Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Edward Garnett
13 Birmingham Street
Southampton
15.9.33.
Dear E.G.
I was very good of you to take that trouble about Dunn's poems. I have written to him about it.
Also about the Liddell Hart book. I talked freely to Howard about that yesterday, dashing up to London and back for the purpose. I had only just time left to get to Waterloo and catch the 6.30 after it: so the Allenby is still at Smith Square. I want to get him down to my cottage direct, when I can. Pastels are too delicate to suffer much travelling.
The D.H.L. MS. would be a delightful possession - but are you sure you want to break up your collection? It should be an asset for D.G. when he wants to build a new wing on to Hilton Hall!
I have now collected all my surviving books in my cottage: and am rather saddened at the gaps that declare themselves.* They have been in London, with friends, for 12 years, and open to borrowers, who seem to have borrowed one-sidedly: for I have now no Cranes, only one S. Reynolds: no early D.H.L.! Fortunately all the poems remain; only the prose has gone; and I like reading - re-reading - poetry better than prose, I feel, as I get older. I have six volumes of D.H.L. poetry: and bit by bit I shall restore the missing prose books. There are about 1,000 books surviving: so that 200 or 300 alone need be replaced. If I have such a shelf-full, my old age will be provided for.
If you do decide to distribute your D.H.L. manuscripts, a poem by him could be inserted in Look We Have Come Through or his early volume (according to date of MS. poem) and it would be pleasant to possess: only, as I said, do not let the thought of that sway you towards dispersing your estate.
I wish we could meet. When the days get rough, I shall try to reach London occasionally.
T.E.S.
*All Hudson, most Conrad, some Doughty.
| Source: | DG 776-7 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 20 January 2006 |
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