LAWRENCE, T. E.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Typed letter signed from the London firm William Jackson to the journalist Lowell Thomas, care of his UK publisher, with Thomas's manuscript reply. A revealing unpublished correspondence between an export bookseller keen to secure copies of Lawrence's eagerly anticipated masterpiece and the journalist who, more than anyone else besides Lawrence himself, made the myth of "Lawrence of Arabia".William Jackson had a reputation for being rather pushy when it came to new titles, having ordered 100 copies of the first edition of Ulysses from Sylvia Beach and written to grumble when she could only provide 8. Lowell Thomas, who had recently published With Lawrence in Arabia in the US (1924) and the UK (1925, Hutchinson & Co.), was the natural person to hound for information on Lawrence's writings. Jackson writes that he has read in the press of the forthcoming book (referred to as "Seven Pillars" but more likely the planned abridgement, Revolt in the Desert) and is "anxious to obtain several copies of it". He asks Thomas for any leads and for Lawrence's address, noting that "I have written several times to Col. Lawrence but, so far, have not been successful in obtaining a reply". Thomas's undated reply, scribbled at the foot of Jackson's letter and mailed back to him, is a polite rebuff: "Am very sorry but I do not know where Colonel Lawrence is at present. But Mr. Frank Doubleday, the American publisher, Garden City, Long Island, can tell you all about the book if you haven't found o

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.