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LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Autograph letter signed ('T.E. Shaw') to [C. and C.] McLeish, n.p., 5 October 1926, ½ page, 4to, autograph envelope postmarked '[RAF Cranwell] Lincs', annotated in pencil in an unidentified hand.

Details
LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Autograph letter signed ('T.E. Shaw') to [C. and C.] McLeish, n.p., 5 October 1926, ½ page, 4to, autograph envelope postmarked '[RAF Cranwell] Lincs', annotated in pencil in an unidentified hand.

A letter to his favourite binders announcing a delay in the printing [of the Subscribers' Edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom]. 'I'm still hoping you will bind many copies of my book ... but it is delayed a while ... because of an accident to two coloured plates'.

Lawrence was at the RAF Cadet College at Cranwell when he revised the text and corrected the galleyproofs of the book. Eric Kennington, who had introduced the printer Manning Pike to Lawrence, found fault with some of the plates, so that the copies were finally ready for binding only at the end of October. Lawrence distributed them among several London binderies, stipulating that each copy should be different.

C. and C. McLeish bound over seventy of the total number of one hundred and seventy copies of the Subscribers' Edition, including the copy presented to King George V, the copy for Bernard Shaw, and Lawrence's own copy. The price to subscribers was thirty guineas, while the cost to Lawrence of the total number of copies amounted to the then very large sum of £13,000.
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