![[Americana.]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2006-09%252F22%252F7332891-4-1.JPG%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
Darren Sutherland
Specialist
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
The 20th Century
Lot 183
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ON THE MIDDLE EAST. LAWRENCE, T.E. 1888-1935. Autograph letter signed ("TE Lawrence") to James Louis Garvin, editor of The Observer, with a piquant observation on the Middle East, but declining to write about it,
21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$4,864 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ON THE MIDDLE EAST.
LAWRENCE, T.E. 1888-1935. Autograph letter signed ("TE Lawrence") to James Louis Garvin, editor of The Observer, with a piquant observation on the Middle East, but declining to write about it, 2 pp, recto only on bifoliate leaf, 8vo 175 x 113 mm, [London], November 18, 1919, leaves taped together at upper edge, some paper losses, browning and soiling.
LAWRENCE OFFERS GARVIN COMMENTARY ON THE MIDDLE EAST, writing "... I'd be delighted to talk to you personally about the Middle East: (which looks a sad tangle, because our focus is wrong: all's very well, really): only I can't write, either now or in the future about it, since most of my views are based on official information, and it wouldn't do to give it away." Lawrence had successfully enabled the Arab Revolt in Syria earning his famous nickname, but had promised, along with the British government, Arab independence after the war. The failure of the British Government to live up to that promise caused him great personal embarrassment, and he expressed the problem in a September 11, 1919, letter published in The Times (and referenced here). Although he notes he is unable to write on the subject, he was already hard at work on the manuscript for his masterpiece Seven Pillars of Wisdom, finally completed in 1922, and published in 1926.
LAWRENCE OFFERS GARVIN COMMENTARY ON THE MIDDLE EAST, writing "... I'd be delighted to talk to you personally about the Middle East: (which looks a sad tangle, because our focus is wrong: all's very well, really): only I can't write, either now or in the future about it, since most of my views are based on official information, and it wouldn't do to give it away." Lawrence had successfully enabled the Arab Revolt in Syria earning his famous nickname, but had promised, along with the British government, Arab independence after the war. The failure of the British Government to live up to that promise caused him great personal embarrassment, and he expressed the problem in a September 11, 1919, letter published in The Times (and referenced here). Although he notes he is unable to write on the subject, he was already hard at work on the manuscript for his masterpiece Seven Pillars of Wisdom, finally completed in 1922, and published in 1926.