£3,750
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 644
Auction: 23 June 2021 at 11:00 BST
"yours T.E.S." to Edward Eliot, Lawrence's solicitor, 2 pages, 4to, dated 24.4.28, written on thin paper from Drigh Road, Karachi, discussing a film proposal, Revolt in the Desert - "what a mercy "Revolt" is withdrawn. Otherwise Cape would have bolstered the film with a cheap edition, which would have sold three copies for each of the 30/- ones... I bless you daily for cancelling that edition", discussing his probable departure for Peshawar "It is a misery, going to a strange camp. They goggle at me with all their eyes, for the first month, wondering why I'm not odder, and all the little newnesses of strange routines & disciplines keep my attention on the raw"..., the construction of swimming baths at Karachi using 'Revolt' money that had been donated to the RAF Benevolent Fund, this pool was to be "for married families and officers" and TE even details a rota for its use. At the end of the letter he states "Indeed Revolt wasn't a book at all. It was a sort of solvent of an overdraft: a financial instrument", slightly browned, slightly split at one fold
Note: Unpublished. The letter covers various topics including the proposed and eventually abortive Korda film. The letter was originally found in a drawer of a large mahogany sideboard being sold in an open air antiques market , possibly at Swinderby. The sideboard was thought to have last come from Scotland. With the TEL letter was an unrelated letter, and a very old French will. If the letters had not been picked up they would have been trampled in the mud!