The first trade edition
LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward. 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, in the original dust-wrappers (this with minimal fraying and very light spotting); 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, one map re-attached, no offsetting from endpapers or frontispiece as frequently the case.
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.
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