T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 198

To: Dr. C. M. Doughty, 121 2, Smith Square, S.W.I. Monday Feb. 7. Dear Mr. Doughty, I got back from Oxford today to find your letters and parcel waiting for me; and the gift of Arabia Deserta makes me feel very embarrassed. You have written my name in it, so it is a thing finished, and there is nothing to be said but thanks : - but it's a disproportionate present (far too worth), and I don't think that you ought to have done it. Of course I'll value it as much as it should be valued .... but I feel myself too deeply in your debt for the moment. I begged so many things off you last Wednesday. Marsh, who is Mr. Churchill's secretary, was delighted with the Ateyfa manuscript. He's a very good fellow, who has done great work in helping young poets, and the reward he likes for himself is knowing them. It is not possible for you to come to town, so the autograph was the next best thing: and you gave him a very splendid extract. I expect it comes about p.74-75 of Masoul; and it must make that desert section very much richer. A man at Oxford who writes, called Masefield, was speaking properly about "Adam" and "Mangrol" to me yesterday. He's not very much of a poet, but is a popular one, and is valued at a trifle, so that it is not entirely empty praise. People are talking much about "Arabia" just now. The reviews, and the challenge of the c£l. 9. 0 price, wake them up. Garvin seemed to me good in the Observer yesterday. About the ordinary copies I bought. Two of the officers who served with me in Feisul's armies are just getting married. They are both good people, the sort of books, which are a handy present, as they can be moved about from garrison to garrison. So it was most fitting that I should give them Arabia Deserta, and especially copies with your autograph in them. At the same time the essence of wedding-presents is that they be something bought, and so it was at once necessary and pleasant to buy them. I only wish three or four more of my friends * Ms. "so was is"