T.E. Lawrence | Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and Crusader Castles, 1935-36, 2 volumes

T. E. Lawrence

Two works: 

(i) Seven Pillars of Wisdom. New York: Country Life Press for Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935. Second American edition, LIMITED ISSUE, NUMBER 448 OF 750 COPIES, frontispiece and 47 plates after Augustus John, Eric Kennington, Lawrence and others, 4 colour-printed collotypes, 4 maps printed in red and black, and 3 collotype facsimiles (one folding), original morocco-backed buckram over bevelled boards, spine titled in gilt, top edge red, others uncut, slipcase, dust-jacket torn and with spine detached (loosely preserved between rear endpapers

(ii) Crusader Castles. Waltham St. Lawrence: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1936. FIRST EDITION, NUMBER 184 OF 1,000 COPIES PRINTED IN PERPETUA TYPE ON MOULD-MADE PAPER, 2 volumes, 8vo, foreword by A.W. Lawrence, titles printed in red, 166 reproductions of drawings, plans and sketches, with 2 large folding maps printed on japon in separate folder, original half morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, top edges gilt, others uncut, housed in original buckram slipcase, slight staining and discolouration to covers

After Lawrence's death in 1935, there was a great deal of interest in his work and ideas. Seven Pillars had been through a long and complicated history before the 'corrected text' of the special subscribers' edition was finally published in 1926 but it was not reprinted until after the author's death, following which a number of editions appeared in quick succession - including this American deluxe issue. Also in the aftermath of Lawrence's death, Christopher Sandford and his partners at the Golden Cockerel Press persuaded Lawrence's brother and executor, A.W. Lawrence, to allow them to publish Lawrence's Oxford thesis about the castles of the crusaders, which he had written following his bicycle trips to the medieval castles of France in the summers of 1907 and 1908, and further trips to Lebanon and Syria in 1909. The second volume contains his letters home to his mother during his research. 

LITERATURE:

(i) O'Brien A053

(ii) O'Brien A188, 189