LAWRENCE, T.E. | Shaw-Ede... Letters to H.S. Ede, 1942, Golden Cockerel Press

From the Library of Alan Milne

LAWRENCE, T.E.

SHAW-EDE. T.E. LAWRENCE'S LETTERS TO H.S. EDE 1927-1935. FOREWORD AND RUNNING COMMENTARY BY H.S. EDE. WALTHAM ST. LAWRENCE: THE GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS, 1942.

4to, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, OF WHICH THIS IS NUMBER 17 OF 30 BOUND IN FULL MOROCCO AND WITH FACSIMILES OF FIVE OF THE LETTERS (comprised of seven pages of collotype facsimiles), with an additional inscription on the colophon "Including my signature | Jim Ede", and with a loosely inserted undated autograph note by Ede ("To Quentin Keynes I am spellbound at seeing this magnificent copy of TE's letters. I can't remember having seen it before"), original dark-blue crushed morocco gilt by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, top edge gilt, some minor spotting, spine slightly darkened, slight offsetting to endpapers (2)

The extra deluxe issue of this edition which reprints 43 of Lawrence's letters to the British art collector Jim Ede (1895-1990) who created Kettle's Yard in Cambridge to house and later show his important collection. Lawrence and Ede developed a close friendship. Only six of these letters appear in The Letters of T.E. Lawrence (see O'Brien). 

"From these letters it is apparent that Lawrence's friendship with Ede was spontaneous and and cordial. Mutual interest in topics of art, literature, morals, and life in general, prompted an intimate, revealing, and introspective honesty in their correspondence. It seems to us that in these letters, more than in any of his others, Lawrence's culture, taste, and wisdom are revealed in sharp contrast with his surprising idiosyncrasies" (Pertelote). The explorer and bibliophile Quentin Keynes (1921-2003) had first known Ede due to their shared interest in the work of the London-based French artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, purchasing drawings such as a study by Gaudier-Brzeska for his Heiratic Head of Ezra Pound from Ede. He probably lent this volume to Ede, who returned it with the addition of his signature on the colophon and the inserted note.

LITERATURE:

O'Brien A234; Pertelote 151

PROVENANCE:

Quentin Keynes, the sale of his library at Christie's, Part 4, 22 September 2004, lot 315

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