T.E. Lawrence | Autograph letter signed, to Leeson, on prices for Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1 April 1929

Property of a Distinguished Collector

T.E. Lawrence

Autograph letter signed ("T.E. Shaw"), to B.E. Leeson

warning him about declining book prices ("...You should have sold your Seven Pillars in the boom years. Not its slump: & it will slump on till about 1940: when it may begin to climb: or if I die it will climb. I doubt, though, whether it will ever see £500 again..."), fearing the prospect of "a film of me", and describing his life in camp ("... We sit round a stove (April 1: no more coal issues) burning oddments of kit, & wonder about life...") and regret at his forced departure from India ("...I wouldn't grumble except for the manner of the return..."), 2 pages, small folio, RAF Cattewater, Plymouth, 1 April 1929, with autograph envelope

A letter written in the aftermath of Lawrence's return to England from India. He had been recalled in January 1929 when, once again, his fame had led to official embarrassment. When a rebellion broke out in Afghanistan leading to the overthrow of King Amanullah, press reports claimed that Lawrence - who was stationed just a few miles over the border in India - had been secretly working as an agent provocateur. Lawrence had arrived at RAF Cattewater on 8 March.

B.E. Leeson was a veteran of the Arab Revolt and a former airman. He had joined 14 Squadron of the RFC in January 1917 as an Observer with the rank of Lieutenant. The squadron was then providing aerial support to Arab and British forces from Rabigh, north of Mecca in the Hejaz, and later from Wejh. Leeson's personal connection with Lawrence came in late April, when the two men had been part of a small group who spent a week exploring a remote valley, Wadi Hamdh, to recover a crashed B.E.2c biplane. The temperature was 118° in the shade, the country was waterless, and their car constantly had to be cut free of thick dry brushwood. Leeson was subsequently invalided out of Arabia. By the time of this letter the two men had not met in twelve years and Leeson was living in Manchester, which Lawrence explains was too far for him to reach on his motorbike during his limited leave. He hopes, instead, that "Either you or I will move, some day."

This letter appears to be unpublished.

PROVENANCE:

Phillips, 14 March 1996, lot 398