War in the Desert, the first and previously unpublished abridged text of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of 100 copies bound thus, this copy both numbered and signed by the editor.
Salisbury, England: Castle Hill Press, 2016. First edition. Hardcover. This is the first and limited edition of the first version of Seven Pillars of Wisdom intended for general publication. It was prepared in autumn 1922 by T. E. Lawrence and his literary mentor and friend, Edward Garnett, abridged from the 1922 ‘Oxford’ text. Fittingly, it was the final act of outstanding editorial scholarship and fine press publication by Lawrence’s official biographer, Jeremy Wilson (1944-2017), that rescued this text from oblivion.
This copy is hand-numbered “150” by Wilson on the limitation page and signed by Wilson at the end of the Introduction. Of a total edition of 227 numbered copies, 100 were bound thus for subscribers, in quarter oatmeal linen cloth with an indigo Morocco spine label over pale yellow-tan paper-covered sides, the contents bound with deep blue endpapers featuring an illustration of Lawrence’s ceremonial dagger and blue silk head and tail bands. This copy is as-new, the binding pristine, the contents immaculate. The publisher's blue cloth-covered slipcase, lined in yellow-tan paper, shows only trivial shelf scuffs.
The strikingly beautiful “sleeping dagger” indigo endpapers bear special note; according to Wilson: “Among the designs I suggested for War in the Desert was a photograph of Lawrence's dagger and belt, lying on the ground, Our printer came back with this, to my surprise converted into a night-time image ("During the day he'd have been wearing it".)”
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the story of T. E. Lawrence's (1888-1935) remarkable odyssey as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as "Lawrence of Arabia." The saga of how Seven Pillars was written and published is tortuous.
Lawrence nearly completed a massive first draft in 1919, only to lose it when his briefcase was mislaid at a train station. This first draft was never recovered. At a fever pitch, Lawrence wrote a new 400,000 word draft in 1920. Lawrence followed this punishing burst of writing with an equally brutal editing process. In 1922, a 335,000 word version was carefully circulated to select friends and literary critics - the famous "Oxford Text". George Bernard Shaw called it "a masterpiece".
In the autumn of 1922, Lawrence and Garnett prepared the abridgement published here. “Between them, they extracted from the many-sided complexities of Seven Pillars a richly observed travel book combined with a fast-moving adventure-story.” Lawrence thought well of it. Nonetheless, on Shaw’s advice, Lawrence canceled the abridgement “at a very late stage, when the completed draft was about to go to the publishers.”
It is difficult to understate the consequences for Lawrence; undoubtedly the book would have brought him financial security and acclaim. Instead, not until 1926 was a different, edited and abridged “Subscribers’ Edition” produced – a lavish edition of just over 200 copies that cost Lawrence far more than he made. To recover the loss, Lawrence finally authorized an edition for the general public - but one even further abridged and titled Revolt in the Desert. Only in the summer of 1935, in the weeks following Lawrence's death, was the Subscribers' Edition text finally published for circulation to the general public.
However, the fuller "Oxford Text" - a third longer than the shortened text which became so famous - would not be republished until 1997. And this first abridged version, War in the Desert – the first version prepared for the public and very nearly published in 1923 – remained unknown for more than 90 years. The text was used as bank security for financing for the 1926 Subscriber’s Edition and then subsequently held by Cape as security against advance royalties until the Revolt in the Desert abridgement was delivered. Nonetheless, it remained virtually unknown until this magnificent, long-overdue edition. Item #008899
Price: $600.00