LAWRENCE, T. E. - ALDINGTON, Richard.

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Lawrence L'Imposteur: "T. E. Lawrence, the Legend and the Man." First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the first blank, "For Nin and Geoff from Richard. 1954. Hope you'll later read the English edition as this is miserably travestied and cut down." Aldington has made dozens of corrections in the margins of the text.Aldington knew that the French-language edition could be starker than the English equivalent because of France's looser libel laws, but its errors and jumbling of references exasperated him. The French title hints at the controversy that greeted the book's publication in the UK the following year (Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry). He offered "a scathing indictment of TEL. According to Aldington, 'the national hero turned out at least half a fraud.' Aldington became convinced that TEL was a vainglorious liar, a self-advertising poseur, and a charlatan. Aldington concluded that TEL's military exploits were strategically worthless, that the Arab Revolt that TEL himself had called 'a sideshow of a sideshow' had little significance to the Great War or even to General Allenby's successes in Palestine, and that TEL had exaggerated his exploits" (Crawford, p. 2). Liddell Hart was one of several prominent figures who tried to suppress the book and smear its author.Core members of Aldington's literary circle, the recipients were Ninette Dutton (née Trott, 1923-2007), the Australian artist and author, and her husband Geoffrey (1922-1998), a li

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