LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom a triumph. London, Jonathan Cape, 1935.
4to. Original brown buckram, spine lettered in gilt, upper board blocked in gilt with crossed sword design, top edges brown, others uncut; pp. 672; frontispiece and 47 photogravure plates by John Swain & Son after Augustus John, Eric Kennington, Lawrence, and others, 4 folding maps printed by The Chiswick Press, Ltd in red and black and bound to throw clear; minimal fading to extremities, no offsetting from endpapers or frontispiece as frequently the case; a very clean and crisp copy, largely unopened.
First trade edition, first printing. Seven Pillars of Wisdom was first printed in 1922 in an edition of eight copies intended for Lawrence's use, of which only six copies survive intact; the 'Subscribers' or 'Cranwell' edition then followed in 1926, published privately in an edition of circa 211 copies and, as Lawrence wrote to Sotheran's on 24 April 1925, 'this thing is being given only to my friends and their friends. No copies are for sale'; and finally, after Lawrence's death in May 1935, the text was published in a trade edition by Jonathan Cape in July 1935. Such was the book's popularity that the first impression was quickly exhausted and second, third and fourth impressions were printed in the following month (August 1935).
O'Brien A042.
~b~[Together with]: 20 original photographs of T. E. Lawrence's home since 1924 until his untimely death in 1935, a cottage in Dorset, Clouds Hill, all taken and printed in 1935, including two of his funeral (measuring 210 by 160 mm, apart from two smaller ones) stamped K. N. Crowe, Photographer of Reading on versos and marked in ink as Property of the Executors of T. E. Shaw (the published pseudonym Lawrence took on when he joined the RAF). The photos show the exterior and interior of the cottage, including the door with a stone lintel above, which T. E. Lawrence had placed. Into this stone lintel Lawrence carved two Greek words, which translate roughly as as 'no worries'. The photos of the funeral are stamped on versos 'If used for reproduction due acknowledgement to be given to [in ink:] Pache Gazette'. The photo of the bookroom downstairs was used for reproduction in T.E. Lawrence by His Friends, published in 1937. The two smaller photographs measure 98 by 143 mm and show 'Clouds Hill Fine Tank (or swimming bath) across road from cottage' (pencilled caption on verso, in a hand not dissimilar to TEL's, but not enough text to be conclusive) and a fine Arabic double door with elaborate lattice work inside the cottage. All contained in an envelope addressed to Jock Chambers.
Provenance: A. E. 'Jock' Chambers was an orderly to Lawrence during his time at Farnborough and they became lifelong friends and exchanged letters. Chambers visited Lawrence several times at Clouds Hill. Lawrence instructed Chambers in literature and music, lent him books and paid for his membership of the London Library. The two kept in touch after Lawrence moved to Bovington and Chambers became a postal sorter in London. The Bodleian Library has a fine archive of T.E. Lawrence manuscripts, including 24 letters from Lawrence to Chambers, and also the original wrapping, of the parcel of books posted to Chambers on 13 May 1935, only minutes before Lawrence's fatal accident. Chambers died in 1987 at the age of 91. The photographs were passed from Jock Chambers to Geoff Pawling (died in 2024) and thence went through the trade.
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