One of the great Books of our Time (Churchill)
LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom a triumph. London: Jonathan Cape. 1935.
4to. Original pigskin-backed brown buckram, spine lettered in gilt, upper board blocked in gilt with crossed sword design, top edge gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers, housed in a matching contemporary quarter calf slipcase; pp. 672; frontispiece and 47 photogravure plates by John Swain & Son after Augustus John, Eric Kennington, Lawrence, and others (four in colour), four folding maps printed by The Chiswick Press, Ltd in red and black and bound to throw clear, three facsimiles (one double-page, all captioned in red print on versos); minimal fading and light rubbing to binding; internally very good.
First limited trade edition (number 620 of 750 copies printed). This edition contains four plates in colour (black and white in the unlimited issue), and three facsimiles exclusive to this edition.
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 A041.
SKU: 2124020