The Mint. A day-book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922 with later notes by 352087 A/c Ross.

First UK edition, limited issue, number 11 of 2,000 copies, of Lawrence's account of his time in the RAF. This copy was owned by B. H. Liddell Hart, one of Lawrence's early biographers, and contains an invoice addressed to Liddell Hart from John & Edward Bumpus dated 14 February 1955. Captain B. H. Liddell Hart's first known contact with Lawrence was in 1921. They developed a lifelong friendship, and Liddell Hart published T. E. Lawrence in Arabia and After in 1934. The invoice shows that he bought this copy along with a standard edition of the work. "One of Lawrence's avowed purposes in joining the RAF. was to write of the ranks from the inside. He began immediately making notes when he enlisted in 1922. With his dismissal in January 1923, because of unfavourable publicity, the project was set aside, not to be taken up again until he was posted to India in 1927. In March 1928 he sent a clean copy of the revised text to Edward Garnett [who] had copies typed which were circulated to a small circle, among them Air Marshal Trenchard", whose response "led Lawrence to guarantee that it would not be published at least until 1950" (O'Brien). In 1936 the manuscript was sent to America and "in order to control publication, it was found necessary to have a copyright edition published" (O'Brien). This US edition had only 50 copies printed and 10 of these offered for sale at the prohibitive price of $500,000. Based on a late revision by Lawrence, the present version was set up by Cape in 1948 but not published until after the death of an officer mentioned unfavourably in the text. O'Brien A172. Quarto. Title page and prospectus in red and black; recent postcard of Lawrence loosely inserted. Original blue quarter imitation pigskin, spine gilt-lettered direct, blue cloth boards, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Housed in publisher's card slipcase in black and pink, limitation marked in pencil on spine. Light foxing to endpapers; slipcase with price as issued, ends slightly chipped, two small perforations to one panel: a near-fine copy.…