Towards an English Fourth, Fragments and Echoes of Seven Pillars of Wisdom 1918-21

Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 2009. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. Private Limited Edition. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. One of only 150 numbered copies of the large format edition, bound in quarter goatskin with embossed design to spine,this is a handsome significant volume in the Castle Hill Press subscription edition of T.E. Lawrence's works and letters. In original card slipcase Small attractive bookplate of previous owner to inside of front board. "Do you remember my telling you once that I collected a shelf of 'Titanic' books . . . and that they were The Karamazovs, Zarathustra, and Moby Dick. Well, my ambition was to make an English fourth." During the period 1919-22 T.E. Lawrence's intellectual and creative powers were at their zenith. At the Peace Conference, in Whitehall and at All Souls he mixed with some of the most brilliant men and women of his time. His personal outlook was informed by two cultures. His opinions drew on an extraordinary range of experience, and on first-hand knowledge of the peoples of the Middle East. His writings during this period show a breadth of analysis unparalleled in anything he wrote before or afterwards. In Seven Pillars of Wisdom and in essays like 'The Changing East' and 'Evolution of a Revolt' you can see the mind that impressed contemporaries such as Winston Churchill, Arnold Toynbee and Lionel Curtis. These qualities are surely one of the reasons why Seven Pillars of Wisdom has had such enduring appeal..