T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 76

To John Brophy, Lelwin House, King Edwards Road, Ruislip, Middlesex Mount Batten. Plymouth. 13.2.39 Dear J.B. Thanks for the Gold Falcon — and this morning a copy of it arrives from Faber & Faber, a luxury book, in Vellum & gold! So H.W. is not ashamed of it. Nor, candidly, am I. Let me confess that I got a good deal of languid pleasure out of it. You will think me very decadent, but this disintegrated, exclamatory style fits its subject, and keeps the whole book in movement. It is not so good as "Dream of Fair Women", H.W.'s remarkable study of the armistice rot ... but it is probably a not-too-wild picture of the literary New York that he knows. As for his contemporaries, he is hot against Priestley — but all high brow writers are; and he praises all the others, including me, if I am a writer & contemporary. Admittedly he has quoted letters of mine, but such harmless plain phrases; my memory has forgotten them, yet they are likely to be authentic. No room for objection, from me. So on the whole I sum up favourably. There is no growth in the book; and the climax is a surrender to an impossible dilemma: a weakness; but there is much activity, some good pictures of town & country, two (at least) characterizations one can cons. Not a favourite book, nor a well-selling book, but not despicable. You are over-harsh, I think. Yours T.E.S. It seems ever so hard to write books to order — witness Poochontas. By that I dont mean that anyone ordered it, but David Garnett made it up to him to find a subject for his next book, within six months of his land ... that's a pity. E.M. Forster chooses the better way. ... I will read your prose book as soon as I can, and say what I think about it. T E S.