Revolt in the Desert
Hardcover, London: Jonathan Cape, 1927. First Edition; First Printing. Near Fine. Bound in publisher's brown cloth covered boards with gilt spine titles. Includes 15 black and white plates and a fold-out map in rear. Wear to both ends of spine, a little fading to spine. The true first printing of Revolt in the Desert issued at the same time as the much more expensive limited edition. No dust jacket. Revolt in the Desert is Lawrence's own abridgment of his masterpiece Seven Pillars of Wisdom. To simplify the printing history and Lawrence's motivation - In 1926 Lawrence published Seven Pillars of Wisdom in a very fancy print run of only 211 copies. He ended up spending 13,000GBP on that printing (the rough equivalent of $290,000 today). Even though he sold all the books, he lost a lot of money and was deeply in debt. His choices for clearing the debt were selling what land he had, selling his personal library, or allowing the fledgling new publishing house of Jonathan Cape to issue an abridged version for the public. Lawrence did the abridgment himself and re-named the book The Revolt in the Desert. He cut roughly half of Seven Pillars of Wisdom and kept the most exciting adventurous parts. Revolt in the Desert was a huge hit selling 90,000 copies across 5 printings until Lawrence used his contractual rights to stop the printings and end sales. He did not have the right to stop the American printings and those continued. He used the proceeds to clear his debts and donated the rest to military veterans charities. Jonathan Cape massively benefited from the sales and became a major force in publishing, their own internal records stating they owed their success to Lawrence. Seven Pillars of Wisdom would not be printed for the public until after Lawrence's death. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 445 pages. [Item #82564]
Price: $85.00