“It was an Arab war waged and led by Arabs for an Arab aim in Arabia” 45 LAWRENCE, T. E. The Foundations of Arab Revolt. London: Privately printed, 1924 £65,000 [ 157770 ] Robin Buxton’s copy, with the original mailing envelope addressed to him, of the famously rare first state of the prospectus for Seven Pillars of Wisdom , which includes the controversial first chapter subsequently omitted from all lifetime editions. Philip O’Brien, Lawrence’s award-winning bibliographer, remarks that
“about 100 copies were circulated in 1924 to friends and prospective purchasers of Seven Pillars“. O’Brien locates copies at four institutional libraries only: British Library, Bodleian, Harvard, and the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas. The second state, privately printed in 1925 and sent to subscribers in May of that year, was completely reset and omitted the first chapter. “In order to produce the subscription edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom Lawrence set up a printing company in which he became a nominal partner. He then employed a trainee printer, Manning Pike, who had been introduced to him by Eric Kennington. As a first step, Pike set up a number of specimen pages in alternate type sizes. After one of these had been chosen work began on typesetting the revised text. At the end of September 1924 a small number of proofs of the ‘Introductory’ book (chapters I–VIII) were circulated for comment. Seeking technical criticism of the typography and press-work, Lawrence sent copies to St John Hornby and Sydney Cockerell. Other copies went to friends who had backed the projected subscription edition, such as D. G. Hogarth and Lawrence’s banker R. V. Buxton. For literary judgment he sent a copy to Bernard Shaw . . . Few copies of this proof survive. It has a particular interest because it shows the text as it stood prior to Bernard Shaw’s criticisms. In particular, it is the only source for Lawrence’s revised text of the first chapter, suppressed at this stage on Shaw’s advice. The proof also contains libellous paragraphs for which Shaw produced alternative drafts, identical in length so as to minimise the cost of re-setting” (Wilson, NPG, p. 154). The first chapter was first published in part in The Letters of T. E. Lawrence (1938) and in full in Oriental Assembly (1939). David Garnett, editor of the Letters ,
Octavo, 44 pp. Original off-white wrappers, with original mailing envelope, postmarked London 28 April 1925, addressed to Lt. Col. R. V. Buxton DSO. Housed in a custom green quarter morocco solander box. Eric Kennington’s “Gadfly” illustration of Lawrence at p. 44, historiated initials by by Edward Wadsworth. General signs of light handling, some moderate creasing, a few marks to back of box but overall very good. ¶ O’Brien A035; Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence , 1989; Jeremy Wilson, T. E. Lawrence , NPG exhibition catalogue, 1988. Provenance: Robert “Robin” Buxton DSO (1883–1953), soldier, banker, and cricketer; with the original mailing envelope addressed to him. During the Arab Revolt Buxton, who, like Lawrence, had studied history at Oxford, served as an officer with the Imperial Camel Corps, working hand- in-glove with Lawrence; he is mentioned several times in Seven Pillars , perhaps most memorably in Chapter XCIX (“Buxton was an old Sudan official, speaking Arabic, and
describes it as “one of the most moving things Lawrence ever wrote”, before turning Lawrence’s words to address the wider issue of disillusionment with the war and the betrayal of a generation, and lessening Lawrence’s frank expression of the truth, as he saw it, of his part in the betrayal of the Arabs. Lawrence’s statement in this expunged chapter that the Arab Revolt was “an Arab war waged and led by Arabs for an Arab aim in Arabia” could not be clearer. Lawrence believed he was aiding their aim to make “a new nation, to restore a lost influence” and, in a vivid phrase, to build “an inspired dreampalace of their national thoughts”, continuing: “So high an aim called out the inherent nobility of their minds, and made them play a generous part in events; but when we won, it was charged against me that the British petrol royalties in Mesopotamia were become dubious, and French colonial policy ruined in the Levant. I am afraid that I hope so.” Lawrence James, acclaimed biographer of Lawrence, writes in ODNB that “Lawrence had not misled the Arabs, although he later wrote in Seven Pillars that he had worn a ‘mantle of fraud’ throughout the campaign. He had never been a plenipotentiary. The Arab leadership knew from the Anglophobe Egyptian press and Soviet Russia’s revelations of secret allied diplomacy in December 1917 that the allies had agreed to partition the Turkish empire. None the less Lawrence continued to feel a burden of shame in having been an accomplice to what he believed to have been a cynical betrayal of the Arabs”.
understanding nomadic ways; very patient, good-humoured, sympathetic”) and in the description in Chapter CI of the attack at Mudowwara (“Buxton a moment later called ‘Walk-march!’ to his men, and the four hundred camels, rising like one and roaring like the day of Judgement, started off”). After the war he became Lawrence’s bank manager and was closely involved in the financing of Seven Pillars of Wisdom . In fact, it was Buxton who suggested the scheme of an expensive subscriber’s edition. The present copy is the only one that has appeared at auction, having come from the exceptional Lawrence collection of Colonel P. L. Bradfer-Lawrence (1917– 2005), bibliophile and member of the Roxburghe Club (sold at Sotheby’s, 13 July 2006, lot 241). During the Second World War Bradfer-Lawrence served with 7 Field Company Royal Engineers in France, North Africa, Italy and Greece. Like Buxton, he was a keen cricketer.
SIXTY FINE ITEMS
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