Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: 1 of 650 copies bound in quarter cloth. Quarto. xxii, 433p. Bound in quarter cloth over gray boards, the spine label gilt on a green ground. The rear pocket contains two maps in color. Published in two volumes with a supplementary volume.
Seller: First Folio A.B.A.A., Paris, TN, U.S.A.
Price: US$883.99 + shipping
Description: Copy no. 341 of 752. A fine set, appears as new: Volumes 1 & II quarter cloth hardbacks; buff cloth with bright gilt titles on green title label. Fresh bottle-green end papers; pages bright & well preserved; 2 maps in rear pocket of Volume I. Propectus loosley inserted. Bright, crisp dust jackets on Vols I & II, protected by removable clear film. Hardbacks are accompanied by 'Illustrations' in stiff card covers; illsutrated end papers; numerous full page colour images; all VG. Dust jacket to match set; very minor short scuff to bottom edge of front panel; jacket protected by removable clear film. Burgundy cloth presentation slip case. This is a very heavy set (about 4.5kgs packed) additional postage may be required outside UK. Used - Like New. VG set of 3 books together in fine slip case
Seller: Cotswold Internet Books, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Price: US$939.71 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 4to. Volumes 1 & 2 bound in quarter cream cloth over dove grey paper covered boards, with gilt lettered leather spine labels, and publisher's sage green topstain. Volume 3 in full cloth with gilt spine lettering. All volumes in dust jackets, and housed in a crimson cloth slipcase. Folding colour maps in pocket of volume 1. Hand numbered 546 of 752 copies, 650 printed in this format. "This earlier Seven Pillars is one third longer [than the subscriber's edition of 1926], containing an additional 83,000 words. Fine set.
Seller: Karol Krysik Books ABAC/ILAB, IOBA, PBFA, Toronto, ON, Canada
LAWRENCE T E. THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM. London, 1997.
Price: US$1208.42 + shipping
Description: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Complete 1922 Text (Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press 1997). First UK Edition Thus. LIMITED EDITION. Three Volumes. Original grey boards, oatmeal cloth backs with green labels lettered in gilt, green end-papers, a very fine set in D/Ws the whole housed in the publishers burgundy slip-case. Edition limited to 650 copies in the standard binding this being # 515. The first unexpurgated publication of the original 1922 Oxford Text handsomely printed at Cambridge University Press and bound by the Fine Bindery. Castle Hill Press took the text from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library and T.E. Lawrence's annotated copy of the 1922 Oxford Times printing, issuing a three-volume limited edition of 725 sets of the Oxford Text. The first two volumes were text, the third an accompanying Illustrations volume. As New. For the 3 Volumes in slipcase. Rare. A stunning production
Seller: James M Pickard, ABA, ILAB, PBFA., LEICESTER, United Kingdom
Price: US$1600.00 + shipping
Description: This the Castle Hill Press limited edition of the full 1922 "Oxford" text, one of 752 sets total and only 75 "extra-illustrated sets" issued thus, with an additional illustrations portfolio and specially-sized slipcase.This edition marked the first time that Lawrence's full text, originally circulated to a select few in 1922, was made available to the public. This sets limitation page is hand-numbered "113". The volumes are pristine. The dust jackets are crisp and immaculate apart from faint transfer browning from the leather spine labels and a small mark on the blank rear face of the Illustrations volume jacket. The jackets are protected beneath removable, clear, archival covers. The additional illustrations folio is complete. Only the publishers slipcase shows some scuffing, but is nonetheless bright and intact.Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the story of the remarkable odyssey of T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935) as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as "Lawrence of Arabia." This time defined Lawrence with indelible experience and celebrity, which he spent the rest of his short life struggling to reconcile and reject, to recount and repress. Lawrence famously resisted publication of his magnum opus for the general public during his lifetime. The saga is remarkable. He nearly completed a first draft in 1919, only to lose it when his briefcase was mislaid at a train station. This first draft was never recovered. At a fever pitch, Lawrence wrote a new 400,000-word draft in 1920. Lawrence followed this punishing burst of writing with an equally brutal process of editing. In 1922, a 335,000 word version was carefully circulated to select friends and literary critics - the famous "Oxford Text". George Bernard Shaw called it "a masterpiece". Nonetheless, Lawrence was unready to see it distributed to the public. In 1926, a further edited 250,000 word "Subscriber's Edition" was produced by Lawrence - but fewer than 200 copies were made, each lavishly and uniquely bound. The process cost Lawrence far more than he made in subscriptions. To recover the loss, Lawrence finally authorized an edition for the general public - but one even further abridged, titled Revolt in the Desert. Only in the summer of 1935, in the weeks following Lawrence's death, was the text of the Subscribers' Edition finally published for circulation to the general public. But the text released to the world as "Complete and Unabridged" in 1935 and which became so famous is, in fact, a significantly abridged version. The 1922 "Oxford Text" - a third longer was not available to the public until this 1997 edition. Castle Hill Press took this text from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library and T.E. Lawrence's annotated copy of the 1922 Oxford Times printing. Castle Hill first published a three-volume limited edition of 752 sets of this Oxford Text. Of these, 650 sets were issued in the handsome cloth and paper bindings featured here, but only 75 of these 650 included an extra matching portfolio containing a proof set of the Seven Pillars portraits. These were produced by the original Spanish printers of the book of illustrations, which was reprinted in England when the first printing was found to be defective. The three volumes plus the portfolio of proof portraits were issued in a cloth-covered slipcase. The two text volumes are beautifully bound in quarter cream cloth over grey paper-covered boards with green leather spine labels. The Illustrations volume and Illustrations portfolio are both bound in matching full cloth. The three volumes feature dust jackets in a style evocative of the original 1935 British trade edition of the shorter text. These extra-illustrated sets were issued to subscribers only and otherwise available only with the very limited number of full-leather sets. Reference: O'Brien A034a
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2325.53 + shipping
Description: [Edited and with a Preface by Jeremy Wilson]. In two volumes, plus a volume of illustrations. Volume One: Pp. xxii+434(last blank), 2 folding coloured maps in pocket at lower free endpaper; Volume Two: Pp.[x]+[435]-880, notes, word counts, list of changes in the 1926 text; Illustrations volume: Pp. [152], illustrated throughout in colour and black & white; all impl. 8vo; the text volumes uniformly bound in qr. canvas, spines lettered in gilt with gilt lettered green leather skiver labels, grey papered boards, illustrations volume bound in full limp canvas, a trifle sprung; all top edges green; dust wrappers; together within a maroon cloth slipcase; book label of David Levine, Sydney, on upper pastedowns of text volumes and on verso of upper free endpaper in the illustrations volume; Castle Hill Press, Fordingbridge, 1997. One of 650 sets thus bound (total edition 752 numbered sets). O'Brien A034a. *The text of the original Seven Pillars of Wisdom is much longer than the 1926 abridgement or 'Subscribers edition'. Only 8 copies of the full text were printed by the Oxford Times in 1922, and as long as the 1926 version was protected by copyright, the original text could not be re-issued. The illustrations and maps are reproduced from the 1926 edition.
Seller: Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Lawrence, T.E.. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Fordingbridge Castle Hill Press 1997, 1997.
Price: US$4070.47 + shipping
Description: LIMITED EDITION. 'No. 84' of 80 sets (of 752), numbered 21-100, in full-goatskin, and issued in an off-white cloth-bound slipcase. Three volumes, numbered in Volume II. Spine height: 28.8cm. Trimmed page size 282 x 200mm. 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, 152 pages: 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, bound with: 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. A set in Fine condition in a Fine slipcase and with Fine bindings. 2 volumes, folio (282 x 196mm), pp. I: [i]-[xxii], [1]-433, [1 (blank)]; II: [10 (preliminaries)], [435]-879, [1 (acknowledgements)]; original full Oxford-blue crushed morocco by The Fine Bindery, spines divided into compartments by raised bands, gilt-lettered directly in 2 and at the foot of the spine, turn-ins roll-tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Second edition, no. 84 of 80 sets in full goatskin, from an edition of 752. [ With, as issued:] T.E. LAWRENCE. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Illustrations. Fordingbridge: The Burlington Press for Castle Hill Press, 1997. Pp. [6 (half-title, frontispiece, title, colophon, contents, list of illustrations)], [2 (list of photographs)]; 21 colour-printed plates with illustrations recto-and-verso after Augustus John, Eric Kennington, William Roberts, et al., one double-page, and 52 half-tone plates with illustrations recto-and-verso (acknowledgements on final verso). First edition thus. [Bound with, as issued:] T.E. LAWRENCE. Introduction to Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The Text of the Sample Proof of Chapters I-VIII as Circulated by Lawrence in September 1924 together with the Equivalent Text from the 1926 Edition, Showing the Amendments Made on the Advice of Bernard Shaw and Others. Fordingbridge: The Burlington Press for Castle Hill Press, 1997. Pp. [2 (blank l.)], [6 (half-title, verso blank, title, colophon, contents, preface)], 81, [1 (blank)]. 2 works bound in one volume, folio (282 x 200mm). Original dark-blue crushed morocco backed buckram by The Fine Bindery, top edges gilt, photographic endpapers. First edition, no. 31 of 80 copies, signed and numbered by the editor. [And, as issued with the de luxe sets:] Illustrations to Seven Pillars of Wisdom. [Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 1997]. Title-leaf, 2 folding colour-printed maps, 40 proof portraits after John, Kennington, Roberts, et al. printed by Hostench, each numbered in pencil on the verso and interleaved with tissue guards, and printed note with Castle Hill Press letterhead about the maps, slipcase, and proof portraits; all loose as issued in cloth portfolio. Each proof portrait number 84 of 250. Second (first published) edition of the 1922 text, set no. 84
Seller: OJ-BOOKS ABA / PBFA, SOLIHULL, United Kingdom
Price: US$4770.09 + shipping
Description: [Travel] DELUXE LIMITED EDITION, the complete 1922 text. Three volumes and a portfolio of illustrations. Quartos (30 x 22 x 16cm), pp.[4] xxii, 434 [4]; pp.[4] x, 435-880 [4]; pp.[8] 82. Main volumes in navy full goatskin, with gilt titles and raised bands to spines. With gilt dentelle to turn-ins and gold vein marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Introductory volume in quarter navy goatskin and white cloth over boards. With 128 colour pictorial and photographic clay paper plates, including a frontispiece. With photographic endpapers. Top edge gilt. Portfolio bound in white publisher's cloth with navy paper sleeve to interior and navy paper lining. Contains two maps and loose prints of all illustrations from the book. All four items are protected inside the white cloth slip-case. Slight spotting to the slip-case and a touch of sunning to leather spines. Near fine. Number 87 of 752 copies. A close reproduction of the original, privately published Subscriber's Edition, which was so expensive to manufacture that it almost left Lawrence bankrupt upon its release in 1926.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$5406.10 + shipping
Description: First edition thus, number 84 of 752 sets only, and one of just 80 in this publisher's deluxe binding. The edition prints for the first time since 1922 the text of the legendarily unprocurable Oxford Times edition, of which just eight copies were printed. It is accompanied by a portfolio of 41 plate proofs, each numbered 84 of 250 copies only, with the publisher's notice on proper handling loosely inserted. Spearheaded by Lawrence's biographer, Jeremy Wilson, the edition represents a magnificent marriage of luxurious book design and painstaking scholarly rigour which uncovers a Lawrence still grappling with containing the mammoth, rough-and-unready first version of his masterpiece. The Oxford Times text is printed in vols I-II. The third volume contains the illustrations; it also prints, in parallel text, Lawrence's 1924 draft and the 1926 published version of the first eight chapters. Lawrence received advice on amending these opening sections from, among others, Bernard Shaw, who convinced Lawrence to entirely remove his planned first chapter, printed here. The editorial influence of Lawrence's literary advisors on the magnificent "Cranwell" edition of 1926 had been largely overlooked, principally because there was no means to readily compare the definitive text against earlier versions until the release of this handsome scholarly edition. "The longer and fuller 1922 version is unquestionably the more important for historians, and also for any reader whose prime interest is in Lawrence himself" (Wilson, I, p. xii). The edition comprises 650 sets in quarter cloth, 80 in the present deluxe binding, 20 in an extra-limited deluxe binding, and 2 not for sale. O'Brien A034a. 4 volumes, large octavo. Publisher's deluxe bindings by the Fine Bindery: vols I-II bound in full blue crushed goatskin, spines lettered in gilt and ruled in blind, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; vol. III bound in unlettered quarter goatskin with white cloth sides and photographic endpapers; portfolio of 41 proof plates and 2 folding maps housed in a white cloth folder. All housed in original white cloth slipcase. Vol. III with 127 plates, including the Cranwell illustrations and supplemented with photographs from other sources. Portfolio interleaved with Japanese tissue guards. Spines darkened, otherwise fresh. A near-fine set in the slightly marked slipcase.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Description: This is the finely bound issue of the first and limited edition of the full 1922 "Oxford" text. Only 80 of the 752 sets were issued thus, in full navy morocco with a supplemental Illustrations and Introduction volume as well as an additional Illustrations portfolio, all housed in the publishers white cloth-covered slipcase. The text volumes were magnificently bound by The Fine Bindery, featuring hubbed spines and rounded corners, hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir framed by gilt dentelles, blue and white head and foot bands, and gilt page edges. An Illustrations volume bound in quarter morocco and white cloth includes Jeremy Wilsons Preface and extensive Introduction. Accompanying the three bound volumes is a cloth-bound portfolio housing proofs of the Seven Pillars portraits interleaved with Japanese paper, as well as two maps. This set is hand-numbered "66" on the Editors Acknowledgments page, again preceding the Editors Preface, and finally on the verso of each portfolio illustration. Condition of the main text volumes, Illustrations & Introduction volume, and Illustrations Portfolio is magnificently fine, immaculate inside and out. The only sign of previous ownership is a one-inch square decorative device stamped gilt on navy leather affixed to the Volume I front pastedown; had we not examined other sets, it would be easy to attribute the device to the binder. Only the publishers white cloth slipcase betrays the passage of time; it is without appreciable wear, but inevitably soiled given the material and color.Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the story of T. E. Lawrence's (1888-1935) remarkable odyssey as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as "Lawrence of Arabia." This time defined Lawrence with indelible experience and celebrity, which he spent the rest of his short life struggling to reconcile and reject, to recount and repress. Lawrence famously resisted publication of his magnum opus for the general public during his lifetime. The saga is remarkable. He nearly completed a massive first draft in 1919, only to lose it when his briefcase was mislaid at a train station. This first draft was never recovered. At a fever pitch, Lawrence wrote a new 400,000 word draft in 1920. Lawrence followed this punishing burst of writing with an equally brutal process of editing. In 1922, a 335,000 word version was carefully circulated to select friends and literary critics - the famous "Oxford Text". George Bernard Shaw called it "a masterpiece".Nonetheless, Lawrence was unready to see it distributed to the public. In 1926, a further edited 250,000 word "Subscriber's Edition" was produced by Lawrence - but fewer than 200 copies were made, each lavishly and uniquely bound. The process cost Lawrence far more than he made in subscriptions. To recover the loss, Lawrence finally authorized an edition for the general public - but one even further abridged, titled Revolt in the Desert. It was only in the summer of 1935, in the weeks following Lawrence's death, that the text of the Subscribers' Edition was finally published for circulation to the general public. But the text released to the world as "Complete and Unabridged" in 1935 and which became so famous is, in fact, a significantly abridged version. The 1922 "Oxford Text" - a third longer - was not be published in an edition available to the public until this 1997 edition. Castle Hill Press, headed by Lawrences official biographer, Jeremy Wilson (1944-2017), took this text from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library and T. E. Lawrence's annotated copy of the 1922 Oxford Times printing. Finely bound, limited, hand-numbered edition.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$7535.00 + shipping
Description: 4 volumes. THE MOST EXQUISITE AND MOST BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED OF THE LIMITED EDITION COPIES of the 1922 Oxford text. THE FIRST EDITION of the Oxford 1922 text ever to be made available to the general public. ONE OF ONLY 80 specially bound hand-numbered copies accompanied with an "Illustrations Volume" including also the Introduction to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the text of the sample proof of chapters I-VIII as circulated by Lawrence in September 1924 together with the equivalent text from the 1926 edition, showing the amendments made on the advice of Bernard Shaw and others, and a "Proofs and Maps" collection in an additional portfolio. There were only 752 copies printed in total of which the greatest number were of two volumes only, bound in cloth and boards. This set of four volumes specially bound is a rare bird indeed, and a set with pleasing provenance, the copy of St. John Armitage who is greatly acknowledged for his help with transliteration and translation of Arabic phrases. The 80 hand-numbered copies are supplied with a separate volume of beautifully reproduced illustrations from the reknown "Subscribers Edition" of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, this volume also contains the text 'INTRODUCTION TO SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM, which is the text from the sample proof chapters circulated by Lawrence in 1924 together with the same text from the 1926 edition showing the amendments made on the advice of George Bernard Shaw. This special set also includes a separate portfolio with a set of proofs of the Seven Pillars portraits, with Japanese paper guards between. This portfolio also contains the two folding maps which were included in a pocket in the lesser cloth-bound sets. The set of text volumes, the volume of illustrations and the rear of each of the proof portraits are all numbered '93' by hand. 4to, the text of Seven Pillars being in the magnificent binding for 80 copies only of full dark-blue crushed goatskin by the Fine Bindery with lavishly gilt decorated turn-ins over hand-marbled endpapers by Ann Muir, the spines of the volumes with handsome raised bands tastefully ruled in blind, and gilt lettered in three compartments, a.e.g. The illustrations volume in half dark-blue goatskin over white linen and the proof illustrations and maps in a white linen portfolio with blue paper pocket. The special portfolio made only for these special sets is of white linen covered boards with Japanese vellum sheets placed between each proof portraits. [xx], 433; [434]-879, [1]; Plates 1 - 127, [1], 81; maps and proofs pp. A perfect set, everything is as mint and exactly as should be with no evidence of use or age whatsoever, even the white linen slipcase only shows the merest of shelving on the bottom and one side which would be imperceptible on any other colour but white. AN EXTRAORDINARY AND TRULY FINE BOOK PRODUCTION OFFERED IN ITS MOST HIGHLY LIMITED FORMAT. THE FIRST EDITION OF LAWRENCE'S 1922 TEXT EVER TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC. This hand-numbered set is not only presented in very special and fine goatskin bindings but contains many additions not included in the less limited copies. T.E. Lawrence's original 1922 text was nearly a third longer than that which was issued in 1935 as the "Complete and Unabridged" text. Lawrence's official biographer, Jeremy Wilson, spearheaded this ambitious project at the Castle Hill Press in order to finally bring that text to the public. The text provided here is taken from Lawrence's manuscript copy in the Bodleian Library and T. E. Lawrence's annotated copy of the 1922 Oxford Times printing. Added here are a significant number of photographs, special maps and proof illustrations and the various writings of the Introduction to Seven Pillars. Lawrence's personal narrative of the revolt of Arab armies against the Turks during the First World War, SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM stands as a monument of modern literature and history. Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill both described the book as one of the greatest in the English language. But the story of its publication is a famous saga onto itself. Lawrence had nearly completed a first draft manuscript in 1919, but this was stolen or lost along with his briefcase during the month of November of the same year at the Reading train station and never recovered. Lawrence, from memory, created an entirely new draft by May 11, 1920 and then spent two years carefully editing it. The product of this was the famous 1922 'Oxford Text' which he shared with only a few friends and critics. Though one of them, George Bernard Shaw, called it a 'masterpiece' Lawrence still felt it unready and edited out nearly a third of it. This resulted in the famous 'Subscriber's Edition', of which Lawrence printed fewer than 200 copies at great personal financial cost. And only 22 copies of the American issue were printed to secure copyright and never offered for sale. This was followed by "Revolt in the Desert", the first edition generally published of the work, in a further abridged format. It was only after Lawrence's death in 1935 that the full text of the Subscriber's Edition was made available by the publisher Jonathan Cape to the public as SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM. Six decades would pass before the original text, the 'Oxford Text' in all of its over 300,000 word glory, through Wilson's efforts and those of the Castle Hill Press, would finally be available to general readers and students of the work of T.E. Lawrence. Of it, Sir Winston S. Churchill wrote: "The cost of producing this work was enormous. The author lavished the thought and labours of many months merely upon the typography and illustrations. He reconstructed many of his sentences so that every paragraph should end about half-way through the line. He gave away a large part of the edition to his friends and to persons of high consequence of whom he approved. He chose various beautiful bindings for these copies and delivered many of them personally on his motor-bicycle. Seven Pilla
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$17500.00 + shipping
Description: This is the very first set issued of the finest publishers binding of the very first commercial publication of the fullest surviving text of T. E. Lawrences magnum opus, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Incredibly, this 1922 text had to wait three quarters of a century to see publication here by Castle Hill Press, the premier publishers of material by and about T. E. Lawrence, founded by Lawrences official biographer, Jeremy Wilson (1944-2017). This particular set justifies the exceptionally long wait and suits the extraordinary content.This set, Number "1" of just 20 issued thus, is unequivocally the most comprehensive ever publication of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, showcasing both meticulous scholarship and superb fine press craftsmanship. The set comprises six volumes and a clamshell illustrations folio, all housed in two massive Solander cases. 752 numbered sets were published in 1997, but the first 20 were particularly special unique not only in their bindings, but also in content (the Introduction and two 1922/26 Parallel Text volumes and illustrations (folio proof portraits).For the two volumes containing the 1922 text (the fullest extant text), the publisher commissioned award-winning book designer Glenn Bartley to work with The Fine Bindery. The result was striking bindings in full tan and blue goatskin with dark pink marbled calf onlay, all edges gilt, hand-sewn head and tail bands, leather joints, and suede doublures. Two volumes containing parallel presentation of the 1922 and 1926 texts allow readers to see at a glance exactly what was omitted and what was revised, illuminating the two texts significant style and content differences. These parallel text volumes are bound in quarter brown goatskin over brown cloth with hand-marbled endpapers and gilt top edges. A single volume containing the eight chapters of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars in parallel 1924/1936 text is likewise bound in quarter brown goatskin. A companion volume of illustrations is bound in full black, blind-ruled goatskin with all edges gilt and illustrated endpapers. A black clamshell case nested within one of the massive cloth Solanders contains an unbound proof set of the Seven Pillars portraits. This, set #1, is hand-numbered thus and signed by the Editor in Volume II of the main text volumes. The parallel text volumes are also numbered "1 / 37" and signed by Wilson. Each of the Seven Pillars portraits is printed "I / 250" on the verso. A typed, signed and annotated elucidation about conception and execution of the 20 special sets is laid in. Condition of the set is pristine, each volume appearing untouched, the massive Solander cases showing only a few, tiny corner bumps.Despite the superlative bindings and presentation, Jeremy Wilson himself stated "the most important thing was the text." Seven Pillars is the story of Thomas Edward Lawrence's (1888-1935) remarkable odyssey as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as "Lawrence of Arabia." This time defined Lawrence with indelible experience and celebrity, which he spent the rest of his short life struggling to variously reconcile and reject, to recount and repress. Lawrence famously resisted broad publication of Seven Pillars during his lifetime. Following Lawrences fatal 1935 motorcycle crash, his masterwork was rushed into print in the only version readily available - the 1926 "Subscribers" abridgement. That 250,000-word text released to the world as "Complete and Unabridged" was neither. But it sold very well, so the publishers long resisted publishing the full, 334,500-word 1922 "Oxford Text", which "could only be a direct commercial threat to the highly profitable investment they had already made." Hence the 1922 "Oxford Text" a third longer was not published until this 1997 edition. Reference: OBrien A034a This remarkable piece of 20th century fine press scholarship and production is the very first set issued of the finest publishers binding of the very first commercial publication of the fullest surviving text of Lawrences masterpiece, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Incredibly, this 1922 text had to wait three quarters of a century to see publication here by Castle Hill Press, the premier publishers of material by and about T. E. Lawrence, founded by Lawrences official biographer, Jeremy Wilson (1944-2017). This particular set justifies the exceptionally long wait and suits the extraordinary content.This set, Number "1" of just 20 issued thus, is unequivocally the most comprehensive ever publication of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, showcasing both meticulous erudition and superb craftsmanship. The set comprises six volumes and a clamshell illustrations folio, all housed in two massive Solander cases. For the two volumes containing the 1922 text (the fullest extant text), the publisher commissioned award-winning book designer Glenn Bartley to work with The Fine Bindery. The result was striking bindings in full tan and blue goatskin with dark pink marbled calf onlay, all edges gilt, hand-sewn head and tail bands, leather joints, and suede doublures. Two volumes containing parallel presentation of the 1922 and 1926 texts allow readers to see at a glance exactly what was omitted and what was revised, illuminating the two texts significant style and content differences. These parallel text volumes are bound in quarter brown goatskin over brown cloth with hand-marbled endpapers and gilt top edges. A single volume containing the eight chapters of the Introductory Book of Seven Pillars in parallel 1924/1936 text is likewise bound in quarter brown goatskin. A companion volume of illustrations is bound in full black, blind-ruled goatskin with all edges gilt and illustrated endpapers. A black clamshell case nested within one of the massive cloth Solanders contains an unbound proof set of the Seven Pillars
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.