| Hand
marbled endpaper by Ann Muir
Out of
print We are sometimes aware of
copies available privately or in the antiquarian book trade, so if you are
looking for a copy it is worth contacting us.
Designer binding
20
sets (of 752), comprising six volumes including a complete parallel printing of the 1922 and 1926 texts in two volumes
The
Castle Hill Press parallel text is surely the most fascinating
of all published editions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Throughout
the design and production of the 1922 Seven Pillars, our
decisions were strongly influenced by one idea: that the most
important thing was the text. For this reason we took pains to
reproduce accurately the wording of the manuscript, as modified
by Lawrence's later amendments in the 'Oxford' proof. Also,
reflecting Lawrence's own passion for good typography, we
applied typesetting rules that most trade publishing houses and
many private presses seem to have forgotten: no paragraph widows
shorter than sixteen characters; no identical words at the
beginnings or ends of successive lines; no hyphenation of proper
nouns; no paragraphs beginning on the last line of a page, no
fudged pairs of 'short pages', and so on.
The
parallel text
In this spirit, we chose to accompany these twenty sets by something both remarkable and extremely interesting -
two additional volumes containing complete texts of the
1922 and 1926 versions, typeset side-by-side in double
column. Our aim in this setting was to align the beginning of
each sentence that exists in both the texts. Readers can see at a glance exactly what was omitted, what was
revised, what was moved, and so on.
Our
edition of this 1000-page parallel text consisted of only 37
sets. Twenty sets, hand-bound in quarter Harmatan goatskin,
accompanied the twenty 'extra-special' copies of Seven
Pillars, and two sets, not for sale, accompanied copies 'A'
and 'B'.
Of
the remaining fifteen sets, six went to UK copyright-deposit libraries, one to the copyright
owner, two to the editor, and one was retained by the press.
Specification
These twenty sets of Seven Pillars of Wisdom,
the Complete 1922 Text, comprise six volumes, all in the
same format, contained in two solander boxes.
Box 1: The Caslon setting
The
two text volumes printed by Cambridge University Press on 100
gsm Supreme Book Wove, and bound by The Fine Bindery in full
Harmatan goatskin, to an inlay and onlay design by Glenn
Bartley specially commissioned for the edition. All edges
gilt; hand-sewn head and tail bands, leather joints and suede
doublures.
The
companion volume of illustrations is bound in full black
goatskin.
An
internal box contains an interleaved proof set of the Seven
Pillars portraits, printed on one side of the paper only.
This is one of 250 numbered proof sets from the first printing
of the volume of illustrations.
  
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