![]() ![]() Shepardson of 15 October 1924: 'The prime cost lies in the pictures (about 60, many in colour, at 10/- a print!) and the pictures are only an unjustifiable whim of mine. The technical printing problems were in large part responsible for the delays in the book's publication and the ever-increasing cost of the work, as Lawrence explained in a letter to Whitney H. The plates for Lawrence's masterpiece were one of the most technically demanding and expensive aspects of the privately-printed subscribers' edition issued in 1926, one print necessitating the use of 23 colours, an unheard of extravagance. Lawrence chose to make his publication a magnificent visual feast as well as a literary tour-de-force, commissioning illustrations from some of the best-known artists of the period – Eric Kennington, Augustus John, William Roberts, Paul Nash and William Rothenstein, amongst others. ![]() | SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM, A TRIUMPH | Sold for £52,700 incl premium ![]() ![]() Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) is prized as one of the greatest English books of the 20th century, ostensibly a record of Lawrence’s experiences marshalling the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire in the First World War, but also a deeply lyrical personal odyssey, ‘a testimony to his vision and persistence and a fulfilment of his desire to write an epic which might stand comparison in scale and linguistic elegance with his beloved Morte d’Arthur and C.M. ![]()
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