Lawrence, T[homas] E[dward] (1888–1935) and Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950). Draft foreword to Revolt in the Desert. Holograph manuscript, [Ayot St. Lawrence, 27 June 1926]. Written in pencil with revisions. Two leaves, 4 ¼ x 8 ¼, each with two small file holes, tipped on guards into an album along with a hand-lettered title page and typewritten transcriptions of the draft and the published foreword. Bound in fawn morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, upper cover blocked in gilt with crossed swords motif, spine lettered in gilt, housed in a handsome slipcase.

T.E. Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw did not always see eye-to-eye.

A superb and significant literary relic. T. E. Lawrence's costs for producing the sumptuous subscriber’s edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, issued finally in 1926, ultimately amounted to £13,000, the equivalent of almost $1.2 million today. By the early 1920s he found himself in desperate need to raise capital to settle his debts and quit a military tour that had ceased to be fulfilling. Twice before – in 1920 and in 1922 – Lawrence had tried to abridge of the text for a popular readership. He gave up on the idea the first time around, and though he had found a collaborator in Edward Garnett for his second attempt, he withdrew the project on the advice of his new acquaintance George Bernard Shaw, whom Lawrence admired to the extent of having once adopted his name as a nom de guerre. By 1925, however, Lawrence's mounting financial difficulties forced the issue, and he signed a new contract with Jonathan Cape to deliver an abridgement by the end of March 1926. Revolt in the Desert, half the length of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was destined to become an international bestseller.

Lawrence's original draft of the foreword, published in his Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, I:187.

Lawrence was only recently acquainted with Charlotte and George Bernard Shaw when the playwright discouraged his efforts to abridge the text in 1922. But by 1926 their friendship had deepened significantly and this time Lawrence tackled the project with Shaw’s full support. On 24 June 1926 Lawrence sent a draft of a foreword he had written for Revolt in the Desert. “Cape’s abridgement must begin with a word written especially for it,” he explained. “Will this do?” It wouldn’t. Lawrence’s first draft of the foreword, preserved at the British Library, is archly self-deprecatory and entirely too Shavian. Shaw rewrote it completely on 27 June, a Sunday morning, to make it more Lawrentian, infusing it with more of what he would later call “Lawrence’s troublesome conscience and agonizing soul.” His wife Charlotte sent it to Lawrence the next day.Lawrence was only recently acquainted with Charlotte and George Bernard Shaw when the playwright discouraged his efforts to abridge the text in 1922. But by 1926 their friendship had deepened significantly and this time Lawrence tackled the project with Shaw’s full support. On 24 June 1926 Lawrence sent a draft of a foreword he had written for Revolt in the Desert. “Cape’s abridgement must begin with a word written especially for it,” he explained. “Will this do?” It wouldn’t. Lawrence’s first draft of the foreword, preserved at the British Library, is archly self-deprecatory and entirely too Shavian. Shaw rewrote it completely on 27 June, a Sunday morning, to make it more Lawrentian, infusing it with more of what he would later call “Lawrence’s troublesome conscience and agonizing soul.” His wife Charlotte sent it to Lawrence the next day.

This manuscript reveals that the foreword finally published in Revolt in the Desert was largely written by Shaw.

Shaw’s draft of the foreword to Revolt in the Desert – the present manuscript – differs in interesting and instructive ways from the text Lawrence finally published. Although the greater part of the manuscript is in Shaw’s hand. By the time the book went to press in early 1927 the foreword had undergone a final round of editing. Lawrence kept most of what his Nobel Prizewinning correspondent had written, but he reorganized it and added a few sentences. He also omitted what was perhaps the most Lawrentian passage in Shaw’s draft, one in which the playwright parroted the younger man’s repeated avowals of pecuniary interest:

His conflict of interest as the book's éminence grise notwithstanding, Shaw did his part to promote Revolt in the Desert when it was issued in March 1927. His review, published in Spectator on 12 March (and reprinted the following month in the New York Evening Post) praised Lawrence as “the author of one of the great histories of the world.” By June, the American edition alone had sold 120,000 copies.

This manuscript, passed back and forth between the two men, serves as the missing link between Lawrence’s first draft and the text he finally published in Revolt in the Desert, revealing the extent of Shaw’s contribution. It thus offers valuable opportunity for further study of the complex literary relationship between the military hero and the great playwright.

Selected References

Lawrence, T. E. Revolt in the Desert. London: Jonathan Cape; New York: George H. Doran, 1927

-----. Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, 4 vols., ed. Jeremy and Nicole Wilson. Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 2000-2009.

Weintraub, Stanley. Private Shaw & public Shaw: a dual portrait of Lawrence of Arabia and George Bernard Shaw. New York: George Braziller, 1963.

Wilson, Jeremy. Lawrence of Arabia: the authorized biography of T. E. Lawrence. New York: Athenaeum, 1989.