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 his mother

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[Bovington Camp]

22.11.23

A month has passed. This is going to Paoing. You told me to write to Vancouver, which I did, no doubt too late to overtake you. Shanghai you did not mention, and I haven't written there. If I had, it would no doubt have been too late also. You are fortunate to miss this November. It has been colder than any other in my memory. No news here or elsewhere. I sent you a Doughty by post the other day: and hope you get it. The postage was dear, and the book is rare, in that edition. Now Cape has brought out a £3.3.0 edition, of the complete book, on quite good paper. The identical print of course.

I am doing a little work for Cape, to fill up my odd moments: and Buxton (the banker) is looking for 100 subscribers of 30 guineas each, to make possible a private reprint of my book on Arabia. Hardy praised it, and makes me feel justified in giving it so much distribution. Of course there would be no reviews, no copies for public sale, and no profits.

I still see Hardy occasionally. John has painted (at my request) a very beautiful portrait of him. The old man is delighted, and Mrs. Hardy also. It is seldom that an artist is so fortunate in his sitter's eyes.

I've taken a little cottage (half ruinous) a mile from camp, and water-tighted it to act as a work-room for myself. There I hope in future to do my writing, which is becoming more and more a habit. No original stuff, of course: just translations. I hope not again to do anything of my own. It is not good for man to make things.

Nothing else I can think of to write. I hope the journey is not still wearisome to you: but you must be looking forward to its end: yet, you know, these journeys don't really end, till we do.

N.

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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