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War service 1914-1918

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T. E. Lawrence Studies list

September, 1997

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Threads: September 1997

Biographies: 20
T.E. Lawrence TV profile: 21-23, 25
Harry Chase film: 24, 26


0020) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 02:06:57 -0400
From: Jeremy Wilson
Subject: Biographies

I have been looking at TEL biographies, wondering which to take into consideration.

Mack and Wilson still represent, in their different ways, the modern serious biography.

Aldington, Stewart and James, I suppose, collectively represent the general critics.

The others seem to fall into distinct groups:

a) Lifetime biographies using some first-hand material: Lowell Thomas, Robert Graves, B.H. Liddell Hart. I think these deserve a separate look one day, to establish to what extent they were merely cumulative, and what other sources they used. Also, Liddell Hart's military comment is interesting - whether or not one agrees with it.

b) Interpretations, notably Victoria Ocampo - whether or not you agree with her. I hesitate to include Anthony Nutting in that bracket, but I suppose The Man and the Motive seeks to be an interpretation. I haven't yet read André Malraux - currently OP pending (I gather) minor corrections.

c) Specialist angles: e.g. Suleiman Mousa (for an Arab view), Jean Beraud Villars (for a French view), Sidney Sugerman (a Zionist view); Konrad Morsey (on the Arab Revolt) and all the literary studies (M.D. Allen, Jeffrey Meyers, Thomas O'Donnell, Stephen Tabachnick, et. al)

d) There is a large group of illustrated biographies, ranging from pot-boilers to seriously considered short biographies. I would put Richard Perceval Graves and Henri Laurence in the latter class.

e) a batch of popular biographies: R.H. Kiernan, Charles Edmonds, Flora Armitage etc etc.

I think I will focus my comparative comments, over the next few months, on Mack, Wilson, Aldington, Stewart, James. I would include Mousa, but I am not an Arabist so cannot read his revised edition. I know that his views on Lawrence have changed since the original edition.


0021) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 16:03:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: PW, UK
Subject: T E Lawrence TV profile

On National Geographic ( Satellite Channel )

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ( A profile of T E Lawrence 9-00....10-00 )

First shown 8-9-1997

A programme not to be missed. One of the best.

One or two discrepances. But good hand-tinted coloured photographs of Lawrence from the Lowell Thomas collection. Good archive film footage of the Arab Revolt. Wonderful film footage of Lawrence walking in the gardens with Feisal and entourage ( Paris Peace Conference.)

0022) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:21:42 -0500
From: MDM, USA
Subject: Re: T E Lawrence TV profile

Has this appeared on US cable tv or will it?


0023) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 09:41:56 -0700
From: Edward A. Jajko
Subject: Re: T.E. Lawrence TV Profile

I have no answer to MDM's query, whether the National Geographic program "T.E. Lawrence: a Profile" has appeared or will appear on US cable TV. I wish I had. Curiously, the National Geographic Society's web pages (http://www.nationalgeographic.com) do not mention the program. The only reference to TEL there is buried within a note about a palaeontological expedition to the Gobi, whose participants took along a copy of the video of the David Lean film as part of their entertainment.

 

0024) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 14:30:40 -0500 (CDT)
From: Ann Miller, USA
Subject: Harry Chase film

I think I read an interview with Lowell Thomas in which he said that all the materials for "With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia" had disappeared long ago. His films had been made with silver nitrate, and they crumbled with time. What is the figure regarding silent films - that 90-95% of all silent films ever made have disappeared, mostly due to the deterioriation of the film stock. Some were melted down for their silver content, and some just plain got lost.

But every year, some famous "lost" silent movie turns up, found in some recently-deceased person's icebox or something....

 

0025) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 19:58:23 +0100
From: TT, UK
Subject: Re: T.E. Lawrence TV Profile

Just a quick note to the "very well presented" National Geographic program you mentioned; at the very end of the documentary when the titles scrolled up the screen, it mentioned something to do with "In Association with the Discovery One Channel". Would this be an American channel perhaps and therefore does this help answer the question posed earlier about whether it's on cable etc. in America

 

0026) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 13:23:01 -0700
From: GH, USA
Subject: RE: Harry Chase film

The Lowell Thomas collection is at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, New York.



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