T.E. Lawrence, 1926

Seven Pillars of Wisdom
T.E. Lawrence, 1926
LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a triumph. London: [privately printed], 1926.

Privately printed edition, limited to about 170 "complete" subscriber's copies, inscribed by Lawrence on p. XIX "Complete copy. 1.XII.26 TES.", with a single additional manuscript correction to the illustration list. Lawrence first began writing his epic account of the Arab Revolt in Paris in early 1919, whilst attending the Paris Peace Conference; this manuscript was lost at Reading station, and two further versions followed. The third was printed in eight copies (which formed the "Oxford" edition), and copies of this edition were submitted to members of the Hejaz Expeditionary force and literary friends to read and criticise (the latter group included G.B. Shaw, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, and Siegfried Sassoon). Following rewriting between 1923 and 1926, the final text evolved; as Lawrence states in Some Notes on the Writing of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as a result of the criticisms of his readers and critics, he reduced the length of the book from around 330,000 words to "some 280,000," with the result that the final text was "swifter and more pungent." The present copy includes the 'Prickly Pear' plate, but not the two Paul Nash illustrations called for on pages 92 and 208, or the Blair-Hughes-Stanton wood engraving that in some copies illustrated the dedicatory poem. In this copy, page XV is mis-paginated as VIII. Clements p. 49 (stating that "only about 100 copies were produced at 30 guineas each").

Quarto (255 x 188 mm). Frontispiece portrait of Feisal, 66 plates, many colored or tinted, 4 double-page, by Eric Kennington, William Roberts, Augustus John, William Nicholson, Paul Nash and others, 4 folding colored maps, 58 illustrations, one colored, by Roberts, Nash, Kennington, Blair-Hughes-Stanton, Gerturde Hermes and others, initials by Edward Wadsworth. Original tan pigskin by Bumpus, spine gilt-lettered, original endpapers by Kennington, edges gilt, deckled fore-edge (light rubbing to spine and tips, mild toning to pastedowns); custom box. Provenance: Christie's, New York, 10 December 1999, lot 218.