LAWRENCE, T.E

The seven pillars of wisdom. A triumph

      London, [1935]. Third [i.e. second complete] edition overall, preceded by the incomplete "Oxford Edition" of 1922 (8 copies only were printed, 6 still extant) and the rare privately printed "Subscriber's Edition" of 1927 (170 copies); this is the first trade edition (there was also a limited issue of 750 numbered copies); sm. 4to, pp. 672; uncut and largely unopened; frontis portrait of a bust of Lawrence, 4 folding maps, 2 facsimiles (1 double-p.), and illustrations throughout, some in color, by John, Kennington, Roberts, Lamb, Dobson, Sargent, Young, Gill, Spencer, Rothenstein, and Carline; 3 of the illustrations herein did not appear in the 1926 subscriber's edition, original brown buckram, gilt lettered spine; spine slightly discolored; original printed dust jacket with chips and tears at extremities (the largest about the size of a thumbnail) and without any loss of letterpress. Winston Churchill called this book of Lawrence of Arabia's covert activities in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire "one of the greatest books ever written in the English language." O'Brien A042