EIGHT LETTERS FROM T. E. L.
[Lawrence T. E.]
Published by N.P. Privately Printed [at the Corvinus or Westminster Press for Harley Granville-Barker] 1939
Used
Soft cover
From
Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 19 August 1998
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About this Item
Description:
LIMITED FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. One of only 50 copies printed after which the type was distributed. Small 4to, in the original gray paper wrappers, the upper cover lettered in black. 24 pp. A very fine copy, as pristine, of this rarely encountered publication. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, ONLY 50 COPIES WERE PRINTED PRIOR TO THE TYPE BEING DISPERSED. These eight letters from T. E. Lawrence [of Arabia] were printed for Harley Granville-Barker at the Westminster Press. Granville-Barker provides a brief introduction. Copies rarely appear on the market, and only five copies have gone through public auction houses in the last 35 years. The recipient of these letters, Harley Granville-Barker, was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directing and was a major figure in British theatre in the Edwardian and inter-war periods. In the first letter included, dated December 2, 1923, Lawrence ask Granville-Barker if he would try reading his book (The Seven Pillars of Wisdom) stating he has had one of his three available copies returned to him and that Granville-Barker could keep it as long as he liked. He also says of it- "The print is awful (very small, and squalid, and dazing in the eyes), the punctuation nil, the style priggish, the sense hysterical. But it is easy to skip, and after all, I don't ask people to read it, only to try." Four other letters make reference either to 'Seven Pillars' or to the subscription process for acquiring it in 1926. Harley Granville-Barker was in fact one of the original subscribers. Of the eight letters included only one had been previously published, having appeared in David Garnett's collection. Seller Inventory # 29935
Bibliographic Details
Title: EIGHT LETTERS FROM T. E. L.
Publisher: N.P. Privately Printed [at the Corvinus or Westminster Press for Harley Granville-Barker] 1939
Binding: Soft cover
Edition: 1st Edition
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EIGHT LETTERS FROM T. E. L.
Published by
privately printed, no place, 1939
Used
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Pp. 24; f'cap. 8vo; printed stiff grey paper wrappers with yapped edges, faintly soiled, edges slightly creased, with a couple of tiny chips; fore-edges uncut; hinge tender near centre; privately printed [London], 1939. First edition, limited to 50 copies. O'Brien A219. *The Liddell Hart copy, with his bookplate on the upper pastedown. Later from the libraries of Terence J. D. Linn, and (most recently) David Levine, Sydney, with their book labels on lower pastedown. B. H. Liddell Hart was a staunch admirer, friend (and later biographer) of T. E. Lawrence. The 50 copies were printed for Harley Granville-Barker to give as Christmas presents, after which the type was distributed. O'Brien (and Ridler before him) list this as a product of the Corvinus Press, but Nash & Flavell state 'There is nothing in the type, paper, or design to suggest that this item was printed at Red Lion Court, and I suspect that Ridler added it to the Corvinus canon simply because it was a Lawrence item, published during the lifetime of the Press, in which there was no explicit mention of another printer's name. O'Brien seems to have accepted Ridler's attribution without question' [The Corvinus Press, p. 173]. Hartley Granville-Barker (1877-1946) was an English actor, playwright, director and producer. The earliest letter, from late 1923, begins with a reference to Lawrence reading one of his plays and then asking 'whether you would agree to try and read my book' [Seven Pillars of Wisdom]. The print is awful (very small, and squalid, and dazing in the eyes), the punctuation nil, the style priggish, the sense hysterical. But it is easy to skip, and after all, I don't ask people to read it, only to try'. Four of the other letters also include reference to 'that awful book of mine' and to the subscription process for the book. (Granville-Baker was one of the subscribers). The letters, ranging in date from December 1923 to December 1932, were all written as 'T. E. Shaw'. Seller Inventory # 162725
Quantity: 1 available