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

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Royal Air Force
Plymouth

1/XI/30

Dear B.R.

I am so sorry things have become difficult. I had no notion they were like that.

I'll do my best to finish the Odyssey by March and will do it, subject to the R.A.F. leaving me alone to work all my spare time. It will, of course, he done as well as I can do it. Miss Saunders shall have more to type next week.

I have suggested to Winston that he should get into touch with you, about the format of Marlborough. It will be an important book, and his suggested page did not appeal to me. Smug, I thought it and rather dull.

Now that the press has learned your method, I see no reason why they should not do nearly all the setting, just leaving you to do the final touches. I wish I could get along quicker. You could draw three roundels while I do one book!

I hope Mrs. Rogers is making progress. I will, try and see you before the end of the year: but must be in the last four books first.

Yours

T E Shaw

By the way, in Book XVII, where Telemachus for whole pages tells Penelope of his visit to Menelaus, I have abridged - by about 20 per cent. I think. I hope you will agree, when you read it.

TES

I have been quick. The stuff is not as bad as I had feared. XIII is quite decent. I have prepared up to XXI; and finished XVIII, all bar fair copying. So you may have it all by March, yet.

TES.

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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