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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Plymouth

30/X/31

Dear B.R.

I am still working on Book XXII, the battle and murder book, trying to speed up its bloodthirstiness. There is a note by you on page 8, saying that it is a disappointment. That I feel, and felt, before it went to you. I have tried my best to bring it up to something, and cannot. I incline to blame Homer. It has now been by me for another fortnight, and I have bettered it, but only in negligible detail.

There is a doubtful point. 'Up went Melanthius the herder of goats, by way of the hall louvres...' W. suggested 'lantern': but a lantern was for light to come in, and louvres for smoke to go out. I could say 'smoke-vents' for louvres, if the French word (used by English mediaeval builders, of course) feels wrong to you. Or you could say

'by the smoke-ways in the hall' (a)
'by the smoke-vents of the hall' (b)
'by the hall-louvres' (c)

At present the line reads as I first quote it. a. b. and c. are alternatives. I have put them into the margin of the type-script, so if you tell Merton 'Book XXII page 5 read alternative (above) for the text,' it will be done.

You will find XXIII and XXIV equal failures with XXII. The Odyssey goes to pieces now. It is not that I have been careless or fatigued. They have cost me more pains than anything after Book I. I think that XXII is probably the worst writing of all, for 0-Homer's skill lay in the domestic touches, and the battle gave no scope for that. He has lavished tiny detail on XXIII and XXIV, to try and pull them together - vainly.

I hope our finance troubles are not wrecking the prospects of the firm's getting away with their edition. It is a stormy season for the launch of a new dear book.

1 hope you may get XXIII and XXIV soon, and know that the worst is really over. That will hearten you to finish the drawings, and then the job is done. I am looking forward very much to handling the complete book. It's going to be a visual pleasure.

Is Mrs. Rogers still maintaining her improvement? She was so clearly better, that last time I saw you. Probably this money trouble will keep you in the States, now; I am sorry. Bother the Banks!

Yours

T E Shaw

Sorry about the pencil. I am in the office, and there is no ink at this desk.

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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