T.E. Lawrence | Autograph letter signed (T.E. Shaw) to Mordaunt, 1933

T.E. Lawrence (signed T. E. Shaw)

Autograph letter to Mordaunt. Felixstowe, Suffolk, 12 November 1933

Autograph letter from T. E. Lawrence, signed (T. E. Shaw), to Mordaunt, from '338171 A/C Shaw, M.A.E.E. R.A.F. Felixstowe Suffolk', 12 November 1933, 2 pages, 4to (327 x 203mm.), preserved in a later blue quarter morocco portfolio, spine lettered in gilt, some spotting, 

The Mint was a published diary which Lawrence kept whilst he was enlisted in the R.A.F., which provided intimate insight into both Lawrence's character and the Air Force he served in. Lawrence had made the commitment to his friend Sir Hugh Trenchard that the work would not be published until 1950, due to its candor about the state of the R.A.F.; yet this letter recounts an incident when a typescript of the work was leaked, resulting in the premature publication of the final 3 chapters in the British Legion Journal.

Due to Lawrence's fame, he took pseudonyms after his return to England: The Mint was written under the name "338171 A/C Ross", and this letter is signed T. E. Shaw, from "338171 A/C Shaw". Mordaunt, to whom Lawrence was directing his vitriol, remains unidentified, but it is implicit he was involved in the leak and publication of the chapters, and had access to the typescript in Lawrence's publishers' possession.

As is clear in Lawrence's reproach to Mordaunt, this leak had caused great anger: he names Lord Trenchard, to whom he made his promise, who was "wild" at the publication; Jonathan Cape, his publisher; the Air Ministry; and Lawrence himself, who admits that beside these other "great powers my minor feelings hardly count", but still promises to "damn [Mordaunt] heartily three times a day, before meals", because of this transgression. He recounts how Mordaunt had previously been guilty of publishing a facsimile of Lawrence's letter "about the Odyssey translation", which hurt the feels of "old Bruce's Rogers", the translation's typographer and Lawrence's friend. Still, Lawrence is more concerned with the fate of the rest of The Mint typescript: tracing the leaked chapters to a copy he had given to Edward Garnett in 1925, Jonathan Cape's editorial advisor, he admits that he lay "awake at night contemplating" the release of 'the first 66 chapters', which fortunately did not happen.

LITERATURE:

The Letters of T. E. Lawrence; Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, 910

PROVENANCE:

Christie's South Kensington, 29 November 2006, lot 336