CATALOGUE
Works
Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula
The Mint, 1928 text
The Mint, 1955 text
Translation
The Forest Giant
Letters
T. E. Lawrence Letters series
Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw
Correspondence with Henry Williamson
Correspondence with E. M. Forster and others
Letters from Carchemish
3 July 2009
News
Updated 3 July 2009Most links from this page open in a new window
The 1928 Mint
Update 1 July
We are now working on the 1928 text of The Mint, to be published in a volume that will also include a selection of extracts from Lawrence's letters about service life. Although the style of the letter extracts is a little different to that of The Mint, the combination will offer a richer portrait (than The Mint on its own) of Lawrence's life in the ranks. It will also cover the whole period of his enlistment, i.e., 1922-1935.
We know, incidentally, that Lawrence himself planned to write a longer book about service life. It would have incorporated The Mint. He did not live to take the project further.
The subscription period for the 1928 Mint will be during August, once we have a reasonably good idea of the length. We hope to send the book to press at the beginning of September. If you are interested but will be away in August, please let us know so that we can reserve a subscription option for you.
Our present thinking is to produce the book in the same page format as Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, though we will probably set the text in Caslon.
The edition will be quite small - perhaps 450 copies. If you subscribed to the fourth Lawrence-Shaw correspondence or have subscribed to other recent Castle Hill Press publications we will send you an email when we open the subscription. We will also post a notice here.
Note that we will also shortly publish a trade paperback of The Mint (the 1955 text) in the series issued by our J. and N. Wilson imprint.
Jeremy Wilson, T. E. Lawrence, A Short Biography with Letters
Posted 1 July
Some years after completing Lawrence of Arabia, The Authorised Biography, I was commissioned to write a far briefer account of Lawrence's life. This had to be readable, balanced, objective, and accurate - and to meet the general standards required for an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography. However, the stipulated length (20,000 words) was much longer than a DNB entry, giving scope for greater depth and breadth.
In the nature of modern trade publishing, the 'Pocket Biographies' series in which the book appeared came and went. Recently, when the publisher closed down, I was able to recover the rights.
We decided to make the short biography the first title in the 'T.E. Lawrence' series to be issued by our trade imprint, J. and N. Wilson. We expect to send it to press in about a fortnight.
We have re-set the book in the same page format as the Library Edition of Seven Pillars (though this will be a paperback, not a hardback). At the same time, I revised the text slightly and added a small appendix of Lawrence letters, or extracts from letters. This brings the total length above 100 pages.
In addition to normal book-trade channels, the book will be available in places like Clouds Hill where there is a special requirement for a short biography. Since we can't forecast sales, it will be produced initially by print-on-demand, in both Britain and the US. Half-tone photographs do not reproduce so well using this technology, so the new edition will not, after all, be heavily illustrated. If we one day reprint the book litho, we may then include more pictures.
We have no plans to sell these J. and N. Wilson paperbacks direct, since shipping trade editions would distract our efforts from other work.
T. E. Lawrence, Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw
Four volumes, Castle Hill Press 2000-2009
Lawrence's correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw is the largest - and arguably the most important - series of his letters to survive. Many of the letters were previously unpublished. Our four volume fine-press edition contains detailed editorial notes about people and topics referred to. It ranks with Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 Text as one of our biggest and most challenging publishing projects.
Now that the subscription period for the final volume has ended, this correspondence will only be available in complete sets with slip-case.
At present, there are uncommitted sets in cloth, and also a few in quarter-goatskin and full-goatskin.
The cloth sets (limited to 600 copies, numbered in Vol. IV) should be available in September. The full and quarter goatskin 'specials' may take a little longer.
PRE-PUBLICATION OFFER - SAVE £60
Until 15 August you can order a cloth set in slip-case through our online shop for £390 + shipping. After that, the price will be £450 + shipping. You pay nothing until your set is ready for shipment.
AVAILABILITY DATE
We currently expect to have cloth sets at some date in September. We will post production-progress updates from time to time.
Prospectus | Specification | Specials | Contents list
Q: Where can I find the price of your books?
3 July
A: Either from the new price list or in the online shop. The price list includes approximate equivalents in US$ and Euros. Be warned, however, that these equivalents applied on the stated date. Exchange rates have fluctuated considerably in the past few months and may continue to do so.
Note that these prices are for direct sales from this website. The nominal 'Recommended Retail Price' for books available to the book trade is usually higher.
Castle Hill Press 'specials'
3 July
We hold small stocks of unbound copies of most of the 'specials' we have published so far (though no longer for our 1997 Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 Text). Over the past two or three years we have not replenished our stock of bound copies, preferring to invest in current editorial work. So we have run out of most things.
This year, in preparation for the Oxford Fine Press Fair (see below) we are having a few copies of each 'special' bound. You can pre-order them, so long as our (very small) stocks last. I have started listing them in the 'overseas' section of the online shop, where you can look at them wherever you are. I will post the equivalent UK pages shortly. The only difference between the two sets is the shipping cost, and if we receive a UK order via the overseas section we will charge the appropriate shipping, as set out in the price-list. Unfortunately, adding pages to the shop is time-consuming, and we have much else to do....
We issue 'specials' of most Castle Hill Press editions. These usually include additional photographs or text or facsimiles not found in the standard edition. Typically, 'specials' are offered in:
- A brown quarter-goatskin binding, which is standard across many of our publications
- A full-goatskin binding with a design that is often chosen to be appropriate to the inter-war period. Each design is individual to its title or set
- In the long run, an 'extra-special' binding designed by a leading designer, usually including inlay or onlay work. We are way behind with this programme, which may be inappropriate for the present economic climate. Nevertheless, we have asked for an estimate for the extra-special bindings for Vols. II-IV of the Lawrence-Shaw correspondence.
Oxford Fine Press Fair
20 May
We will be exhibiting a selection of Castle Hill Press books at the Oxford Fine Press Fair, to be held at Oxford Brookes University on 7-8 November 2009. We will be delighted to see any of our subscribers who visit the fair.
Detailed information about the event will be available in due course. Check the website of the Fine Press Book Association.
Castle Hill Press editions, 2009
T. E. Lawrence, Towards 'An English Fourth'
Edition of 227 copies.
T. E. Lawrence, Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, 1929-35
Provisionally scheduled for late August 2009.
T. E. Lawrence, The Mint, 1928 Text
Provisionally scheduled for autumn 2009.
Looking ahead...
2009
T. E. Lawrence, Letters from Carchemish and the 200 Class Seaplane Tender manual
These are the two projects we shall be working on this autumn. At some point we will have to decide which to publish first....
2010
We have three or four titles planned for 2010, including at least one new volume in the T.E. Lawrence Letters series.
Trade paperback editions, 2009
We plan to issue these titles during the summer-autumn of 2009 under our J. and N. Wilson imprint.Jeremy Wilson, T. E. Lawrence, A Short Biography with Letters
- New edition with amendments and a selection of passages from Lawrence's
letters
T. E. Lawrence, The Mint
- New edition, type reset. New introduction by Jeremy Wilson
- This is the 1955 unexpurgated text, reset as a readable paperback.
T. E. Lawrence, tr., The Forest Giant
- English text only. New edition, type reset. New introduction by Jeremy Wilson
- Lawrence's English text in a readable paperback.
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 'Oxford' Text
- Paperback edition, 2 vols. New introduction by Jeremy Wilson
- This will use the typesetting of the 2004 trade hardback. This is an interim measure: in the medium term we will print a one-volume trade paperback, but it will be in a smaller format, with smaller type. So this larger-format 2-volume paperback may remain popular with people who prefer larger type.
NEWS
For progress reports on our current projects, please check our News page.
We plan to publish more in 2009 than in any previous year, so there should be updates at least once a fortnight.
Prices
See Pricelist, or visit our online shop
Customer feedback
Some comments from the customer feedback page on our old website:
. . . I couldn't be more pleased. The attention to detail, and conception of this edition, are wonderful . . .
I cannot praise too highly the quality of the production, with exceptional clarity and beauty of print, the erudition of editing, and the excellent on-line service. Important correspondence in beautiful books - the perfect combination.
. . .Excellence in research and editing, and magnificently produced books in superb bindings. Last but not least, efficient and friendly service, with books posted in rock solid packaging.
. . . These books are a pleasure to own and read . . .
. . . a quite invaluable job in publishing (very beautifully . . .) many of the writings of TEL which hitherto have been available only in manuscript form in museums, libraries or private collections, or in out-of-print books which are very hard to obtain.An excellent set of publications that are beautifully edited and produced. A wonderful addition to my library and to any library.