Books

First US edition, large paper issue, number 37 of 250 copies. This was Lawrence's abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, published to support the production of his masterpiece. The origins of Revolt in the Desert lie in Lawrence's perilous financial situation in 1925 and his commercial acumen. The cost of producing Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) was ballooning to such an extent, from �3,000 to �13,000, that Lawrence was ready to sell either his library or some personal effects to defray this outlay. Eventually, however, he decided to raise money through an abridged version, editing the full text to reduce the contents by a third. "Lawrence felt that in Seven Pillars he had failed to create a work of the 'titanic' class: his aim in the abridgement was more modest and therefore more attainable. There was magnificent material in Seven Pillars for an uncomplicated adventure story, and Lawrence was determined to succeed" (Wilson, p. 768). Revolt in the Desert was officially published in both limited and trade issues on 10 March 1927 in England and 19 days later in the US. "Sales in America astonished no one more than the publisher, George H. Doran, who concluded that Lawrence 'had a capacity for a superbly arrogant modesty that brought him into a limelight that would have gratified the soul of P. T. Barnum as one of the great publicity triumphs of all time.' When Lawrence had set the price of the American copyright Seven Pillars at $20,000 a copy, he cannot have guessed how Doran would use it: [Doran wrote that] 'never was better publishing publicity conceived. the public flocked to buy the slightly abridged. book for $3'" (Wilson, pp. 791-92). O'Brien A105. Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence, 1989. Quarto. Original dark blue cloth, red morocco spine label, dark blue endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Colour frontispiece, 18 plates (10 in colour with captioned tissue guards), folding map in red and black. Spine colour rubbed away, front cover lower corner a little bumped, front inner hinge just starting, repaired closed tear at foot of frontispiece, contents clean: a very good copy.