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Significant unsigned handwritten manuscript in pencil by George Bernard Shaw on behalf of his friend T. E. Lawrence, two pages, 4.25 x 8.25, no date but circa 1926. Shaw writes, in part: "This book, written in 1919, was printed in full on a newspaper machine at Oxford shortly after, not for publication, but for my own convenience and that of my friends. As they demanded a more presentable edition and were willing to pay an extravagant price for it, I reprinted it for them in a satisfactorily artistic form in 1926, with copious pictorial documentation and decoration. For reasons which will be obvious without statement or else unintelligible, however lucidly stated, I was determined not to coin the blood of the Arabs, to say nothing of my own, into drachmas: in short, not to make money out of the experiences narrated in this book. I purposely spent so much more on the reprint than even an extravagant price could cover that I find myself obliged to recover my solvency by sanctioning the publication at large of the present abridgement. It amounts to less than half the original text, which occupied the reading hours of my friends for months. Except for special private purposes the part is better than the whole, and presents it more efficiently." Handsomely custom-bound with a typed transcript of Shaw's draft, plus a typescript of the published version, in contemporary light brown half morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the upper cover blocked in gilt with crossed-daggers motif and spine lettered in gilt, with accompanying slipcase. In fine condition, with two small torn file holes to the top edges of Shaw's draft, and the ex-libris bookplate of Edward B. King affixed inside the front cover.
This manuscript represents an interim stage between Lawrence's first draft, sent to Charlotte Shaw on 24 June 1926, and the final version. Charlotte noted that Shaw worked on his revision in the morning of 27 June, and she sent it off the next day. The published version (signed 'T.E.L.') differs completely from Lawrence's first draft (now in the British Library) and includes minor variants of Shaw's revision in the first two paragraphs, while omitting Shaw's sentence: 'For reasons which will be either obvious without statement or else unintelligible, however lucidly stated, I was determined not to coin the blood of Arabs, to say nothing of my own, into drachmas: in short, not to make money out of the experiences narrated in this book.'
Revolt in the Desert by T. E. Lawrence, written in three months in 1926, was the abridged version of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and was principally intended to make money to pay off debts that Lawrence had incurred from the extravagant and expensive 'Subscribers' edition.' The copyright of the abridgement was owned by a board of trustees and the eventual profits went to charity. Ironically, it was far more profitable than any of Lawrence's other works. The survival of the present manuscript resolves the previous uncertainty about the extent of Shaw's contribution. Lawrence's original draft and the related letters are published in The Correspondence of T.E. Lawrence and Bernard and Charlotte Shaw (2000), ed. Jeremy and Nicole Wilson.
Provenance: The Halsted B. Vander Poel Collection of English Literature, Christie's, March 3, 2004.
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