TE LAWRENCE LETTERS TO HENRY WILLIAMSON

Apologising for a long delay in replying to a letter from April. He writes he will be leaving the R.A.F – “Fourteen more months and my R.A.F. status ceases: alas. It is outworn already but will nevertheless be regretted”

He writes of his re-reading of Williamson’s Tarka the Otter which was the reason for their first acquaintance after Lawrence wrote to him about it from India – “Lately I have re-read Tarka – and find the old mastery that shocked and startled me in India. It is a fine book. You could make Bradshaw interesting, if you edited it”. He adds some concern for his friend “I hope my feeling that you are unhappy is not true…” He writes about fame….”yet another ‘life’ of me is to appear next year. Only these lives by third parties are external things. They do not break the skin…”

With the original envelope in Lawrence’s hand

Provenance: Property from the library of a Dorset Gentleman.

Bibliography: TE Lawrence correspondence with Henry Williamson, Russell Hill Press, 2000; Genius of Friendship, ‘T.E. Lawrence’ by Henry Williamson p.56

After T.E. Lawrence wrote to Henry Williamson from India in January 1928 about his book Tarka the Otter which had been published in 1927, the two men began a correspondence and friendship which lasted until Lawrence’s death. They were both very unusual, sensitive men who Williamson himself described as having twin psyches. Their letters were frank, honest and very illuminating and most of their friendship was conducted through their correspondence (they only met twice and very briefly). We have nine of these important letters from T.E. Lawrence to Williamson which date between August 1928 and December 1934, thus documenting most of their relationship. Lawrence died on 19th May 1935.