Text abridged

As the March deadline for delivery of the abridgement to Cape began to loom large, Lawrence set about the task with a set of subscription edition sheets, a brush, a pot of India ink, and presumably a very large wastepaper basket, beginning his work by throwing away the first seven chapters. Whole chapters and, in many places, several pages together were cut elsewhere, as he edited out all the personal passages, including the dedication and the epilogue, both of which allude to the strong personal motive which fired him throughout the Arabian campaign. In all, around one third was cut from the printed text.

Lawrence wrote to Robert Graves that the abridgement, which appeared under the title Revolt in the Desert, 'was made entirely at Cranwell, in two evenings' work, by myself with the help of two airmen, Miller and Knowles' (1), and shortly after Revolt was published had produced a 'third person' note for suggested inclusion in Cape's house journal, Now and Then, describing the circumstances of the abridgement in more detail - for 'I've been sent wild stories of the genesis of Revolt in the Desert.' (2) The abridgement 'was made by him [Lawrence] in seven hours at Cranwell in Lincolnshire on March 26 and March 27 1926, with the assistance of two airman friends, A/A Knowles and A/c Miller. It was received by us [Cape] (in the form of cut-down proofs of The Seven Pillars) on March 30, three days later, and reprinted immediately as we received it. There were no author's corrections, nor was this text ever submitted to anyone for advice or criticism. The only subsequent alterations were the division into chapters and the writing in (at the publisher's request) of three paragraphs to justify the inclusion of two much-desired illustrations from the many in The Seven Pillars.'

These version do not entirely accord with other documented information, such as a letter written to Cape by Lawrence on 28th January 1926 - 'I'm not pleased with the abridgement of the Seven Pillars, as now in my hands: I've done the first 500 pages, and it reads queer. The details are too large for the body.

'How would you view my dictating a more colloquial narrative to some shorthand scribe? I'd take the subscriber version, page by page, and miss out or boil down rapidly in my mind each sentence as it came to the eye. The result would be unceremonious, swift-moving, rough perhaps.

'If you'd agree I'd ask you to find the scribe, who would have to live a week at Sleaford in the end of next month.

'If you don't agree, I'll send you, early in March, the cut-down subscribers' version.'

Furthermore, although, as stated in the 'third person' version, very little had to be written in to cover up gaps or re-link sections, those notes which were added, in Lawrence's own hand, are in his usual firm writing until almost the end, when they suddenly deteriorate into a pencilled scrawl. For in mid-March his right wrist was broken by the recoil of a starter handle as he assisted in the re-starting of a car at the scene of an accident. But whatever the means by which the abridgement was produced, the result was a manuscript of some 130,000 words - upon which Cape was no doubt very relieved finally to get his hands.

1	Biog G, p 56
2	L 308, Jonathan Cape, 25.V.27

Next section - Final stages

The writing of Seven Pillars of Wisdom - full listing