LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A Triumph. The Complete 1922 Text. Fordingbridge, Castle Hill Press, 1997.
Three volumes, 4to. Original canvas-backed boards, green leather labels, Vol. 3 (illustrations) in matching limp canvas, dust-jackets; Vol. 3 contains the illustrations, comprising the coloured and monochrome illustrations from the 1926 Subscribers' Edition, also many photographs; a fine set in the original maroon cloth slipcase, with the original prospectus and invoice included.
Limited to 752 numbered copies. Few people realize that the text of Seven Pillars, as first issued in the Subscribers' Edition of 1926 and the trade edition of 1935, is an abridgement of a much fuller work, completed in 1922. This earlier Seven Pillars, now here reprinted, is one third longer, containing an additional 83,000 words - equivalent to about 170 pages. Only 8 copies of this fuller text were printed by the Oxford Times in 1922, and the manuscript was donated to the Bodleian Library. It was this longer 1922 text which convinced Bernard Shaw and others that Lawrence had written a masterpiece. This handsomely produced limited edition includes a preface by Jeremy Wilson and 40 pages of editorial notes.
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