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First edition, limited issue, number 62 of 40 copies printed on Medway paper, from an edition of 203 copies, of which only 150 were for sale. This is the diary kept by Lawrence during his solitary walking tour of Syria in 1911. After graduating from Oxford, earning a first for his dissertation on crusader castles in Syria, Lawrence was employed through the influence of D. G. Hogarth at an archaeological dig in Northern Syria at Carchemish. When the dig was closed, Lawrence was free to further explore the country on foot through Syria. This "most ambitious and handsome volume published by the Corvinus Press" (O'Brien) reproduces his diary from the time, along with photographs from the expedition and letters to his mother written when he was in Carchemish, Tel Ahmar, and Jerablus. His letters often betray his feelings towards the Arab population he was living with, writing in the first that "fortunately there is no foreign influence as yet in the district: if only you had seen the ruination caused by the French influence, and to a lesser degree by the American, you would never wish it extended. Better a thousand times the Arab untouched" (pp. 46-47). The Corvinus Press was established by George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer, Viscount Carlow (1907-1944), a close friend of Lawrence who was at his deathbed in 1935. As a result, he was in a position to publish a number of high-quality editions of Lawrence's work, such as the present volume. This edition comprised 30 copies on Canute paper, 40 on Medway, and 130 on parchment substitute paper. There were also 3 copies, not for sale, on papier d'Auvergne, green handmade parchment paper, and grey Japanese paper. The standard binding is with a brown leather spine and mottled boards. O'Brien A194. Quarto. Original vellum, yapp edges, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, rear cover with gilt Corvinus crow vignette, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, silk ties. Housed in custom grey cloth slipcase. Thirteen collotype plates with loose tissue guards, color illustration in text. Vellum clean and bright, tissue guards with a few tears or creases, faint offsetting to some plates, ties a touch foxed: a near-fine copy.