LAWRENCE, T.E. (1888-1935). 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Autograph Letter Signed ('T.E.S.') to [Bertram] Thomas (1892-1950, explorer and Arabist), 1½ pages 4to with envelope (c/o the East India Club), Plymouth, 22 August 1931. A fine letter concerning Thomas's request to Lawrence to write a preface to his book Arabia Felix.

Arabia Felix, published in 1932, is Thomas's account of the first crossing of the 'empty quarter' (the Rub' al Khali) of Arabia. He accomplished the feat after slipping away quietly at night without official permission from Muscat and commencing his journey at Dhufar, arriving fifty-eight days later at Doha, having travelled with a small group of Arab guides, and speaking only Arabic. The achievement was subsequently trumped by Harry St John Philby, who made the more difficult east-west crossing. 'Thomas's first crossing of the empty quarter, albeit by the shortest and easiest route, assured him a permanent place in the history of European exploration of Arabia. He was admired by T.E. Lawrence (who wrote a preface to one of his books) ...' (John Ure in Oxford DNB).

Lawrence was at first rather reluctant to write the preface, but eventually he was to produce the 'Foreword', which bears his initials (although it was slightly modified by George Bernard Shaw). The 'preface' of the book is a separate piece written by Thomas himself.

'You misconceive me. I'll read your script or proofs (better script) with eagerness: and if it is impossibly bad I'll try & write a preface. If it is, as it must be, hugely good, then you will be so proud of it, as you write, that you will utterly spurn & despise the idea of a preface. Prefaces are the fruits not of vanity but of over-modesty. ...

"Seven Pillars" [1922] will be republished by my heirs (if any) after I am dead. Meanwhile I am fervently hoping (as I said) to write nothing whatever else. ...'

The present letter is apparently unpublished, not in The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, ed. David Garnett, 1928, nor in the 'selected' letters, ed. Malcolm Brown, 1988. Both editions print a letter from Lawrence to Edward Marsh, 10 March 1931, asking for Thomas to be considered for an honour, possibly even a knighthood, for his achievement. The request came to nothing but Thomas was honoured by several learned bodies and received the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
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