T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 264

LH 4/13/42 couldn't find a millionaire to risk it....Dawney wanted 300 at £10.10.0. Finally we compromised on 100 at 30 guineas. If the bills pass £3000 I'll sell 105 or 110 copies. If they are less I'll sell less....the total sales always equalling the bills. This is a proposition only possible to the ultra-rich : of course that's all one to me, for the last thing I feel is any duty to the public, & the last wish that the thing should be generally read. I'd rather not publish at all - but am in a cleft stick over it. The fellows who were in the Arab Show will want copies: & I propose to give them plain texts (thus not infringing the subscribers' "privilege") free of charge : to the num- ber of some twenty-five copies. The 30 guinea volume is inordinately, foully, absurdly buy dear, & only asses or ungodly rich will ... it. It won't re-sell for a five-pound note : but I've tried to make it sound .... rare by promising not to re-issue complete in my lifetime. The jobs of block-making, map making, & printing will take at least a year. I'll try & get the G.S.G.S. to help me with the map. The thing of course won't be on sale, nor published : it's just a subscription edition : & a very silent unreviewed unboomed one at that. All responsibility will be mine. 660