The Mint Several people have asked why we do not publish an edition of The Mint as a companion to our 1922 Seven Pillars. In fact, the idea has been in the back of my mind for a long time - but I hoped to do something more than reprint a text that is already widely available. Our edition will reproduce the text of the manuscript that Lawrence sent to Edward Garnett in 1928. This was the text published in America by Doubleday, Doran in 1936 in a 50-copy edition, to protect copyright. In his last years Lawrence revised The Mint extensively in detail, in part in response to readers' comments. The 1928 text, like our 1922 Seven Pillars, shows the book as he originally wrote it. While researching notes for volumes in the Letters series, we have needed to read through the relevant periods in our main chronological files of Lawrence's correspondence. That has enabled us to note passages from Lawrence's letters that complement The Mint by describing his day-to-day life in the ranks. Our project is to publish an edition containing the text of The Mint followed by a selection of these passages, taking the story of Lawrence's service life from 1922 to 1935. I am not quite sure when it will be ready. However, it is very much 'work in progress'. Jeremy Wilson |
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