T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 173

To: C.P.J. Cumberlege. From C.p.q 33217 A/C Shaw Royal Air Force Mount Batten Plymouth 6.IX.22 Dear Mr. Cumberlege I am sorry only now to be answering your letter of July 19th. A day or two after your visit to me, I was sent to Bridlington to look after some boats, and there I stayed for weeks, working very hard, and right out of the way. No letters were sent on. I was too busy to want them. So now, returned to Hythe for just two or three days on my way back to Plymouth, my permanent station, I am faced by a huge pile of mateisl, more than I can possibly read & answer. However yours is a business one, and such take precedence. I feel the force of your plea that an English edition might help L.R.'s recovery of the money he has so generously and fatally - spent on buying Isham out of the Odyssey trans- lation. If I could agree to an English version that would be the best argument to move me. But I have already given so much. I have allowed it to be put about everywhere that the translation is mine. I have accedted the idea of a cheap edition in the States. I have allowed my name to be tied to this, more or less directly. All these are hatedul develop- ments. The only reserved point now is a cheap edition in England. I have promised myself, again and again, that I will never publish another book as long as I live. I had a sickener of publication over the Seven Pillars which left me as long as I have sense to remember it. If anybody needs money, it is surely myself, earning 3/9 a day with considerable effort, and being put I might rather starve than earn another penny by any publication. I will not take any part of the pro- ceedsof your cheap edition. You can pay my share - such as it is - to B.R.! But I absolutely resist any idea of an English edition of the Odyssey version, to be published by Milford and any other publisher, and I also object to any batch of sheets or bound volumes coming into this country for re-sale. I hope that is clear. The more a book sells the worse for everybody concerned in it; and as you say, this version might conceivably sell. So might others of my unpublished books. It takes years - and many successive ... hits, - to work off such a publicity boom as I have "enjoyed". I will live and die in peace. Yours sincerely, T. E. Shaw