Lawrence of Arabia’s Instant Bestseller
Revolt in the Desert.
New York: George H. Doran Co, 1927.
Price: $400.00
About the item
First American edition. Pictorial endpapers after Kennington; with 16 plates and a folding map. [xx], 335 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Lawrence of Arabia’s Instant Bestseller. Brown cloth. Half title with light toning from inserted newspaper portrait. Very good in good pictorial dust jacket, camel variant (various scuffs, loss of half-inch at top of spine panel). O’Brien A107.
Item #313397
Revolt in the Desert was an instant bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, and "[w]ithin weeks of publication the combined royalties from Revolt were more than sufficient to pay off the Seven Pillars overdraft. Lawrence's Trustees therefore invoked a special clause inserted in the contract with Cape to protect his privacy, and halted publication in England. Revolt continued to sell well, however, both in the United States and in translation" (Wilson [1988], pp. 180). Lawrence was characteristically of two minds about the book: dismissive of the text, which he viewed as an embarrassment to himself, and yet attentive to the critical response.
Satisfactory copy of the first American edition (trade issue).
