The aftermath

Public interest in Lawrence's book was considerable. From 5th to 21st February 1927, an exhibition of the originals of many of the SP illustrations had been staged at the Leicester Galleries in London, and within a week of the publication of the subscribers' edition the personal column of The Times was carrying advertisements offering sums as high as £20 for the loan of a copy. There was probably little interest shown in such inducements, for the value of the 30 guineas book had soared immediately, as Lawrence had foreseen. In June 1927 he heard of a copy sold to an American for £500, and a copy reached £570 at auction in London at the end of that year.

SP was no longer a book to be read, but a collectors' item, as Lawrence related to Hogarth in July - for 'Most of the owners I hear from are insuring it, or sending it to their bank or strong rooms. In fact it is going to vanish from the face of England, and the rare copies that do come into the market will go to the States, where my fancy price of 20000 dollars for the Doran edition artificially keeps up the price of possessing a copy.' (1) Lawrence had given Kennington four copies - 'my unexpected fee for art editorship' (2), and although Kennington did not make this information public, or try to sell any of them, in one day alone he received two telegrams offering him sums of £550 and £600.

Sir Hugh Trenchard wrote that he had insured his copy and 'left it to my little son in my will'. He commented 'Have read your book, and I must say that once I took it up, I didn't put it down again until I had finished it, or nearly did. It is splendid. I could see the blowing up of the bridges you describe!' (3) H G Wells complained that 'A kind of fury has come upon "collectors" & sums like 400 guineas are being paid for copies. Damn collectors, who make a man hide in a safe, the glory of his library!' (4)

Despite his previously expressed hope that the book would prove a good investment for subscribers, it was evidently not a situation of which Lawrence totally approved. 'I hate bibliophiles, and did my best to throw them off the track with The S.P.; so I did not number my copies, or declare how large the edition was (the published guesses are wide of the truth) or have a standard binding, or signatures, or index, or anything posh.' (5) However, this intended stratagem had proved conspicuous in its failure, exciting the interest of collectors by its very non-conformity to limited edition procedure - a classic example of Lawrence's 'genius for backing into the limelight'. (6)

1	L 316, D G Hogarth, 7.VII.27
2	Friends, p 278
3	Letters to, 7.vi.27, p 199
4	Letters to, 17.v.27, p 212
5	L 327, Edward Garnett, 1.XII.27
6	Friends, p 215

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