Shaw was sent a copy to pass literary judgment on Lawrence’s writing, and as well as urging him to remove the first chapter, he also edited out several potentially libellous comments. Lawrence set up his own printing company to produce a subscription edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and about 100 copies were sent out to drum up financial support. George Bernard Shaw thought that he shouldn’t open his book with such a statement that it was, perhaps, too frank.” “It is an outward statement that it was Lawrence’s intention, his vision, if you like, that the Arab revolt was a war fought by Arabs for Arabs – and, ultimately, Arab independence from both Ottoman Turkey and the great powers.
“This ‘suppressed’ first chapter was meant to open Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” said Mitchell. The deleted first chapter of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom points to the former, says Glenn Mitchell, senior specialist at Peter Harrington, the rare book dealer that has obtained this copy of the prospectus and is bringing it to market. Scott Anderson’s 2014 biography, Lawrence in Arabia, points to this dichotomy in how Lawrence was perceived – by some as a friend and ally to the Arabs and as much betrayed by the British as they were, by others as being completely complicit in Britain’s intentions to rule in the Middle East and as much a betrayer of the Arab cause.įaisal I bin Al-Hussein, centre, with his delegates and advisors, at the Versailles peace conference in 1919. He also indicated some satisfaction when things began to look bad for the western powers that had exerted their influence in the territory after the conflict, writing: “When we won, it was charged against me that the British petrol royalties in Mesopotamia were become dubious, and French colonial policy ruined in the Levant. He wrote that the Arab revolt was “an Arab war waged and led by Arabs for an Arab aim in Arabia”, and said he believed he was helping them to create “a new nation, to restore a lost influence” and to build “an inspired dream palace of their national thoughts”.
In it, Lawrence, who died in 1935, maintained that his aim while in the Middle East was always to help the Arabs establish their own sovereignty.
Lawrence’s account of the revolt, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was published in 1926, but in 1924 he produced a “prospectus” of just 100 copies of the opening chapters of the book to circulate around potential investors in the style of an early crowdfunding project. Manuscript of Lawrence’s account of his time in the Middle East, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, including the expunged original first chapter.
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