The Diary Kept by T.E. Lawrence while travelling in Arabia during 1911. [With] The Diary of T.E. Lawrence.
Stock Code 113540
London; New York, Corvinus Press; Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc., 1937
Original price
£12,500.00
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Original price
£12,500.00
Original price
£0.00
£12,500.00
£12,500.00
-
£12,500.00
Current price
£12,500.00
One of 30 copies. The beautifully designed Corvinus Press edition of the diary that Lawrence kept during his first trip to the Middle East in 1911, during which time he met Selim Ahmed, nicknamed Dahoum by his fellow Arabs, to whom Lawrence posthumously dedicated his Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
'Before graduating Lawrence came to the attention of Dr D.G. Hogarth, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, who had encouraged his antiquarian pursuits. Through Hogarth's patronage Lawrence secured an award from Magdalen College and a position on the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish in Syria. He worked there between 1911 and early 1914. As well as supervising the uncovering and cataloguing of Hittite artefacts Lawrence became immersed in the life of a turbulent region. According to his letters home he acted as a sort of consul, arbitrating disputes among Arabs and Kurds and threw himself into their intermittent squabbles with German engineers, then supervising the construction of the Berlin to Baghdad railway... What he had seen in Lebanon made Lawrence hostile towards those Arabs who looked to the West for salvation and absorbed European, particularly French, values. Likewise, he despised the far-reaching modernizing projects of the Young Turks, who then controlled the Ottoman empire, a contempt which developed into a passionate loathing during the war' (ODNB).
The Corvinus Press was founded by George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer, Viscount Carlow (1907–1944) a book collector who wanted to create perfectly designed books in very limited numbers, utilising the best typography and craft binders. Carlow's numerous literary friendships allowed him to publish work by leading authors, including James Joyce, and this edition of Lawrence's diary is widely considered one of the most beautiful of the Corvinus productions.
First edition, number 17 of 30 copies on Canute paper, from a total edition of 203; 14 plates from monochrome photos by the author, gold headpiece; original brick red crushed morocco, titles to spine and upper board gilt, 4 raised bands; a fine copy.
'Before graduating Lawrence came to the attention of Dr D.G. Hogarth, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, who had encouraged his antiquarian pursuits. Through Hogarth's patronage Lawrence secured an award from Magdalen College and a position on the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish in Syria. He worked there between 1911 and early 1914. As well as supervising the uncovering and cataloguing of Hittite artefacts Lawrence became immersed in the life of a turbulent region. According to his letters home he acted as a sort of consul, arbitrating disputes among Arabs and Kurds and threw himself into their intermittent squabbles with German engineers, then supervising the construction of the Berlin to Baghdad railway... What he had seen in Lebanon made Lawrence hostile towards those Arabs who looked to the West for salvation and absorbed European, particularly French, values. Likewise, he despised the far-reaching modernizing projects of the Young Turks, who then controlled the Ottoman empire, a contempt which developed into a passionate loathing during the war' (ODNB).
The Corvinus Press was founded by George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer, Viscount Carlow (1907–1944) a book collector who wanted to create perfectly designed books in very limited numbers, utilising the best typography and craft binders. Carlow's numerous literary friendships allowed him to publish work by leading authors, including James Joyce, and this edition of Lawrence's diary is widely considered one of the most beautiful of the Corvinus productions.
First edition, number 17 of 30 copies on Canute paper, from a total edition of 203; 14 plates from monochrome photos by the author, gold headpiece; original brick red crushed morocco, titles to spine and upper board gilt, 4 raised bands; a fine copy.
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