T. E. Lawrence Letters, Volumes I-III Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte
Shaw Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson
With Forewords to each volume by Jeremy Wilson Volume
I: 1922-1926
Published 2000 Volume
II: 1927
Published 2003 Volume
III: 1928
For publication plans see Programme Volume
IV: 1929-1935
For publication plans see Programme PROSPECTUS
It was not until his wife's death in 1943 that Bernard Shaw began to understand the extraordinary nature of her correspondence with T. E. Lawrence. She had preserved almost all the letters she had received – over 300, some very long – and had recovered several of those that she herself had written to Lawrence. In her engagement diary, she had used symbols to note the dates that she wrote to Lawrence or received letters from him. When Bernard Shaw read her letters he said: 'It takes a long time for two people to get to know each other, and from a diary I discovered lately, and some letters which she wrote to T. E. Lawrence, I realise that there were many parts of her character that even I did not know, for she poured out her soul to Lawrence.' On Lawrence's side too, this was a remarkable friendship. Taken as a whole, the correspondence adds up to almost twice the total length of his letters to any other recipient. On their own, regardless of the other volumes in our T.E. Lawrence Letters series, the
volumes of correspondence with the Shaws will be, by far, the largest Lawrence letters project since David Garnett’s 900-page Letters of T. E. Lawrence. Bernard Shaw gave Garnett free use of the letters he had received from Lawrence, but Charlotte refused to co-operate. The result, as we now know, was a glaring omission from the 1938 Letters, repaired to some extent in the selection edited more recently by Malcolm Brown. No general collection, however, could use more than a small fraction of the Lawrence-Shaw correspondence. Lawrence first met the Shaws by accident, in March 1922. Five months later he wrote, very diffidently, asking whether Bernard Shaw would be willing to criticise the 1922 text of Seven Pillars. Shaw agreed, and Lawrence sent a copy. However, the first to read it, and with great enthusiasm, was Charlotte. She was a wealthy woman in her own right, and her interest in Lawrence and his work soon led to a thriving correspondence. She offered to proof-read the subscription edition of Seven Pillars that he was preparing, and began to send parcels of books, gramophone records, and other gifts. Over the years, Lawrence gave her presents in return, including several valuable manuscripts of his writings. Lawrence's correspondence with the Shaws between 1922 and 1935 is, without question, the most significant series of his post-war letters to survive. It covers an extraordinary variety of topics and, for much of the time, the letters were so frequent that they provide something akin to a diary of his activities. They were used extensively as source material for Jeremy Wilson’s authorised biography.
The correspondence between Lawrence and the Shaws
is part of the definitive T. E. Lawrence Letters series
being published by Castle Hill Press. The letters to Charlotte will be accompanied by the few but important letters from her to Lawrence that he kept, and also by his correspondence with Bernard Shaw and other collateral material. While editing the correspondence, Jeremy
and Nicole Wilson have had the advantage of reference to the chronological research files assembled during
work on the authorised biography. These have helped to provide
material for full and informative notes. The first of the
Lawrence–Shaw volumes starts when Lawrence met the Shaws in 1922 and ends in December 1926. One of its principal themes is the revision and production of the subscribers' Seven Pillars. The second volume
covers the first of Lawrence's two years in India, during which he sent long letters to Charlotte almost weekly, providing the fullest account that we have of
this period that was a turning-point in his life. The third volume will
cover the second year in India. The letters from 1929-25 will be
in a fourth volume, which may also include another correspondence We do not foresee a trade edition of the complete Lawrence-Shaw Letters, though we have been asked to consider publishing a selection of about a third of the correspondence in a popular edition, at some future date. Volume
I 1922-1926: Specification | Order Volume
II 1927: Specification
| Order | 