Books

First edition, limited issue, number 292 of 315 copies, with colour plates replacing those printed in monochrome in the octavo trade edition. This hugely successful abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) was vital in defraying the soaring production costs of Lawrence's masterpiece and in establishing the fortunes of the Cape publishing house. It was Bernard Shaw who suggested to Lawrence that he fundraise for the £13,000 debt incurred from producing the limited "Cranwell" edition of Seven Pillars by writing an abridged version for a wider readership. Intent on not making an "excessive" profit from the idea, Lawrence ordered that no more copies be printed once his costs had been cleared. As a result, the fifth impression was the last, by which time 90,000 copies were in circulation, with many more still in demand. The public next encountered Lawrence's narrative in 1935, with the release of the first trade edition of the complete Seven Pillars. "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). Quarto. Original dark brown quarter pigskin, spine gilt-lettered direct, brown buckram covers with gilt vertical rule, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Colour frontispiece, 18 plates (10 in colour with tissue guards), folding map in red and black; title page in red and black. Spine and heads of covers sunned, rear cover lower corner bumped, plate opposite p. 64 missing tissue guard, old cloth repair to map stub, contents clean: a very good copy. O'Brien A101. Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence, 1989.