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Journal contributions
| Update: 18 November 2007
Because of illness there was much less
progress with this journal in 2007 than we had planned.
From January 2008, however, we shall post new content
far more frequently.
Contributions will include:
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British
Documents on the Arab Revolt: the beginning of a
major series of contemporary documents that provide
an independent account of British involvement with
the Arab Revolt, and a fascinating background to
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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The Physical
Legacy - a guide to surviving T.E. Lawrence
manuscripts, letters, drawings, photographs,
portraits, and memorabilia, and also surviving
buildings associated with him. This is being updated
from Jeremy Wilson's 2004 paper T.E. Lawrence at
the Turn of the Century, and will continue to be
updated in future
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Lawrence at Sea
- a paper given by Jeremy Wilson at the Imperial War
Museum, London, in May 2007
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Victoria
Ocampo, Lawrence's most extraordinary biographer
- a paper given by Jeremy Wilson at the Huntington
Library, California, in October 2007
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At least two other
papers from the Huntington event
Additional Bookshelf
content will include:
Books reviewed will
include:
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Ronald Florence,
Lawrence and Aaronsohn (New York, Viking,
2007)
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Russell McGuirk,
The Sanusi's Little War (London, Arabian
Publishing, 2007)
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August 2007
January 2007
Two of
Lawrence's four brothers were killed in action on the Western
Front in 1915. Frank, aged 22, died in May. Will, aged 25, died
in October.
The five brothers had formed a close family, and Lawrence was
undoubtedly affected by the deaths. In November 1915 he wrote to
E.T. Leeds, an Oxford friend: 'I'm rather low because
first one and now another of my brothers has been killed. Of
course, I've been away a lot from them, and so it doesn't come
on one as a shock at all... but I rather dread Oxford and what
it may be like if one comes back. Also they were both younger
than I am, and it doesn't seem right, somehow, that I should go
on living peacefully in Cairo.'
Malcolm Brown
has argued that the deaths made Lawrence wish to serve at the
front. That is possible, but I also think that he knew that his
work in Cairo was important - and could become more so. I agree,
however, that the knowledge that his brothers had lost their
lives must have contributed in some way to his wartime
motivation. He must have thought of them from time to time. It
may also be significant that he refers to them in the Tafas
chapter of Seven Pillars, a chapter dominated by the
spirit of revenge, where his own war came closest to the kind of
close-quarters fighting taking place in Europe.
This first
article - a compilation drawn from Frank's letters and his
wartime service file - will be followed by a similar article about Will Lawrence.
My aim in selecting the letters (from The Home Letters of T.E
Lawrence and his Brothers) has been to reveal something of
the nature of the Lawrence family and the relationships between
the brothers. The letters are are also a reminder of the very
different war - the main war - that was being fought on the
Western Front. In all these senses they add to the context to
the documents on the Arab Revolt that I shall begin to post
shortly. >>>
Review
In his war memoirs T.E. Lawrence says little about
the history and building of the Hejaz Railway - a religious and
military project whose destruction had deep significance in the
Islamic world. James Nicholson's well researched and
magnificently illustrated account fills the gap - and in doing
so provides an excellent
companion to Seven Pillars.
>>>
Pictures
In 1927 Lawrence was posted to the RAF Depot at Drigh Road
in Karachi, then in India. He served there until May 1928. The
station had been built only five years earlier, as a base from
which aircraft imported by sea could be assembled and then sent
to RAF stations throughout India.
Lawrence's letters describe the depot at Karachi, but I have
not seen many photographs. The collection here is drawn mainly
from an album of small snapshots taken by an unidentified RAF
officer. They probably pre-date Lawrence's arrival, since some
show buildings under construction.
>>>
Bookshelf additions,
2007
Contributions to
T.E. Lawrence Studies will be retained online in this
'Bookshelf' section. Subject to permissions, we also plan to post
here a growing archive of significant articles relating to Lawrence
that were originally published elsewhere.
General biography
Prologue to
Lawrence of Arabia, The Authorised Biography (London,
Heinemann, 1989, pp. 1-17).
>>>
Bibliography and
research
Taken together,
the T.E. Lawrence materials held by by Oxford University
institutions form one of the largest collections in the world.
This outline provides researchers with an introductory guide.
>>>
Service years
An account of
Lawrence's contribution to the development of RAF marine craft
in the 1930s, written by his commanding officer in the Marine
Branch.
>>>
Writings and criticism
These three essays by Jeremy
Wilson, written at various dates but revised for inclusion here, provide
background historical accounts of Lawrence's
work on Seven Pillars of Wisdom and his two translations,
The Forest Giant and The Odyssey of
Homer. A similar essay on The Mint will be added.
About T.E. Lawrence Studies
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