Clearwater Books

T.E.LAWRENCE. A Brief Record of the Advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under the Command of General Sir Edmund H.H.Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. July 1917 to October 1918. Compiled from Official Sources. Government Press and Survey of Egypt. Palestine News, Cairo 1919 [in fact December 1918]. The first edition, preceding the HMSO edition. 114pp + lvi plates of colour maps with descriptions to adjacent verso leaves. Portrait frontispiece of Allenby with his printed facsimile signature. Buff paper covers with a cloth spine. Covers lightly dust soiled. Endpapers and several preliminary and concluding leaves spotted and with some off-set browning to the front endpaper from a laid-in newspaper clipping. A very good copy. No dust wrapper, as issued. Includes two sections (Sherifian Co-operation in September and Story of the Arab Movement) compiled from Lawrence's official notes, unaccredited yet still his first published accounts of the Arab Campaign. Lawrence is also mentioned twice in the text. O’Brien (A011) notes that 16,000 copies were printed, yet this remains really quite uncommon. £200

T.E.LAWRENCE. Lowell Thomas. With Lawrence in Arabia. Hutchinson & Co., London [1925]. First UK edition, issued a year after the original American edition. 8vo. xiii, 317pp. With sixty-five captioned black and white photographs by Harry A.Chase. The backstrip cloth lightly faded, and the ends a little bruised. Just a trace of very light spotting to the fore- and bottom-edge, and to very occasional leaf margins. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. One of the earliest in-situ accounts of the Arab War and T.E.L.’s contribution to it (and now an uncommon item). Thomas (along with cameraman Harry Chase) met Lawrence in Jerusalem and the three spent several weeks together in the desert where they photographed and interviewed various Arab leaders, and shot dramatic footage of Lawrence that Thomas later used during his public lectures in the US and Britain to educate people on the war in Palestine. O’Brien E012. £250 

T.E.LAWRENCE. Aufstand in der Wuste. Translated into German and introduced by Dagobert von Mikusch. With a preface by Bernard Shaw (taken from a contribution to The Spectator), and illustrated with four plates and a folding map. Paul List Verlag, Leipzig [1927]. The first German edition of Revolt in the Desert. Royal 8vo. 355pp. Covers a little dusty, marked and spotted with some uneven browning. Endpaper hinges cracked and tender, and with a little browning and staining to a dozen preliminary leaves, mostly only impacting the margins. A short tear to the natural fold of the map page. A good copy. No jacket, as issued. O'Brien A116. £25

T.E.LAWRENCE (interest). The Bibliophile's Almanack for 1928. Edited by Oliver Simon and Harold Child. The Fleuron Ltd., London 1928. The deluxe issue of the first edition, printed on handmade paper at The Curwen Press and limited to 120 numbered copies (this being #11). 8vo. 85pp + [xiii] advertisements. Buckram-backed paper-covered boards. Boards lightly soiled in places and with just a hint of toning to the free endpapers. A very good copy. No dust wrapper, possibly as issued. Includes Herbert Read’s somewhat controversial and defamatory seven-page review of T.E.Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (“By the time this note appears, the topical interest of Colonel Lawrence’s book will have subsided…the meditative reader will wonder if, after all, it was a great book: whether all that the reviewers said about it was really true; whether Bernard Shaw is to be trusted as a critic of literature; and what good, finally, is the newspaper reputation of any book”).O’Brien F0093. £125

T.E.LAWRENCE. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A Triumph. Jonathan Cape, London 1935. First trade edition. 4to. 672pp. Brown buckram lettered in gold at the spine and with gilt crossed swords motif to the upper board. Pages untrimmed. With a frontispiece and fifty-three illustrations (by Augustus John, Eric Kennington, Gilbert Spencer, William Nicholson et al) and four folding maps printed in red and black. Top edge dust soiled and spotted. The buckram very lightly marked in two or three places. The binding cracked at the title page with the webbing visible and the whole somewhat shaken as a result. Some spotting to the endpapers and to a dozen preliminary and concluding leaves. Handsome former owner bookplate to the front pastedown, partly pasted over the inked details of a prior owner. A fair copy in quite poor dust wrapper, considerably soiled, chafed and torn, with several inches of loss from the spine panel ends, and a touch of further light wear. O’Brien A042. £200

T.E.LAWRENCE (interest). Great Contemporaries. Essays by Various Hands. Cassell & Co., Ltd., London 1935. First edition. 8vo. 464pp. A short slit to the base of the backstrip, and the free endpapers lightly and partially toned. A very good copy in the most uncommon dust wrapper, lightly toned, chafed and dust soiled, with two or three small areas of edge-loss. Basil Liddell Hart contributes a seventeen-page essay on T.E.Lawrence. Other contributors include J.W.N.Sullivan on Einstein, Louis Golding on Jacob Epstein, G.D.H.Cole on Henry Ford, J.L.Gray on Sigmund Freud, George Slocombe on Mahatma Gandhi, G.Ward Price on Adolf Hitler (a piece which has not aged quite a badly as one might have imagined), Sir Charles Petrie on Mussolini (I can’t say quite the same for this one), Herbert Read on Pablo Picasso, James Laver on Reinhardt, James Bridie on George Bernard Shaw, Ralph Fox on Stalin, and Compton Mackenzie on Venizelos. £95

T.E.LAWRENCE. R.H.Kiernan. Lawrence of Arabia. George G.Harrap & Co., Ltd., London 1935. First edition. 8vo. ix, 198pp. With a portrait frontispiece, seven photographic plates and three maps. A sliver of discolouration to the head of the upper board. Top edge spotted, and with a little further spotting to seven or eight preliminary leaves. Tiny dealer plate to the front pastedown, and a contemporary former owner gift inscription to the front free endpaper. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, lightly rubbed and nicked at several edges, and with a little dust soiling to the unprinted rear panel. A biographical study of T.E.Lawrence, aimed at “boys of all ages”. O’Brien E073. £95

T.E.LAWRENCE. Hendrik Van Loon. Van Loon on the Air. Broadcasts Delivered by Hendrik Willem Van Loon from The Studio of the National Broadcasting Company, Radio City, New York. George G Harrep & Co Limited, London, Bombay & Sydney 1936. First Edition. A slightly dusty but otherwise good copy with excellent tight binding. Missing dust wrapper. Contains T.E.Lawrence’s obituary. £20

T.E.LAWRENCE. S.C.Rolls. Steel Chariots in the Desert. The Story of an Armoured-Car Driver with the Duke of Westminster in Libya and in Arabia with T.E.Lawrence. Jonathan Cape, London 1937. First edition. 8vo. 286pp. Illustrated with two maps and six captioned photographic plates. A little wear to the backstrip ends and a single tiny circular scorch-mark to the upper board. A little surface abrasion and tape residue to the pastedowns and endpapers from the wrapper protector, and also the ghost of several brief inked and pencilled notes. A little light spotting to several preliminary and concluding leaves, and also to the plates and plate-adjacent leaves. Tiny dealer plate to the base of the front pastedown. Very good in good dust wrapper, marked and soiled, quite browned at the spine panel, chipped at the spine ends with some internal repair, and with a little tenderness to several natural folds. All four corners of the flaps have been clipped, impacting two areas of the printed text. A small corresponding scorch-hole to the front panel. A respectable copy of Sam Cottingham Rolls’ uncommon Great War memoirs. Most uncommon in the dust wrapper. O’Brien E114. £250

T.E.LAWRENCE. Christopher Caudwell. Studies in a Dying Culture. Essays. With an introduction by John Strachey. John Lane, The Bodley Head, London  1938. First edition. 8vo. xxv, 228pp. The tip of one corner gently knocked. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper, and with a small colour plate and an accompanying gift inscription to the same owner pasted to the front pastedown. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, faded at the spine panel, and somewhat rubbed, nicked, chafed and chipped. Includes a twenty-four page essay on T.E.Lawrence (“A Study in Heroism”). O’Brien F0197c. £125

T.E.LAWRENCE. Men in Print. Essays in Literary Criticism. With an introduction by A.W.Lawrence. The Golden Cockerel Press, [London] 1940. First edition, limited to 500 numbered copies (this being #457) printed by Christopher Sandford and Owen Rutter in Perpetua type on Arnold's mould-made paper. Small 4to. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in quarter blue Niger with cream linen boards, gilt lettered at the spine with five raised bands. Top edge gilt. A light scattering of spotting to the upper board, and the Niger quite faded at the backstrip. Armorial bookplate of Sir Michael Oppenheimer and Lady Oppenheimer to the front pastedown. A very good copy. Contains five essays by Lawrence, including reviews of works D.H.Lawrence, H.G.Wells and James Elroy Flecker, plus his noteworthy Criticism of Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter, with some remarks on the style of Doughty's Arabia Deserta, (Lawrence’s suggested alterations were subsequently incorporated by Williamson into the text of the fourth edition of Tarka). O'Brien A229. £250

T.E.LAWRENCE. The Mint. Notes made in the RAF Depot 1922 and at cadet Collegee in 1925. Regrouped and copied in 1927 and 1928 at Karachi. Doubleday, New York 1955. The deluxe edition, limited to 1000 numbered copies (preceding the deluxe  UK edition). Small 4to. Dark blue covers with gilt lettering, triflingly rubbed at head of spine. A very good copy, lacking the slipcase. O'Brien A167. £85

A book with a complex publication history, Lawrence began making notes for it when he joined the RAF in 1922 and he was still making revisions in the last moths of his life. In 1936 the manuscript found its way to America and, in order to control publication a limited issue of 50 copies was produced - 10 of which were for sale priced at $500,000 each in order to prevent purchases. Following the death of an officer Lawrence describes unfavourably, a revised edition was published in 1955 in both a limited edition (2,000 copies in the UK and 1,000 in the US) and a trade issue -  all of these states having the objectionable words lifted from the text. A definitive unexpurgated edition did not appear until 1973. 

T.E.LAWRENCE. The Mint. A Day-book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922. With later notes by 352087 A/c Ross (i.e. T.E.Lawrence). Jonathan Cape, London 1955. First UK edition, of which 2,000 numbered copies were printed (this being #1461). 4to. 206pp. Original publisher’s quarter blue morocco with cloth sides. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Handsome marbled endpapers. Just a hint of wear to the corner tips and to several extremities, and a small area of fading to the head of the rear board. Very good indeed. No dust wrapper, as issued, but lacking the slipcase. Published posthumously and edited by Lawrence's brother, this issue precedes the trade issue which appeared later the same year. O’Brien A172. £125

T.E.LAWRENCE. Eric Lönnroth. Lawrence of Arabia. An Historical Appreciation. Translated from the Swedish by Ruth Lewis. Vallentine, Mitchell & Co. Ltd., London 1956.  The first English-language edition (never reprinted). 8vo. xviii, 102pp. Illustrated with one map and a reproduction of a Turkish cartoon celebrating Lawrence's death. Cloth lightly marked and chafed in places. The free endpapers browned, and with touch of light spotting to the margins of very occasional text leaves. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little rubbed and nicked at several extremities and with a single short edge-tear to the head of the front panel. Tiny dealer plate to the base of the rear pastedown. A critical survey of T.E.L.’s place in history, originally published in Sweden in 1943. O’Brien E160. £35

T.E.LAWRENCE. Geoffrey Bond. The Lawrence of Arabia Story. Arco Publications, London 1960. First edition. 8vo. 160pp. A tiny trace of spotting to the front free endpaper, and the lesser quality paperstock somewhat tanned. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, with a touch of light dust soiling, and some light chafing to several natural folds. A most uncommon summary of the life of T.E.Lawrence, penned for younger readers. O’Brien E221. £75

T.E.LAWRENCE. Fifty Letters: 1920-1935. The catalogue of an October-December 1962 exhibition at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas. Printing Division, University of Texas, 1962. First edition, of which 2000 copies were printed. Landscape 8vo. 38pp stapled into quite lightly toned buff card wrappers. Illustrated with numerous reproductions and facsimiles. A very good copy. O’Brien E265. £35

T.E.LAWRENCE. Lawrence of Arabia. The Simple Facts. Compiled by Harry Broughton (sometime Mayor of Wareham). Privately published by the author [no date]. 8vo. 15pp. Stapled glossy card wrappers. Illustrated with eight photographs. Some light soiling and spotting to the wrappers. Very good. A brief chronological account of Lawrence's life and death, probably just a re-titled re-issue of Broughton’s Lawrence of Arabia, The Facts Without the Fiction (O’Brien E322). £10

T.E.LAWRENCE. Donald Weeks. T.E.Lawrence. An hitherto unknown Biographical/ Bibliographical Note. Privately printed at the Tragara Press, Edinburgh 1983. First edition, limited to 230 copies. 16pp. Somerville laid paper sewn into card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper. A detailed and scholarly analysis of TEL’s proof corrections to Wilfred Ewart's Scots Guard - the only known copy of any book corrected by Lawrence, involving over 200 corrections, all of which bar four were incorporated into the final book. Just a touch of wear to the upper and lower edges of the integral wrapper, else in fine state. O’Brien E393. £30

T.E.LAWRENCE. Charles Blackmore. In the Footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia. Harrap, London 1986. First edition. Small 4to. 160pp. Illustrated with over eighty-five maps and photographs, many in colour. A small indentation to the head of the boards, else a virtually fine copy in fine dust wrapper. The account of an expedition by four members of the Royal Green Jackets Regiment to retrace Lawrence's exploits in the Arab Revolt. O’Brien E406. £10

T.E.LAWRENCE. Jeremy Wilson. Lawrence of Arabia. The Authorised Biography of T.E.Lawrence. Heinemann, London 1989. First edition. 8vo. xi, 1188pp. Illustrated with fifty-two black and white photographs and reproductions. Top edge lightly spotted, and with a light vertical crease to the backstrip cloth. A very good copy in very lightly marked dust wrapper. A super copy of Wilson’s gargantuan biography of T.E.Lawrence. £60

T.E.LAWRENCE (interest). Herbert Hodgson. Herbert Hodgson. Printer. Work for T.E.Lawrence at Gregynog. The Fleece Press, Wakefield 1989. First edition, limited to 340 copies printed and published by Simon Lawrence at his Fleece Press. With a three-page introduction by Richard Knowles. 8vo. 43pp. Quarter cloth with decorated paper sides and a paper spine label. Tipped-in photographic frontispiece portrait of Hodgson. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for. The first appearance in print of the author’s account of his printing career, including his involvement with the 1926 Cranwell edition of T.E.Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. O’Brien F0509a. £75

T.E.LAWRENCE. James Barr. Setting the Desert on Fire. T.E.Lawrence and Britain’s Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918. W.W.Norton, New York 2008. The first American edition. 8vo. 382pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. Spine ends gently rubbed else a fine copy in dust wrapper, with a touch of corresponding wear to the spine panel ends. £15