T. E. Lawrence

Contents lists

1888-1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915-16

1917-18

1919-20

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

Updated June 2012

T. E. Lawrence to Jonathan Cape

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14.11.23.

Dear Cape,

I think this is a coming thing, though you won't think it, the man being a poet and his work verse. Augustus John showed it me, and I think it very good. Man is 21, and a believer in Keats and Shelley and Moby Dick, with other influences visible:- but the thing is very good. He wants a publisher, so John told me, and I think it might pay you (especially is you covet the Heinemann succession) to write to him. Keep Aug. John also in mind. A John drawing would help the book, and J. is keen on the man: has painted him rather well.

About my own work. Buxton, my banker, holds to his 100 copies at £30: and is sounding about to see what names he can find. Curtis and Hogarth are exploring the region of £10.10.0. subscribers. So these are variant plans. The millionaire solution is easiest.

If you get that copy out of Garvin please let me know.

Yours

T.E.

Note. In the first paragraph Lawrence is referring to The Flaming Terrapin, by Roy Campbell. Cape published it the following year.

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T. E. Lawrence chronology

1888 16 August: born at Tremadoc, Wales

1896-1907: City of Oxford High School for Boys

1907-9: Jesus College, Oxford, B.A., 1st Class Hons, 1909

1910-14: Magdalen College, Oxford (Senior Demy), while working at the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish

1915-16: Military Intelligence Dept, Cairo

1916-18: Liaison Officer with the Arab Revolt

1919: Attended the Paris Peace Conference

1919-22: wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom

1921-2: Adviser on Arab Affairs to Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office

1922 August: Enlisted in the Ranks of the RAF

1923 January: discharged from the RAF

1923 March: enlisted in the Tank Corps

1923: translated a French novel, The Forest Giant

1924-6: prepared the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom

1927-8: stationed at Karachi, then Miranshah

1927 March: Revolt in the Desert, an abridgement of Seven Pillars, published

1928: completed The Mint, began translating Homer's Odyssey

1929-33: stationed at Plymouth

1931: started working on RAF boats

1932: his translation of the Odyssey published

1933-5: attached to MAEE, Felixstowe

1935 February: retired from the RAF

1935 19 May: died from injuries received in a motor-cycle crash on 13 May

1935 21 May: buried at Moreton, Dorset