Kultur

T E Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence, 1888-1935

British archaeologist, soldier and author

T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, was born in 1888 and grew up in Oxford, where he later studied archaeology. During 1907-1910 he cycled 2,400 miles in France to study crusader castles. He also spent much time walking in Syria. In 1911 Lawrence joined a British Museum archaeological expedition in Mesopotamia, where he learned colloquial Arabic. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Lawrence was attached to the intelligence section of the British Army in Egypt. Two years later he joined the Arab forces under Faisal al Husayn. Lawrence became a leader in their revolt against Turkish domination. Lawrence was captured and brutally assaulted by the Turks. He managed to escape, but the traumatic experience haunted him for the rest of his life. Damascus fell in 1918, and a peace conference was held in Paris the next year. There Lawrence made fruitless efforts to achieve independence for the Arabs. He continued to strive for Arabian independence, as Middle East adviser to the Colonial Office.

The myth of Lawrence of Arabia was partly created by the American journalist Lowell Thomas, who toured the United Kingdom with an outstandingly successful slide-show about Lawrence's achievements in Arabia. Lawrence himself did not appreciate the public's attention. Finally he enlisted as a mechanic in the Royal Air Force, under the name of J. H. Ross. Many have speculated about the reasons for his search for anonymity. Disclosures in the press caused his discharge after only a year's service. Lawrence turned to the Tank Corps as T. E. Shaw. In 1925 he returned to RAF as "Private Shaw". His experiences as an anonymous recruit in the ranks of the RAF are described in The Mint, which was published posthumously in 1955.

Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident near his home in Dorset the 19 May 1935. The myth of the daring adventurer has attracted many biographers, and several films have been made on the basis of Lawrence's life. Lawrence himself had little wish to be remembered as a war hero: he could hardly bear to think about his wartime role. His enduring ambition was to be a writer. In Paris in 1919, Lawrence began to write a narrative of his Arabian adventures; but he lost most of the manuscript and had to rewrite the whole without his notes, which he had destroyed. The result was the celebrated Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which was privately printed in 1926. An abridged version, Revolt in the Desert, appeared the year after. The complete version of Seven Pillars of Wisdom was not published commercially until 1935. Other works by Lawrence are a translation of the Odyssey (1932) and a collection of essays edited by his brother, A. W. Lawrence, Oriental Assembly (1939). Lawrence wrote many letters to his friends. In many cases, letters were almost the only contacts he had with his friends, since the circumstances of his life meant that he could rarely meet them. The Andrén collection holds several editions of his collected letters.

The Andrén collection contains 23 books by T. E. Lawrence and 50 biographies about Lawrence. The collection also contains books about his time and the history of the Middle East.

T. E. Lawrence Society

The Home Page for T. E. Lawrence

Lawrence of Arabia Factfile

Denis McDonnell, Bookseller

Google Books - T. E. Lawrence