The Mint by T. E. Lawrence - 1955

London: Jonathan Cape. Fine in Fine dust jacket. 1955. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine book, no names or inscriptions, un-bumped, un-faded, airforce-blue buckram boards, top block edge blue, only blemish is one v. Faint small foxing mark on front free end paper, owners light neat name stamp on rear fixed end paper under rear flyleaf. Laid in is a order card from Jonathan Cape for a copy of Now & Then, presumably from the original release. Now placed in an acid free sleeve. Fine DJ, front flyleaf price clipped by publisher leaving rear flyleaf un-price clipped (17/6) , DJ spine lightly toned. Published posthumously in 1955, it describes TE Lawrence's time in the royal Air Force. It covers a period of time after WW1, where he decided to disappear from public life and enlisted in the RAF under an assumed name, becoming 352087 Aircraftman Ross. Lawrence stated that the book should not be published until after his death, in a prefatory note by his brother AW Lawrence who edited the text for publication. In a letter to EM Forster, Lawrence said "he felt unable to publish the book because of the horror the fellows with me in the force would feel at my giving them away… so The Mint shall not be circulated before 1950'. Lawrence's brother took further precaution by substituting names in the expurgated edition in all passages that might cause embarrassment or distress. The book likens the RAF training to a coin factory, with the men being the raw material and life in the training camp being the mill that stamps the coins out of blank material. ; Small 4to 9" - 11" tall; 206 pages .