T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 463

To Hogarth 23.Vkkx. 23.Vlll.23 Gertrude wrote and asked for a copy of the "Seven Pillars". I wrote back & said I had none, but if she had a tame millionaire who would put up say £300 for a reprint, then I was willing to re- print it. She replies that she hasn't a millionaire handy, but that sev- eral people anxious for copies, would contribute. It puts me back at the "subscription" edition, privately printed, the charges that raised by Cape, & from which I finally withdrew. Now I'm hesitating again. It's painful to have a mind so feeble in purpose. What am I to do? Publish the Garnett abridgement after all, with such restrictions as seem fit to me, and use its profits to publish a limited illustrated complete edition.. ...publish no- thing...or [publish, deleted] what privately? Hardy read the thing lately, & made me very proud with what he said of it. Shaw [ha'e you seen him?- praised it. Alan Dawnay [ compares it, not unfa...rably, with the lost edition. I still feel that it's a pessimistic unworthy book, full of the neurosis of the war, & I hate the i..ea of selling it. If I won't make profit of my war-reputation, still less should I make profit of my war-story. Yet Lowell Thomas lurks still in the background, & if his book is the fulsome thing I expect, he will force the truth out of me. It might be better to get my blow in first. You have read the original and the abridgement....will you tell me what, in my place, you would do? T.E.