or seem to square with independent records.

Worse still, the frustrations and abandoned plans of 1917-18 were largely suppressed in the 1926 text because, Lawrence said, some readers of the 1922 version commented that the dramatically 'flat' period before the final advance to Damascus seemed too long. In the 1926 revision, Lawrence cut the last four Books substantially. While working on the authorised biography I compared the two texts of Seven Pillars with each other and with unpublished contemporary documents. I repeatedly found significant material in the 1922 version that was absent from the 1926 abridgement. Lawrence knew this, and ensured that the 1922 text would survive by presenting the manuscript to the Bodleian Library. Why was the 1922 text not published long ago? There was no question of publishing the 1922 text in Lawrence's lifetime. After he had issued the subscribers' abridgement in 1926 and Revolt in the Desert in 1927, he was determined that nothing more should appear. When he died, Jonathan Cape, his English publisher, rapidly announced a reprint of Revolt in the Desert. A.W.

Lawrence, as literary executor, was very keen to prevent that. He therefore allowed Cape to publish Seven Pillars. The only version that was immediately available in a usable form was the 1926 subscribers' abridgement. In a miracle of rapid book-production, Cape's handsome trade edition was published on 29 July, only six weeks after Lawrence's death. Nevertheless, the 1922 text was not entirely overlooked. In his Preface to the 1935 Cape and Doubleday editions, A.W. Lawrence wrote: "The remaining copies of the Oxford text printed in 1922 are still in existence, but it will not be made public for at least ten years, and then only in a limited edition." Not all the reviewers were happy with this outcome. The one who put it most bluntly was the Arabian explorer H.St.J.B. Philby, who wrote in the Sunday Times: 'It is this [the 1922 Text] we want rather than the subscribers' edition which we are now given.' More diplomatically, E.M. Forster wrote: 'A later MS. forms the basis of the so-called "Oxford" edition of 1922.

I have read through this edition twice. One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it; still the "Oxford" is in the judgment of several critics even superior to the version offered now, and it is good news that a reprint of it may eventually be made.' In the event, the release of the subscribers' abridgement proved to be a very real obstacle to publication of the longer text. The reason is that Cape and Doubleday acquired exclusive rights to the subscribers' abridgement in 1935. Because there is substantial duplicatioin force, the 1922 Text could only be published with their agreement. Cape and Doubleday went to the considerable expense of printing the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars. Although it is an abridgement, 250,000 words is by any standards a long book. Luckily, their gamble paid off handsomely. Their version of Seven Pillars sold extremely well for many years. Then, in the 1960s, its value was further enhanced as a result of David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia.

In that happy position, why should they agree to take on the huge expense of printing a 334,500-word text? If they did so, it could only be a direct commercial threat to the highly profitable investment they had already made. When A.W. Lawrence and others put forward the suggestion, they concluded unsurprisingly that such an edition was unjustified. Their objection lost its force in 1986, at least in Britain, when copyright on the 1935 text expired. Prior to that, A.W. Lawrence and I had on several occasions discussed the idea of publishing the 1922 text. In the late 1980s, having completed the authorised biography, I began the editorial work. In the last months of his life, however, A. W. Lawrence decided to postpone publication. A nagging concern was that a British soldier who had been involved in a punishable incident described in the book might still be alive and identifiable by other survivors. Finally, by permission of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, the complete 1922 text was issued in 1997, in a limited edition of 752 copies.

A one-volume Library Edition was published in 2003. Since Lawrence's death, Seven Pillars has been accepted as a modern classic. The 1926 revision has sold well over a million copies and there are translations into many languages (no fewer than four French translations have been issued). Release of the fuller 1922 text, almost unseen for seventy-five years, was the most important event in the history of T. E. Lawrence publishing since the issue of The Mint in 1955. How the new edition was prepared My aim in preparing the 1922 Text for publication was to issue it in its 'best' form. The initial typesetting was based on Lawrence's corrected Oxford Times proof. This was then checked against the Bodleian Library manuscript to correct the printer's many transcription errors and 'house style' punctuation changes. I also restored printer's omissions not corrected by Lawrence, two of which are of considerable interest. At the end of this process, the text published by Castle Hill Press was considerably more accurate than the text of the 1922 Oxford Times proofs.

However, I found that in addition to straight corrections, Lawrence had made some hundreds of amendments on his copy of the printed text. These were clearly intended as textual improvements, and I decided to retain them. That produced a version which incorporates his final revisions to the 1922 draft, and is superior both to the manuscript and to the surviving Oxford Times proofs. Finally, the book was lightly copy-edited to remove the grammatical and punctuation errors inevitable in a manuscript, and also to eliminate Lawrence's random variations in capitalisation and Arabic transliteration. SPECIFICATION Three volumes, numbered in Volume II. Spine height: 28.8cm. Trimmed page size 282 x 200mm. 650 sets (of 752), numbered 101-750. Vols I and II, text Vol. I: Introduction and Books I-V, 456 pages. Vol. II: Books VI-X, editorial notes, 456 pages. Typeset by Castle Hill Press in Caslon, Lawrence's preferred typeface. Printed by Cambridge University Press on 80g.s.m.

Supreme Bookwove, a high-quality acid-free off-white book paper, and bound by The Fine Bindery in quarter cream Rohalbleinen cloth with grey Fabriano Tiziano boards. Top edges stained, coloured endpapers, head and tail bands. Issued in dust jackets. Vol. III: Illustrations 152 pages Part I (in colour): Forty-one Seven Pillars Portraits reproduced full-page - twenty-six are in full colour - as in Lawrence's 1926 subscribers' edition. Part II: eighty-eight war photographs, mainly from the collection Lawrence formed and presented to the Imperial War Museum. Originally printed in colour and duotone by T.G. Hostench SA of Barcelona on 115gsm matt art, and bound in cream Rohalbleinen cloth, with limp boards. This Spanish printing was found to be defective and relatively few copies were issued. Replacement copies were printed in England by The Burlington Press. Issued in dust jacket. The three volumes were issued in a cloth-covered slip-case.

Extra-illustrated sets produced for subscribers Of the 650 sets quarter-cloth sets, about 75 included an extra matching portfolio containing a proof set of the Seven Pillars portraits, printed on one side only of a heavy paper. These proofs were printed by the original Spanish printers of the book of illustrations, which was reprinted in England when the first printing was found to be defective. The same set of proofs (in a different-coloured portfolio) accompanied the full-leather 'specials'. The three volumes and the portfolio of proof portraits were issued in a cloth-covered slip-case. These extra-illustrated sets were issued to subscribers only. Full-goatskin issue 80 sets (of 752), numbered 21-100, issued in an off-white cloth-bound slipcase Three volumes, numbered in Volume II. Spine height: 28.8cm. Trimmed page size 282 x 200mm. Vols I and I: Vol. I: Introduction and Books I-V, 456 pages Vol. II: Books VI-X, editorial notes, 456 pages Typeset by Castle Hill Press in Caslon, Lawrence's preferred typeface.

Printed by Cambridge University Press on 80g.s.m. Supreme Bookwove, a high-quality acid-free off-white book paper, and bound by The Fine Bindery in full Oxford-blue Harmatan goatskin. Hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir, using an unusual double-marbling process. Bound in full Oxford-blue goatskin, head and tail bands. Vol. III: Illustrations and parallel text of the introductory book Illustrations, 152 pages: Part I (in colour) The Seven Pillars Portraits Part II a selection from Lawrence's collection of war photographs. Printed by the Burlington Press, bound in quarter blue goatskin with off-white cloth sides, bound with: Parallel text of the introductory book: An 88-page parallel text showing two versions of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars. The left-hand pages reproduce Lawrence's revised text as sent to Bernard and Charlotte Shaw on 27 September 1924, and right-hand pages show the final text of the subscribers' abridgement. The parallel text displays exactly what changes were made as a result of advice from Bernard Shaw and others, and settles once and for all the argument about the possible scale of Shaw's alterations to Seven Pillars.

Portfolio of proof portraits: The three volumes are accompanied by a cloth-bound portfolio of proofs of the Seven Pillars portraits, interleaved with Japanese paper. Full-goatskin issue (left) with a full-goatskin copy of the 2003 edition (right) Hand marbled endpaper by Ann Muir We are sometimes aware of copies available privately or in the antiquarian book trade, so if you are looking for a copy it is worth contacting us. Twenty sets in a specially designed binding 20 sets (of 752), comprising six volumes including a complete parallel printing of the 1922 and 1926 texts in two volumes The Castle Hill Press parallel text is surely the most fascinating of all published editions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Throughout the design and production of the 1922 Seven Pillars, our decisions were strongly influenced by one idea: that the most important thing was the text. For this reason we took pains to reproduce accurately the wording of the manuscript, as modified by Lawrence's later amendments in the 'Oxford' proof.

Also, reflecting Lawrence's own passion for good typography, we applied typesetting rules that most trade publishing houses and many private presses seem to have forgotten: no paragraph widows shorter than sixteen characters; no identical words at the beginnings or ends of successive lines; no hyphenation of proper nouns; no paragraphs beginning on the last line of a page, no fudged pairs of 'short pages', and so on. The parallel text In this spirit, we chose to accompany these twenty sets by something both remarkable and extremely interesting - two additional volumes containing complete texts of the 1922 and 1926 versions, typeset side-by-side in double column. Our aim in this setting was to align the beginning of each sentence that exists in both the texts. Readers can see at a glance exactly what was omitted, what was revised, what was moved, and so on. Our edition of this 1000-page parallel text consisted of only 37 sets. Twenty sets, bound in quarter Harmatan goatskin, accompanied the twenty 'extra-special' copies of Seven Pillars, and two sets, not for sale, accompanied copies 'A' and 'B'.

Of the remaining fifteen sets, six went to UK copyright-deposit libraries, one to the copyright owner, two to the editor, and one was retained by the press. Specification These twenty sets of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the Complete 1922 Text, comprise six volumes, all in the same format, contained in two solander boxes. Box 1: The Caslon setting The two text volumes printed by Cambridge University Press on 100 gsm Supreme Book Wove, and bound by The Fine Bindery in full Harmatan goatskin, to an inlay and onlay design by Glenn Bartley specially commissioned for the edition. All edges gilt; hand-sewn head and tail bands, leather joints and suede doublures. The companion volume of illustrations is bound in full black goatskin. An internal box contains an interleaved proof set of the Seven Pillars portraits, printed on one side of the paper only. This is one of 250 numbered proof sets from the first printing of the volume of illustrations. Box 2: The Parallel Texts The 1922 and 1926 texts: two volumes, printed on 80 gsm Supreme Book Wove.

The typeface is Times New Roman which, being designed specifically for newspapers, is better suited than Caslon to two-column setting. Hand-bound by The Fine Bindery in quarter brown Harmatan goatskin, with brown cloth sides and hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir. Top edges gilt. The eight chapters of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars, in parallel 1924/1926 text, are quarter-bound in matching brown Harmatan goatskin with brown cloth sides. Two sets of the edition, lettered 'A' and 'B', were reserved for the publisher. triumph and tragedy Jeremy Wilson My work on the complete Oxford Text of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Castle Hill Press, 1997, 2003) gave rise to disquieting questions about the way Lawrence had abridged the text that he issued to subscribers in 1926. However, it was not until the spring of 2004, after the one-volume edition of the Oxford Text had been published, that I had time to look into this more deeply. My conclusions formed part of an essay printed privately that year.

Later, to round out the history of Lawrence's Seven Pillars, I added material from a lecture that I had given to the Oxford Bibliographical Society to mark the 50th anniversary of Lawrence's death (published in Matrix V, Andoversford, Whittington Press, 1985). I have made some further revisions in this online version. Contents: Page 3: Which text is better written? - Lawrence's unbalanced abridgement - conclusion The story of Seven Pillars: 1917-23 Writing and fine printing were T. E. Lawrence's two most enduring ambitions. In his youth, inspired by the work of William Morris, Lawrence planned with his friend Vyvyan Richards to set up a private press. The project was well advanced by the outbreak of war in 1914 and was revived in 1919, when Lawrence bought land for the purpose at Pole Hill on the borders of Epping Forest. He admired and studied the work of contemporary printers. His library contained many private press books, including a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer bound by Cobden-Sanderson.

Lawrence's ambition to write a major work of some kind is evident in his pre-war letters. While at Carchemish he contemplated several projects. One was a 'monumental' history of the Crusades; another, a study of life among the nomadic Soleyb - to be something like C.M. Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta. The title Seven Pillars of Wisdom was originally given to a third pre-war project: an abandoned book about seven great cities of the East. Although Lawrence contributed to archaeological reports, it seems that he completed none of these private writing projects before the outbreak of war. We do not know how much of the first Seven Pillars he had written before he destroyed the draft.

Two years later, while serving as a British liaison officer with Emir Feisal's irregular forces during the Arab Revolt, he realised that chance had given him the kind of subject he had hoped for: 'the story I have to tell,' he later wrote to a friend, 'is one of the most splendid ever given a man for writing.'1 Lawrence's intention to write a book is mentioned in correspondence as early as September 1917.2 He began making notes on the army message pads he carried with him. The notes were often descriptive rather than military, since there was a risk they might fall into enemy hands. Some contained outline word-pictures of people and places. He described them later as 'observations on the road, scribbled at random in the saddle, without much reference to place or time: they included sketch-maps, tribal notes, personal thumb-nails, complaints and things.'3 Damascus, the culmination of the Arab Revolt so far as Lawrence was concerned, fell at the beginning of October 1918. He then returned to England, where he made no secret of his plans to write a book.

Neverthess, he told Doughty, 'I'm afraid it is not likely to be written for publication, since some of it would give offence to people alive (including myself!), but I hope to get it put on paper soon.'4 The first draft Relatively few letters by Lawrence survive from 1919-21, so there is little direct evidence about the early development of Seven Pillars. He wrote most of the first draft in France during the spring of 1919, while attending the Paris Peace Conference. This version ran, he said later, to about 250,000 words. It was hardly complete when, in November 1919, it was stolen from him at Reading Station. The loss was reported in the press, but nothing was ever found. Only the early chapters survived, because someone who had borrowed the manuscript from Lawrence's friend Lionel Curtis had made a typed copy.5 Lawrence set about rewriting the rest from memory.

During the first three months of 1920 he completed a hurried new draft, though it was 'hopelessly bad as a text.'6 Before he returned from Paris, All Souls College had awarded him a research fellowship which provided an income and rooms in Oxford. However, Lawrence preferred to live in London. He borrowed an attic room above the offices of a friend, the architect Sir Herbert Baker, at 14 Barton Street, Westminster. During 1920 he promoted a scheme to get Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta reprinted. This was no easy task, since the book is very long - he estimated it at 500,000 words - and Doughty's writing style is an acquired taste. His discussions with publishers gave him some knowledge of the British book market. On the strength of that, he seems to have developed a plan for a private edition of Seven Pillars. He almost certainly intended to print it with his friend Vyvyan Richards at Pole Hill, near Chingford in Essex. They had first planned to set up a private press there a decade earlier, when they graduated from Jesus College.

Richards had taken a teaching post in Chingford, and looked for a suitable site for the neo-medieval timber hall they planned to put up. Lawrence had at first rented the land, at Pole Hill. After the war, one of his first acts had been to buy it. The abandoned 1920 abridgement The All Souls Fellowship provided enough money to live modestly in free accommodation. But to pay for the building at Pole Hill and the costs of producing and illustrating Seven Pillars, Lawrence would need a substantial sum. He decided to offer a popular abridgment of Seven Pillars to his friend F. N. Doubleday, the American publisher. It was to be published in America only: 'Unless I am starving (involuntarily) there will be no London publisher. My whole object is to make money in U.S.A. and so avoid the notoriety of being on sale in England'.7 He aimed to make the abridgement, which would be based on the hurried second draft of Seven Pillars, during the late summer of 1920. By July he was thinking about its physical appearance.

He wrote to Doubleday seeking agreement on matters such as maps and illustrations: 'Is 150,000 words too many? I want eleven or twelve point type, no leading: about a 400 word page, if possible. No headlines. The type and style of The Rescue pleases me. If the type-panel was pushed up to the top and the numbers put down below it would do well'.8 We do not know what Doubleday thought about these requests. Authors do not normally lay down design parameters for their publishers. By August, Lawrence had drafted about 40,000 words of the abridgement - eight chapters. Then, abruptly, he abandoned it. It seems likely that Doubleday told him it could not succeed commercially if it was published in America alone. Although Lawrence was famous in Britain, he was little known in the US. The polished third draft Meanwhile, Lawrence had started work on a new polished draft of the complete Seven Pillars. This, the third version of the book, was to become known as the 'Oxford Text'. It was 'composed with great care'.9 Before the war he had hoped to publish a book that would rank with Arabia Deserta.

Now, he was aiming far higher. He had begun reading widely and seeking acquaintance with contemporary writers. He met Conrad, Graves, Kipling, Sassoon and many others. He hoped that the new Seven Pillars would be a 'titanic' book, comparable in stature to The Brothers Karamazov and Moby Dick. Despite the setback over the abridgement, he seems to have been confident that he could produce a fine-press edition. While working on the new text, he began to collect illustrations. He had been painted and sketched by Augustus John during the Peace Conference, and had acquired one of John's two oils of Feisal. During 1920 he went round London art shows to see the work of other contemporary painters. Finally he approached Eric Kennington, who had served as a war artist, seeking advice about illustrating Seven Pillars. Kennington read it and was fired with enthusiasm. In March 1921 he travelled at his own expense to the Middle East, equipped with artist's materials and introductions. He returned to England in June with a remarkable series of pastel portraits, which he exhibited that October at London's Leicester Galleries.

Lawrence sent four of the pastels to Whittingham and Griggs, to be reproduced as colour plates by chromo-lithography. This tells us one of the few things we know about his early scheme for a fine-press edition. Its format, revealed by the size of the plates, would later be used for the subscribers' edition. From this time on, the 'Kennington Arabs' were central to Lawrence's plans for publishing Seven Pillars. He soon decided to balance the Arabs by commissioning portraits of British participants in the Revolt. During the next five years he organised artists and sitters, until he could put twenty Europeans alongside the best twenty of the Arab portraits. Meanwhile work on Seven Pillars was progressing fairly slowly. Early in 1921 Lawrence joined the Colonial Office as an adviser on Arab affairs to Winston Churchill, the new Secretary of State for the Colonies. He had started the polished third draft of Seven Pillars in London, but had to continue it while travelling on diplomatic missions to the Hejaz and Trans-Jordan. In September 1921 he abruptly cabled Whittingham & Griggs, halting work on the plates. He wrote to Kennington from Cairo: 'My reasons .

. . are three. I do not know their order of magnitude. A lump of money I was expecting has not (probably will not) come. My house in Epping has been burnt down. In the leisure hours of this trip I have read half the manuscript of my book: and condemned it. Not good enough to publish, because it isn't as good as I can make it, (unless I deceive myself). 'The stoppage is only to prevent too big a bill this year. Next year I will have more money, and will be able to carry on. Meanwhile I'll be barely solvent . . . The job will go through none the less.'10 Lawrence's uncertainty about money at this time probably relates to the death of his father's sister, Caroline Margaret Chapman. In her will she had bequeathed 20,000 to Thomas Chapman, intending it to pass eventually to his sons. She died in 1920 after a long illness, unaware that her brother had predeceased her by several months. He had almost certainly known about the bequest. After his death in 1919 Sarah Lawrence may well have spoken about it to Lawrence - the only one of her children with whom she discussed Chapman affairs.

It transpired that Caroline Chapman's will had been badly drafted. It did not stipulate that the money should pass, in the event that Thomas Chapman died before her, to his heirs. As a result, the bequest went to the residuary legatees, who were Lawrence's half-sisters, Thomas Chapman's legitimate children. They were already well provided for, having inherited generous sums of family money both under the terms this will and before that from Francis Chapman. Influenced no doubt by their mother - the wife Thomas Chapman had abandoned - they passed none of Caroline Chapman's money to the surviving Lawrence brothers. At the beginning of 1922 Lawrence's work at the Colonial Office was winding down. By then, however, the cumulative strain of his wartime and diplomatic roles, plus exhaustion from writing Seven Pillars, had affected his mental balance. Fearing for his sanity, he began arranging to enlist in the ranks of the RAF. He saw service life as some kind of haven, a modern equivalent to a monastery. In February he took three months' leave, determined to complete his third draft of Seven Pillars.

A letter to St John Hornby, proprietor of the Ashendene Press, tells something of ambitions: 'When my press starts we will exchange products (enormously to my profit, for I'll be working just soon enough to get a gratis Faery Queen in return for my printed prospectus!)'11 The Ashendene Faery Queene was issued in 1923. By now, however, Lawrence had lost confidence in his work on Seven Pillars. Writing to Kennington two days later, he said: 'The real trouble is about my book, which is not good: not good enough to come out. It has grown too long and shapeless, and I haven't the strength to see it all in one piece, or the energy to tackle it properly. After I've got out of the Colonial Office and have been fallow for a time my interest in it will probably come back and then I'll have another go at it: but not at present.'12 Reading between the lines, it seems that he had lost the creative inspiration that had taken Seven Pillars to this point. It would never return.

The Oxford Times proof printing Wishing to circulate his completed third draft for comment, Lawrence arranged to have a few copies printed on a proofing press at the Oxford Times printing works. In April 1922 he told Stewart Newcombe: 'I spend whole days sitting at a table writing out my Seven Pillars straight enough for a printer to read'.13 Even so, the manuscript he sent to the Oxford Times contains countless amendments. At different times Lawrence gave inconsistent dates for the printing of the Oxford Times edition. However, contemporary notes and his surviving correspondence with the printers suggest that he sent the first sections for typesetting in late January 1922. The last sections were printed in the third week of July. Handwritten numbering on the chapters of the manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library, reveal the chaotic sequence in which they went to press. This was a precaution against unauthorised circulation of the complete text. All the potentially sensational material was typeset in the final batch. Just eight copies were printed, set in double columns of 7-point type. Since the text was printed in random sequence, conventional folded sections were impossible. Each page of the Oxford Seven Pillars is a on separate leaf.

New chapters are headed only by the printed word 'Chapter'. Lawrence added the chapter numbers and pagination by hand after putting the pages in order. His opinion of the text continued to waver, making it hard to tell how serious he thought the problems were. In April he told Kennington he would probably instruct Whittingham & Griggs to restart work on the portraits in July (the month he planned to leave the Colonial Office). That surely implies that he expected to print the book fairly soon. When Vyvyan Richards read one of the Oxford Times copies and praised the choice of adjectives, Lawrence replied: 'I'm most glad of this, for I took great care with them. There's a fault or two however in every paragraph, but not other than I can correct in a week's care. These stylistic changes are easy and pleasant to make.'14 In another letter he mentioned that: 'Progress in revision (which mainly means shortening) will move by cutting out the geography and tribal stuff.'15 Lawrence had been unable to afford printer's corrections, so there were many typesetting errors in the Oxford Times copies.

During the autumn of 1922 he corrected a master set of the pages, then repeated the corrections in four more copies. He added preliminaries (in manuscript in one copy, now in the Huntington Library, and typewritten in the others) and had them bound by C. & C. McLeish. His plan was to send them to people he thought qualified to criticise the book on literary or historical grounds. Edward Garnett's abridgement At the end of August he enlisted secretly in the RAF. A fortnight earlier, while the Oxford copies were still at the binders, he had written to Edward Garnett and Bernard Shaw, asking whether they would read and comment on the book. Both agreed to do so, but Shaw was busy with other commitments. So the first comments came from Garnett. A well-known figure in the English literary world, Edward Garnett greatly admired Travels in Arabia Deserta. In 1908 he had made a popular abridgement. Now working freelance, he was acting as literary adviser to Jonathan Cape. Garnett heaped constructive praise on Seven Pillars.

When Lawrence mentioned that he had turned down an offer of 7,000 for a version shortened to 120,000 words, Garnett promptly offered to make such an abridgement, backing the suggestion with the opinion that the Oxford Text was too long. Lawrence was tempted. Early in September, while stationed at the RAF recruits' training depot at Uxbridge, he wrote: 'I think that I may have to publish something after all: for I'm getting too old for this life of rough and tumble, and the crudeness of my company worries me a bit. I find myself longing for an empty room, or a solitary bed, or even a moment alone in the open air'.16 He therefore corrected a sixth set of the Oxford Times pages and sent them to Garnett, who made a draft abridgment during October. As Lawrence looked through Garnett's suggested cuts his enthusiasm for the project waned. Nevertheless, 'if the abridgment is approved by a publisher I'll find myself rich - according to my standard.

Whether I'll continue in the RAF then, or return to London life, I don't know.'17 We do not have all Garnett's letters to Lawrence, so we can only guess at his thinking. One motive, certainly, would have been to encourage Lawrence to go on writing. A published abridgement would provide the reassurance of favourable reviews - and also financial independence. However, Garnett himself wrote and edited for a living. He may well have been influenced by the prospect of editor's royalties on a book with such good sales potential. Other writers who read Seven Pillars did not suggest that it should be shortened, at any rate for literary reasons. Forster wrote: 'I hope you won't have a public edition, because that means cutting, and if anything, there ought to be more - as much more about yourself as you would consent to add.'18 Siegfried Sassoon was emphatic: 'I know all about condensation, and I haven't felt the least sign of diffuseness -.

On the contrary, I've felt as if you'd been given the last bale of paper in the world to write your book on, and you'd never forgotten that you mustn't put in an unnecessary word.'19 These opinions came later. By the time Lawrence received them, Garnett's abridgement was done. Lawrence could not decide what to do with it. 'With all the drawings (over 50 now) I feel less and less inclined to publish the whole work, and almost decided not to publish anything. My mind wobbles between the need for money and the desire to be withdrawn, and it's a pitiable exhibition on my part. I wish the beastly book had never been written. Garnett's reduction is in my hands, and is a good one: but it's a bowdlerising of the story and the motives of it, and would give the public a false impression. I don't like the notion of doing that. It's a favourably-false impression, you see.'20 On 1 December Lawrence told Garnett that he could mention the abridgment to Jonathan Cape. That same day, Bernard Shaw wrote, giving his first considered reaction.

He had only sampled the book, but his wife Charlotte had read it from cover to cover and was hugely enthusiastic. Shaw suggested that the whole text should be placed in the British Museum, embargoed for a hundred years, since parts of it could not possibly be published - but he too felt that an abridgment should be made for general circulation. Lawrence, warmed by this apparent approval of his plans, replied to Shaw on 7 December telling him about Garnett's version. If it were published 'I shall become a civilian again. You have no idea how repulsive a barrack room is as a permanent home'.21 Significantly, in a letter to Garnett written the same day, Lawrence said: 'The private press has been a life-dream of mine - and has been twice . . . on the point of coming true. It will come, and will, I hope, be as good as my expectations.'22 Bernard Shaw opposes the abridgement However, Lawrence's advisers now began to contradict one another. Cape, supported by Garnett, moved swiftly towards a contract. It would have given Lawrence some 7,000.

Shaw, on the other hand, viewed Cape as a 'modern ruffian', and recommended Constable, his own publisher. For a third view, Lawrence turned to a wartime acquaintance, Raymond Savage, who was manager of the literary agency Curtis Brown. Lawrence told Savage that he wanted the book to produce an income of 300 a year. Also, he requested the last word on the type, format and paper. On 28 December 1922, G.B.S. let fly in a spectacular volte face: 'I cannot wait to finish the book before giving you my opinion, and giving it strong. IT MUST BE PUBLISHED IN ITS ENTIRETY, UNABRIDGED . . . you must not for a moment entertain the notion of publishing an abridgment first, as no publisher would touch the whole work afterwards'. He continued in the same vein, concluding, 'I had ten years on the managing committee of the Society of Authors, and learnt that there is no bottom to the folly and business incompetence of authors or the unscrupulousness of publishers, who, being in a gambling business where one live book has to pay for ten duds, cannot afford to lose a single opportunity.

'You must not mind my shoving into your affairs like this. How else could I be of any service?'23 The Shaws felt, and continued to feel, that Garnett's advice was wrong. Perhaps they also suspected his motives. Some years later, Charlotte wrote: 'how I wish I believed in Garnett's critical instinct. I don't, you know, one little bit. Each discovery I make about his views and his general philosophy of life inclines me to trust him less and less. I think him conventional and not courageous. I shall never forgive him for wanting to publish a maimed edition of the Seven Pillars'.24 Certainly, some of Garnett's judgements showed little sympathy with the book. For example, he disliked Lawrence's introspection and suggested breaking up the 'Myself' chapter, which other readers thought essential. Also, while Doughty's length and difficult prose might have justified reducing Arabia Deserta, there was much less reason to abridge Seven Pillars. Garnett's statement that the Oxford Text was too long nevertheless struck a chord with Lawrence, who had said the same while preparing it for the printer - i.e., before anyone else had read it.

His reason may have been his hope to print it in a single fine-press volume. In 1923, during discussions with his friends about alternative schemes for the book, he would write to D. G. Hogarth: 'If I can get it to 250,000 words it will go in one vol. of 450 words a page.'25 In late December 1922 Lawrence, whose RAF enlistment as 'J.H. Ross' had just been revealed by the press, told Savage that the abridgment was off. He wrote to Cape personally: 'The cash (my only motive for doing the mean thing which a censored version is) would have been most grateful: and the bother will have upset you. However there it is.'26 Needless to say, Cape did not accept the decision easily. During the weeks of uncertainty that followed several ideas were mooted while Lawrence strove to keep his place in the Air Force. Lawrence wrote to Shaw at the end of January 1923: 'I cancelled (or rather I refused to complete and sign) the contract with Cape for publishing an abridgment. Cape was furious . . .

a while later I was sorry to have cancelled it, and I began to think of publishing, not an abridgment, but the whole story, as you have advised. So I sketched to Cape the possibility of a limited, privately-printed, subscription edition of 2000 copies, illustrated with all the drawings made for me by some twenty of the younger artists. Cape was staggered for the first moment, but then rose to it - suggesting half profits, and a serial issue of a quarter of it in the Observer, and American copyrights, and all the necessary decorations. It took the form of a beautiful contract, sent me to sign: and that very day I got my dismissal from the Air Ministry: and so I've cancelled it too.'27 The moves to publish Seven Pillars had now reached a total dbacle - but Lawrence did not for one moment abandon his long-term ambition to print the book. Within a week, he was writing to C. E. Wilson, one of the British officers involved in the Revolt, arranging for Kennington to paint another portrait... then to William Roberts and Paul Nash, again seeking illustrations. Lawrence re-enlisted, this time as a private in the Tank Corps.

He was stationed at Bovington Camp in Dorset. The Oxford Seven Pillars continued to circulate. During 1923 it was read by literary figures such as Sydney Cockerell, J. L. Garvin, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Lawrence also sent it, with appeals for factual corrections, to wartime colleagues: General Bartholomew from Allenby's staff, Robin Buxton of the Imperial Camel Corps, D. G. Hogarth from the Arab Bureau, and so on. In May, he wrote to Archibald Wavell, the latest reader: 'though (as of a son) I can see and say no good of my book, yet I'm glad when others praise it. I hate it and like it by turns, and know that it's a good bit of writing, and often wish it wasn't. If I'd aimed less high I'd have hit my mark squarer . . . Apart from literature, how does it strike you as history?' He continued: 'To publish the whole book might cause a new clamour, for I don't hide from myself that it might be a successful book, as sales went.

To censor it would mean practical re-writing, and I'm weary of the work put into it already: also it feels a little dishonest to hide parts of the truth.... Against these instincts you have to set the vanity of an amateur who's tried to write, and would like to be in print as an author: and my need of money to live quietly upon.'28 The scheme for a subscription edition During May 1923, Lawrence's friends put him under increasing pressure to publish. He wanted the smallest possible edition, and joked about finding a millionaire who would underwrite a single copy. Bernard Shaw, on the other hand, was pushing for wide circulation at a reasonable price. While they debated, Lawrence used his money from All Souls to pay for more illustrations. In August 1923 he toyed briefly once again with the idea of issuing Garnett's abridgment; but by now his friends had decided to force a decision, offering to back a viable fine-press edition of the whole book. By the end of the year, the basis for a subscribers' edition was established. First estimates for printing the text and illustrations were a little under 3,000.

Lawrence, who intended to revise Seven Pillars using one of the two unused sets of Oxford Times pages, rented a cottage to work in. This was Clouds Hill, near Bovington Camp. 'There I can revise my text in about a twelve-month, allowing say 2 hrs average per day . . . the whole project may be complete within 18 months . . . Clarendon Press might well print: I want Caslon eleven point or its nearest monotype equivalent.'29 The book's format - 10x8 ins - was pre-determined by the four colour plates that Whittingham & Griggs had been storing since 1921. The typeface had also been chosen long before, when Lawrence and Richards were planning to print an edition at Pole Hill. They had spread out Lawrence's fine-press books at All Souls, and finally settled on the Caslon used in the Essex House Press Pilgrim's Progress. The decision to publish a subscription edition was finally taken at a meeting in Oxford on 9 December 1923. Those present were Lawrence, D. G. Hogarth, Lionel Curtis and Alan Dawnay.

Given the 3,000 estimate of costs, the meeting had to decide between selling about 300 copies at 10, or 100 copies at 30 guineas. In either case the book would include the portraits that Lawrence had commissioned. At the time, Lawrence estimated the length of the Oxford Text reasonably accurately at 340,000 words. For him, the main difference between the two schemes was the amount he would wish to omit if there were to be a wide circulation. He had written to Hogarth: 'If as many as 300 copies were sent out, the book would have to be severely cut down, and that means another edition some-day, and consequently no rest now. The fewer the copies the less the cuts.'30 He had also mentioned the 300-copy scheme in letters to Sydney Cockerell: 'The new edition will be shorter and more discreet than the old.'31 It would be 'widely different - and better, if my skill has not wholly gone.'32 At the Oxford meeting, the 100-copy scheme was chosen. Therefore, Lawrence agreed to leave the text largely alone.

The length was to be 'between 300,000 and 330,000 words: preferably the lesser number.'33 It would be 'corrected only in blemishes of prose: uncensored and unimproved'.34 To Robin Buxton, whose bank would finance the edition, he wrote: 'The text will be revised, but the sole criterion of the revision will be literary fitness: I propose no improvement in morals or decency: and it will be very little (not more than 10% probably) shorter.'35 Buxton, who had proposed the 100-copy scheme, may have found this reassuring. If Lawrence, in his fragile state of mind, once started re-working the book, he might never finish. There may be a tinge of regret in Lawrence's comment, a fortnight later, to Edward Garnett: 'Yes, it will be revised, but only in petto. No good cuts or noble changes, no re-writing; just punctuation, and insect-blemishes removed.'36 Buxton would not have been alone in feeling cautious. It was eighteen months since Lawrence had enlisted in the ranks, evidently suffering from some kind of breakdown.

In the Tank Corps, where he was now serving, he often seemed deeply depressed. A few weeks earlier he had written to Lionel Curtis: 'My thoughts are centering more and more upon the peace of death, with longing for it. Is it, do you think, that at last I am getting old? Do old people secretly dwell much upon their inevitable end?'37 His friends were understandably anxious. One of their strongest motives for backing the Seven Pillars project was a hope that intellectual activity might prove therapeutic. The decision to publish a 30-guinea subscription edition was a turning-point in Lawrence's life. In an important sense, it proved to be tragedy. Until then, as the letters already quoted show, he had felt no qualms about earning money from Seven Pillars. He had seen it as the potential source of sufficient capital to provide him with an income for life. From this point on, however, he stated that he would take no money from the book. He would later represent this as a decision of principle: he could not accept financial rewards for his dishonest wartime role or anything connected with it. Perhaps, in time, he came to feel that.

However, no such scruple is evident in the letters he wrote before December 1923. The immediate trigger for his decision was probably the high subscription price for the 100-copy edition. According to the conversion calculator on the Economic History website, 30 guineas (31.10s) in 1923 was equivalent to 1,130.79 in 2002. Potential subscribers, unaware of the cost of reproducing the Seven Pillars illustrations, might well have suspected Lawrence of milking his reputation for personal gain. By refusing to take any profit at all he avoided that accusation; but the consequences of this self-inflicted privation are incalculable. 1. T. E. Lawrence to V. W. Richards, undated (late 1922 or early 1923), MB p.224. 2. See T. E. Lawrence to C. E. Wilson, 2 September 1917, DG p.236. 3. T. E. Lawrence to Charlotte Shaw, 11 June 1926, Letters I p.183. 4.

T. E. Lawrence to C. M. Doughty, 25 December 1918, DG p.271. 5. On 2 May 1997, Stride & Son's saleroom in Chichester sold a 79-page carbon-copy typescript of the whole of the Introductory Book and more than half of Book I from the first Seven Pillars draft. The typescript was formerly in the possession of Ralph M. Robinson, who had borrowed the manuscript of these chapters from Lionel Curtis. 6. T. E. Lawrence, Some Notes on the Writing of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1927, reprinted in SP35, pp.21-3. 7. T. E. Lawrence to F. N. Doubleday, 29 March 1920, MB p.176. 8. T. E. Lawrence to F. N. Doubleday, 21 July 1920, Transcript in TEL papers. 9. T. E. Lawrence, Some Notes (op. cit. Note 6 above). 10. T. E.

Lawrence to Eric Kennington, 1 October 1921, DG p.333. 11. T. E. Lawrence to St. John Hornby, 14 February 1922, Transcript in TEL papers. 12. T. E. Lawrence to Eric Kennington, 16 February 1922, quoted in the introduction to T. E. Lawrence, Minorities (London, Jonathan Cape, 1971), p. 43. 13. T. E. Lawrence to S. F. Newcombe 16 April 1922, Transcript in TEL Papers. 14. T. E. Lawrence to V. W. Richards, undated (late 1922 or early 1923), MB pp.224-5. 15. T. E. Lawrence to Douglas Carruthers, 19 August 1922, transcript in TEL Papers. 16. T. E. Lawrence to Edward Garnett, 7 September 1922, DG p.366.

Lawrence described life in the RAF recruits' training depot in The Mint. 17. T. E. Lawrence to R. D. Blumenfeld 24 November 1822, Transcript in TEL Papers. 18. E. M. Forster to T. E. Lawrence, mid-February 1924, LTEL p.62. 19. Siegfried Sassoon to T. E. Lawrence, 26 November 1923, LTEL p.154. 20. T. E. Lawrence to D. G. Hogarth, 29 October 1922, DG p.374. 21. T. E. Lawrence to G. B. Shaw, 7 December 1922, Letters I p.16. 22. T. E. Lawrence to Edward Garnett, 7 December 1922, DG p.183. 23. G. B. Shaw to T. E. Lawrence 28 December 1922, Letters I pp.24-5. 24. Charlotte Shaw to T.

E. Lawrence, 9 April 1928, British Library; to be included in Letters III (2007). 25. T. E. Lawrence to D. G. Hogarth, 14 November 1923, DG p.440. Reading this letter while drafting my preface to the one-volume edition of the Oxford Text (Castle Hill Press, 2003) led me to think that the original target length for the subscribers' edition had been 250,000 words. However, as shown in letters quoted here, the scheme as agreed the following month was for a longer text. 26. T. E. Lawrence to Jonathan Cape, 1 January 1923, Transcript in TEL Papers. 27. T. E. Lawrence to G. B. Shaw 30 January 1923, Letters I p.36. 28. T. E. Lawrence to A. P. Wavell, 11 May 1923, MB pp.234-5. 29. T. E. Lawrence to D. G.

Hogarth, 14 November 1923, DG p.440. 30. T. E. Lawrence to D. G. Hogarth, 6 December 1923, Transcript TEL Papers. 31. T. E. Lawrence to S. C. Cockerell, 27 October 1923, Viola Meynell (ed.) Friends of a Lifetime (London, Jonathan Cape, 1940) p. 360. 32. T. E. Lawrence to S. C. Cockerell, 23 October 1923, op. cit. Note 31, p. 359. 33. T. E. Lawrence to Eric Kennington, 13 December 1923, MB p.252. 34. T. E. Lawrence to G. B. Shaw, 13 December 1923, Letters I, p.48. 35. T. E. Lawrence to Robin Buxton, 13 December 1923, DG p.443. 36.

T. E. Lawrence to Edward Garnett, 1 January 1924, DG p. 450. 37. T. E. Lawrence to Lionel Curtis, 25 September 1923, quoted in Jeremy Wilson's introduction to T. E. Lawrence, Minorities (London, Jonathan Cape, 1971), p.45. T. E.

Lawrence chronology 1888 16 August: born at Tremadoc, Wales 1896-1907: City of Oxford High School for Boys 1907-9: Jesus College, Oxford, B.A., 1st Class Hons, 1909 1910-14: Magdalen College, Oxford (Senior Demy), while working at the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish 1915-16: Military Intelligence Dept, Cairo 1916-18: Liaison Officer with the Arab Revolt 1919: Attended the Paris Peace Conference 1919-22: wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom 1921-2: Adviser on Arab Affairs to Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office 1922 August: Enlisted in the Ranks of the RAF 1923 January: discharged from the RAF 1923 March: enlisted in the Tank Corps 1923: translated a French novel, The Forest Giant 1924-6: prepared the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom 19

27-8: stationed at Karachi, then Miranshah 1927 March: Revolt in the Desert, an abridgement of Seven Pillars, published 1928: completed The Mint, began translating Homer's Odyssey 1929-33: stationed at Plymouth 1931: started working on RAF boats 1932: his translation of the Odyssey published 1933-5: attached to MAEE, Felixstowe 1935 February: retired from the RAF 1935 19 May: died from injuries received in a motor-cycle crash on 13 May 1935 21 May: buried at Moreton, Dorset

Question: Who wrote "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"?
Answer: Lawrence of Arabia