Books

London: Jonathan Cape 30 Bedford Square, 1927. [2], 445pp, [1]. With half-title/limitation, coloured frontispiece portrait of Lawrence, eighteen further illustrations, nine of which are coloured, and a large folding map to rear. Original publisher's brown quarter-pigskin over sand-coloured buckram boards, gilt. Dustwrapper. T.E.G., others uncut. A remarkably preserved copy, with only the slightest of shelf-wear externally, bookplate (a skull with the initials PMF) and slight marking to FEP, else fine. Dustwrapper (correctly displaying 'Limited Edition' to spine and upper board panels) with some loss and tearing, tape removal marks to verso, inner flaps trimmed at both corners. In an effort to recoup some of the costs of the production of the 1926 edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, British army officer, diplomat and man of letters T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) first contemplated selling his library at Pole Hill, Chingford, before settling on the publication of an abridgement…