Castle Hill Press

Lawrence's letters from Carchemish are among the most interesting that survive. Taken together, those to his family (published in a corrupt form in 1954), to D.G. Hogarth, to E.T. Leeds and to other friends give an extremely interesting portrait of the man whose actions during subsequent years would bring him world-wide fame. We are fortunate that so may of these letters survive. In them, Lawrence provides a vivid picture of life on an archaeological excavation in the early 1900s.

John Mack, from the viewpoint of a professional psychiatrist, saw these pre-war letters as an invaluable insight into Lawrence's formative years. When John last spoke on Lawrence, just before his untimely death in 2004, he once again lamented the lack of an accurate and properly edited edition.

The letters to all recipients will be presented in a single chronological series. Because of its length, Letters from Carchemish will be in the same format as our 2003 Seven Pillars Library Edition.

In addition to the correspondence, the volume will contain information from British Museum archives that puts the letters in context, and a selection from the hundreds of photographs that Lawrence took while working on the site.

   Drawing by Lawrence of a find at Carchemish

I am particularly grateful to Peter Hibbert for volunteering to help edit the volume. Though now a professor of law, Peter trained and worked for a decade as an archaeologist and is a speaker at this autumn's T.E. Lawrence Symposium. He will be the principal editor of the Letters series volume covering Lawrence's earlier castle-hunting journeys in England and France. I would also like to welcome the support for the project offered by staff at the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.

We have already started work on the Carchemish volume, typesetting the letter texts to page format, and beginning the demanding task of checking them where possible against the originals, correcting the errors and omissions in the edition of the Home Letters produced by Bob Lawrence, and considering what editorial and collateral material is needed, and where.

The work will continue in parallel with the remaining editorial work on Lawrence-Shaw 1929-35.