T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 177

To: G.F.J. Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, B.O.A. From: Corky, 338171 A/C Shaw, R.A.F. Mount Batten, Plymouth, England. 22.XII.39. Dear Cumberlege, Your speed took me unawares. I had picked out a few possible changes in my Odyssey version, and sent them to you for incorporation in your edition - and next day a letter from you arrived, saying that it was selling well; Last Saturday two copies of it arrived. The limited one struck me as a pleasant book, type, colour and size. The public one pleased a little. I think it would have come off better in a smaller type. Can I have another of the public copies ? Some friends of mine are greedy for it, and I was to give away more than twelve copies of the limited (Velver) edition. They cost me £10 each ! This book-publishing game is a mugs' game, it costs more than it is worth. Your speed has also taken poor Emery Walker unawares, and he is stuck with most of the 250 State-reserved copies on his hands. What do you think can be done about that ? Couldn't your sales people take over a proportion, say, 100, of them and sell them through your organisation ? It would be a pleasant gesture, and ought not to cost you anything, dollar exchanges being as they are ! Bruce Rogers wrote to me last week, sending a few reviews, which I found interesting. The less the man knew, the more he liked the version, and that gratified me. The approach of 2500 years have (like the barnacles on a hull) slowed down the book terribly, and made it heavy. If any wise things appear in any papers and fall into your hands, I'd be glad of them; but not too much. I am very busy with R.A.F. work at present. I tried to read some of the Odyssey (your limited one) on an evening lately, and found most of it ingenious, but too many sentences are inverted or twisted to preserve the rules of English syntax and so it reads rather laboriously, Mannerrd perhaps. However bits of it are, as I said,ingeniour I noticed a few more possible corrections and sent them to B.T last post. Yours T. E. Shaw.