HUDSON, WILLIAM HENRY. 153 Letters. London: Nonesuch Press, 1923.
8vo. Edited by Edward Garnett. Original buckram. Slightly bumped.
Provenance: inscribed "'T E Shaw' from Edward Garnett, Nov / 23"; Sir William Rothenstein (bookplate).

T.E. LAWRENCE'S COPY, presented to him by the man who strove to get Seven Pillars of Wisdom published, and later owned by one of the illustrators of that work. In a letter of September 26, 1923 to Garnett, Lawrence had remarked that "books as refined as Hudson's are not proper: and yet I'd like one very much. Will you send me that which people least want? the one which has lingered on your shelf?"
A well-known agent and editor, Garnett [1868–1937] was also friend and advisor to Conrad, Galsworthy, D.H. Lawrence, and, most notably, T.E. Lawrence. He helped abbreviate Seven Pillars and tried to broker a deal with Jonathan Cape. In 1928, Lawrence presented him with the manuscript of The Mint. That manuscript, and the abridged Seven Pillars, are now in the Houghton Library at Harvard.
Rothenstein was a friend of Lawrence, had painted him in Arab dress, and was one of several artists commissioned to illustrate the 1926 subscriber's edition of Seven Pillars. Limited edition, no 246 of 1,000 copies.