Letters T E by Lawrence: Signed (3 results)

Cloth. Condition: Near Fine. First edition. A fascinating set complete in two first editions illustrating T E Lawrence's intimate work with his biographers Robert Graves and Liddell Hart. A limited edition signed by Graves and Hart in slipcase. The first edition of this work, issued in a limited edition to one thousand numbered and signed copies, five hundred of which are printed for Great Britain. Complete in two volumes, with the original slipcase.Signed by Graves and Hart to each respective volumes on the limitation page.A fascinating set documenting the remarkable work of T E Lawrence with two of his biographers, Robert Graves and Liddell Hart. With letters, notes, answers to questions, and conversations that reveal the nature of the information provided and how Graves and Hart interpreted, as well as what Lawrence allowed them to take from it.Two volumes illustrated with a frontispiece to each volume. In the original publisher's cloth binding. Externally excellent with only minor shelfwear and a slight bumping to the head and tail of the spine. Signed by Robert Graves and Liddell Hart to each respective volumes on the limitation page. The cloth to the spine has slightly faded. Loosely inserted, three newspaper articles relating to Lawrence, dated 2010. With KG and GNL Edmonds' bookplate to the front pastedown. The slipcase is in excellent condition with minor shelfwear only. Internally, firmly bound. The pages are bright and clean. Illustrated with a frontispiece to each volume. Near Fine. Unnamed (illustrator). signed by author. book.…

First American edition, signed limited issue, number 419 of 1,000 copies. These works collect Lawrence's correspondence with two of his most famous biographers. The letters contained in these two works span 1920-35, revealing Lawrence's close connection with his biographers and his attempts to carefully control his reputation. The corrections to both Graves's and Liddell Hart's manuscripts take the form of strikethroughs and additions in italics, showing both Lawrence's attention to detail and his skill as a writer. Other matters are also discussed, such as Lawrence's opinions on the publication of I, Claudius (pp. 174-79 in Graves). The frontispiece in Graves is based on a pen-and-ink sketch he bought at the Caledonian Market. Robert Graves published the greatly successful biography Lawrence and the Arabs in 1927. Liddell Hart published his biography T. E. Lawrence in Arabia and After in 1934. O'Brien A214, A215; Higginson A49. 2 works, octavo. Portrait frontispieces, single halftone photographic plate; title pages printed in brown and black. Original light brown buckram, red spine labels, flat spines ruled in gilt and red, front covers lettered in blind, cream coated endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. With dust jackets. Housed in publisher's card slipcase with pictorial label and blurb. Covers, inner hinges, titles, and frontispieces with some foxing and tidemarks, otherwise clean; jackets clipped, variously toned, spines a little nicked, spine lettering faded; slipcase repaired at joints: a very good set in like jackets.…

First Edition. 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'. Signed.…