Books

First edition, limited issue, number 62 of 40 copies printed on Medway paper, from a full 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" (p. 46-47). The full edition comprises 30 copies on Canute paper, 40 on Medway, and 130 on parchment substitute paper. There are also 3 copies, not for sale, on papier d'Auvergne, green hand-made parchment paper, and grey Japanese paper. The vellum binding is described by O'Brien as for copies numbered 1–30. The standard binding is with a brown leather spine and mottled boards. READ MORE Quarto. Original vellum, yapp edges, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, rear cover with gilt Corvinus crow vignette, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, ivory silk ties. Housed in grey cloth slipcase. 13 collotype plates with loose tissue guards, colour illustration in text. Vellum clean and bright, tissue guards with a few tears or creased, faint offsetting to some plates, ties a touch foxed: a near-fine copy. O'Brien A194.