Oxford edition

The result of all this 'dwelling' was a 330,000 word manuscript. Apart from a specimen page, which was bound in with the new text, Lawrence said that he burnt the second version with the aid of paraffin and a blow lamp, at Pole Hill, Chingford, the day after the completion of the third version - 10th May 1922 if the date given in the Bod ms is correct. It was this third draft of what he described to Kennington at the time as 'the never - to - be - presentable - published - or - finished book' (1) which was set up in double column linotype and eight copies run off on the presses of the Oxford Times newspaper between 20th January and 24th June 1922, according to the Bod ms, at a cost of £175. The printing was thus in hand even before he had completed his work, and some further revisions were made as it was set. Five copies were bound in book form, for ease of reading, and the final manuscript, 394 pages of text plus preliminary notes, Book interleaving sheets and pages following the main text, neatly written in black India ink, heavily corrected both in the original black and in red ink, and bound in a brown Kalamazoo locking folder, was, as previously noted, subsequently presented to the Bodleian Library.

Edward Garnett was among the first to see SP in print, and in replying to his earliest comment, Lawrence wrote '. . . . please don't consider the point of publication. That never came into my mind when writing it: indeed I don't know for whom I wrote it, unless it was for myself. When it came to the point of printing it, several passages had to come out, for fear of the compositor, and I cannot imagine showing it except to a few minds (like yours) already prejudged to kindness . . . . Hitherto I've always managed, usually without trying my hardest, to do anything I wanted in life: and it has bumped me down, rather, to have gone wrong in this thing, after three or four years top-effort.' (2)

1	L 153, 10.4.22
2	L 162, 22.VIII.22

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