CATALOGUE
Works
Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula
The Mint, 1928 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
12 November 2008
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 Text
Castle Hill Press, 1997, out of print
SPECIFICATION - sets with additional content and special bindings
Spine height: 28.8cm. Trimmed page size 282 x 200mm.
Full-goatskin issue
80 sets (of 752), numbered 21-100, issued in an off-white cloth-bound slipcase
Vols I and II, Text
Vol. I: Introduction and Books I-V, 456 pages
Vol. II: Books VI-X, editorial notes, 456 pages
Typeset by Castle Hill Press in Caslon, Lawrence's preferred typeface. Printed by Cambridge University Press on 80g.s.m. Supreme Bookwove, a high-quality acid-free off-white book paper, and bound by The Fine Bindery in full Oxford-blue Harmatan goatskin. Hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir, using an unusual double-marbling process. Bound in full Oxford-blue goatskin, head and tail bands.
Vol. III: Illustrations and parallel text of the introductory book
- Illustrations:
Part I (in colour) The Seven Pillars Portraits
Part II a selection from Lawrence's collection of war photographs.
Printed by the Burlington Press, bound in quarter blue goatskin with off-white cloth sides.
- Parallel text of the introductory book:
An 88-page parallel text showing two versions of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars. The left-hand pages reproduce Lawrence's revised text as sent to Bernard and Charlotte Shaw on 27 September 1924, and right-hand pages show the final text of the subscribers' abridgement. The parallel text displays exactly what changes were made as a result of advice from Bernard Shaw and others, and settles once and for all the argument about the possible scale of Shaw's alterations to Seven Pillars.
Portfolio of proof portraits:
The three volumes are accompanied by a cloth-bound portfolio of proofs of the Seven Pillars portraits, interleaved with Japanese paper.
Full-goatskin issue (left) with a full-goatskin copy of the 2003 edition (right)
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.
Twenty sets in a specially designed 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, 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.
Box 2: The Parallel Texts
The 1922 and 1926 texts: two volumes, printed on 80 gsm Supreme Book Wove. The typeface is Times New Roman which, being designed specifically for newspapers, is better suited than Caslon to two-column setting. Hand-bound by The Fine Bindery in quarter brown Harmatan goatskin, with brown cloth sides and hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir. Top edges gilt.
The eight chapters of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars, in parallel 1924/1926 text, are quarter-bound in matching brown Harmatan goatskin with brown cloth sides.
Two sets of the edition, lettered 'A' and 'B', were reserved for the publisher.
Out of print
More about this edition
Other editions
NEWS
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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.