T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 543

27-7-27 -2- are right in suspecting that I'm not going to profit, beyond that point! Your only way to get a copy of the private edition now is to buy a second-hand copy. Bumpas, the bookseller in Oxford Street, would probably find you one for £300! It isn't worth that. In a few years the price will drop. It isn't much good, as writing: but of course it is so rare that owners must crack up its quality. O. B. S. has been very good in helping to boost the little book. He knew the circumstances, of course, and that its success would get us out of a hole. You don't say what you are doing. Fifth Avenue means busi- ness, I suppose, of some sort. I hope it prospers. England is not exactly booming, they say, now-a-days. But I'm so out of the way that I hear very little. I changed to Shaw in 1925, when I enlisted. The other name (originally chosen for quietness' sake) had got noisy. It does well enough as a pen-name. Yours ever T.B.Shaw I've just read your letter again. Long Island: and a garden. Apparently you are a millionaire. Very best congratulations. Money is a jolly thing to give your children. Often I feel that that should be the first duty of fathers!