Lawrence, T.E.

Lawrence’s literary friendship with Williamson began in early 1928, when he sent Williamson, via Edward Garnett (see item (i) below), a detailed and encouraging critique of Tarka the Otter, mistakenly thinking it was Williamson’s first book. Williamson had read the serialisation of Lawrence’s Revolt in the Desert in the Daily Telegraph in January 1927 and had noticed a striking similarity in thought between Lawrence’s opening sentence and one of his own from the manuscript of Tarka: “It [then] seemed to me…that I knew Lawrence of Arabia…I knew we saw many things alike. Perhaps he was the friend I had always longed for: with whom even words would be superfluous. Otters and other wild animals knew each other entirely by a glance, an action…Dare I send Lawrence my book about an otter when it was published?” (Henry Williamson’s contribution to T.E. Lawrence: by his Friends, ed. A.W. Lawrence, 1937, pp.451-455). Their ensuing correspondence lasted until Lawrence’s death in 1935 (see the next lot for Lawrence’s last telegram, sent to Williamson on the morning of his fatal crash). In 1941 Williamson published a memoir of his friendship with Lawrence entitled Genius of Friendship, in which he describes their first meeting on 28 July 1929. Pre-empting the appearance of Aldington’s revealing biography of Lawrence, Williamson printed another version of his tribute in the European (May and June 1954) as “Threnos for T.E. Lawrence”, defending Lawrence’s behaviour, and to an extent, his own association with him. For more on the friendship between the two writers, see Anne Williamson, Henry Williamson: Tarka and the Last Romantic, 1995, pp.111-2, 116-7 et passim.

Apologising in his first letter for using a typewriter, which he hates ("...for I have a respect for print, born of a long career of effort to print well..."), and confessing that to him "Letter-writing is a horror", Lawrence comments on Williamson and his Tarka the Otter  ("...Had I known you were so established a writer I'd never have had the cheek to write down my prentice ideas about the book..."), reminiscing comfortingly about "the despair" with which he read his own Seven Pillars "in 1923, after forgetting about it for two years" ("...so incredibly unlike what I'd thought my talents (of which I'd had too good an opinion) would bring forth...").  He proceeds to comment  further on Williamson's book, which, he says "did move me, and gratify me, profoundly. It was the real stuff.", also reflecting on his distrust of philosophy, his enjoyment of the RAF, and the business of writing in general

...The Arab business was a freak in my living; and if I did the wonders they ascribe to me, then, it was wholly by accident, for in normal times I'm plumb ordinary. I don't believe the yarns they tell. Only it seems conceited to refuse to accept public opinion about oneself...

In subsequent letters, as the two men enter into a genial, revealing and fairly regular correspondence, Lawrence remarks on making a living by writing ("...The risk is that you may grow too rich: because then you'll have, like poor Belloc, always to do all sorts of dirty things to earn a little more..."); on various books (including Tarka, which he says he picks up often, a novel by Sassoon, and All Quiet on the Western Front  "...the screaming of a feeble man. It will not last as long as Tarka, except as a document..."); on his move to Plymouth; his agreeing to be Williamson's literary executor ("if it can be completed by April 1935, when my present life (R.A.F.) ends"); meetings and discussions ("...In 48 hours we could tear to pieces all contemporary books and begin English literature with a new clean sheet!..."); Williamson's further writings ("...Your writing scope grows on me..."), with extended critique of The Patriot's Progress, much praise for The Dream of Fair Women and a critique of Winged Victory, with its "Purple passages too purple", also comparing him favourably against Hugh Walpole and Richard Jefferies; his own Odyssey translation ("...the whole is approximation, a feeling towards what the author would have said...My version, and every version, is inevitably small..."); his compulsion to remain in camp; Williamson's pending visit to America ("...I hope you will not hate the U.S.A. So many people do, whereas it all sounds to me so strong and good..."); his motor-boating ("...My life is still boats and more boats...") and his "neglected bike"; James Hanley's novels ("...Unfair, morbid even: but gusty with life..."); the bookseller Kenneth Marshall (a letter from whom he encloses); Williamson's declared unhappiness ("...In the end we are all self-contained..."); his "half-ruin and wholly unfinished" cottage (Clouds Hill, which he describes); his forthcoming departure from the RAF ("...very sad, I think, this freedom will be at first: but then it should be a safe feeling...I'm not, I think, a lonely person; though often and generally alone..."); and the death of the writer V.M. Yeates (which, he says, "strikes me as a direct loss to myself: queer, for I'd never met him..."), among other subjects.

this revealing series to henry williamson reflects one of the major correspondences of lawrence's post-war life. It is probably the most important series of letters by Lawrence to have appeared for sale at auction.

included in the lot are:

i) Autograph letter signed by Edward Garnett, to Williamson, enclosing (not present) "a very remarkable letter from Colonel T.E. Lawrence" who "has sizzled with joy over Tarka" and pays Williamson "the handsomest tributes" ("...To have been read like this by a craftsman such as T.E. Lawrence is the finest tribute the book can receive..."), and suggesting that before replying to Lawrence Williamson should read Revolt in the Desert, 2 pages, 4to, Chelsea, 12 February 1928

It was Lawrence's lengthy and enthusiastic critique of Tarka the Otter for Garnett, a copy of which was sent with this letter, that began the literary friendship between Lawrence and Williamson. Williamson would incorporate the changes suggested by Lawrence, with acknowledgement, in his "slightly revised" fourth edition of the novel in 1928.

ii) Autograph letter signed by Williamson ("HW"), written in green ink, to T.E. Lawrence, clarifying at some length his request for Lawrence to be Williamson's literary erxecuttor ("...You see I [am] leaning on you, but only momentarily; I shant embarrass you or encumber you in the least..."), 4 pages, 8vo, Georgeham, N. Devon, 2 March 1929, later docketed by Williamson in red pencil in 1957

This letter was not sent but remained among Williamson's papers. Instead, he sent Lawrence a shorter letter on the same day (Correspondence, 2000, pp.72-73, where the present letter is not recorded).

iii) Autograph note by Williamson discussing D.H. Lawrence and Lady Chatterley's Lover ("...Lawrence...was ruined by it [his "miners-chapel...environment"]: And in most of his work is striving to straighten himself and become beautiful..."), 1 page, 8vo, 25 March 1930, later docketed by Williamson in 1951

This is the "scrap" by Williamson that David Garnett  mistakenly thought was by T.E. Lawrence, who had occasionally reviewed novels by D.H. Lawrence. Garnett printed it in his edition of T.E. Lawrence's Letters in 1938 (p.687). Lawrence's biographer Richard Aldington refers to this "scrap" in some of his letters to Williamson (lot 297).