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 Bruce Rogers

---

R.A.F.
Plymouth

28/VI/29

Dear B.R.

Two letters l owe you. l am so sorry. The abstracts I liked were written by Hobbes.* About the time of Charles II. If you do not like them, then I will do you what I can, if you will tell me what length each should be.

Twice lately I have sat down to get ahead with the work, and each time I have been sent for. Patience. Soon there will be some more script for you. Have begun book IX.

This page you send is beautiful: very light and sharp, and not prickly. The paper is light and clean. It will be an 'airy' book. I must try and be less solemn and measured in my rendering, to match your gaiety of letter. It is going to be a fine and distinguished piece pf printing.

I hope the gold problem will solve itself happily. I like the notion of it: indeed I see again how fortunate I am to be able to help make such beauty.

You suggested my correcting the faults W______ found, in proof think: is that right? The less one hacks about the proofs the better, surely. It is as you please, of course.

Yours sincerely

T E Shaw

*The same Hobbes, I think, as wrote Leviathan.

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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