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'''Thomas Edward Lawrence''', also known as '''Lawrence of Arabia''' (August 16, 1888 in Tremadoc, Wales - May 19, 1935 in Bovington, Dorset), was educated as an archaeologist and historian. After the outbreak of the Great War, he became an intelligence officer and a liaison officer with the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. From 1921 to 1922 he was a member of the Colonial Office and instrumental in the founding of the Arab states in the Middle East. Though ending the War as a Colonel, he served from 1922 to 1935 as a soldier in the Tank Corps and the Royal Air Force. Despite his awareness of his extraordinary personality and his self-confidence, he ardently wished to be considered not as a war hero, or even an adventurer, but as an author.


'''Thomas Edward Lawrence''', also known as '''Lawrence of Arabia''' (August 16, 1888 in Tremadoc, Wales - May 19, 1935 in Bovington, Dorset), was educated as an archaeologist and historian. After the outbreak of the Great War, he became an intelligence officer and a liaison officer with the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. From 1921 to 1922 he was a member of the Colonial Office and instrumental in the founding of the Arab states in the Middle East. Though ending the War as a Colonel, he served from 1922 to 1935 as a soldier in the Tank Corps and the Royal Air Force. Despite his awareness of his extraordinary personality and his self-confidence, he ardently wished to be considered not as a war hero, or even an adventurer, but as an author.
His masterwork is ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'',<ref>{{citation
| title = Seven Pillars of Wisdom: a triumph
| author = T.E. Lawrence
| publisher = Doubleday, Doran & Co. | year = 1935}}</ref> an immense book that he summarized in ''Revolt in the Desert''. While an excellent film, ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)]]'', starring [[Peter O'Toole]], does not have much historical accuracy. Increasing amounts of data, now that copyrights are expiring, are available online, through his official biographer, Jeremy Wilson.<ref name=JWbio>{{citation
| url = http://telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/gen/jeremy_wilson.shtml
| title = Jeremy Wilson
| journal = T.E. Lawrence Studies}}</ref>


==Early life and education==
[[John E. Mack]], author of a biography of Lawrence<ref>{{citation
| publisher = Little, Brown
| year = 1976
| author = John E. Mack
| title =  A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E Lawrence}}</ref> that won the 1977 [[Pulitzer Prize]] in biography, spoke of Lawrence's view of the Middle East and how it applies to today's politics.<ref>{{citation
| title = T. E. Lawrence's Vision for the Middle East: How Does It Look Now?
| author = [[John E. Mack]]
| publisher = T. E. Lawrence Symposium, [[Pepperdine University]], Malibu, CA
| date = 20 May 1988
| url = http://www.johnemackinstitute.org/ejournal/article.asp?id=24
}}</ref> In response to [[Steven Tabachnick]]'s observation that "Lawrence (unlike the pro-Arab [[Gertrude Bell]] or the pro-Zionist [[Richard Meinertzhagen]]) was one of the few and one of the last people in his own time and ours to achieve true sympathy for both national movements. His references to both movements in ''Seven Pillars'' are positive", Mack said


==In World War I==
{{quote|Neither Lawrence, nor Weizmann when he wrote of Lawrence, foresaw World War II or the European Holocaust and the overwhelming pressure of immigration and for creation of a Jewish state. Nor did either predict the subsequent seemingly irreconcilable clash of nationalities between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine...Lawrence did not anticipate the degree to which the region would be caught in the geo-political maelstrom of superpower rivalries, or the coming together of U. S. strategic interests, American Jewish support for Israel and the political power of the American Jewish community to tilt U. S. policy in the direction of Israel in the Arab Israeli conflict.}}


==At the Versailles Peace Conference and in the Colonial Office==
==Early life and education==
One of five illegitimate sons of his father and his governess, all of whom attended Oxford High School.<ref name=SL>{{citation
| title = The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia
| author = Phillip Knightley and Colin Simpson
| publisher = Bantam | year = 1971}}, pp. 5-10</ref>


==In the ranks==
With increasing tension at home, he briefly enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery at St Mawes Castle, in Cornwall, with the [[British Army]]. His father bought him out, a permissible action. <ref name=TELS-Chron-Early>{{citation
| url = http://telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/life/chron_early.shtml
| title = Outline chronology: 1888-August 1914
  | journal = T.E. Lawrence Studies}}</ref>


==His writings==
===College===
He received a scholarship to Jesus College, [[Oxford University]], under the guidance of [[David Hogarth]].


==His character and his appeal==
==In World War I==
While the public perception of Lawrence is as a guerrilla combat leader, his role was much more as an intelligence officer and political adviser.  His mission was to support an Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Turks, a position supported by [[Lord Kitchener]], and his first task was to find an effective Arab leader ally, who might be one of the sons of the [[Sherif]] of Mecca, Abdul Hamid, of the [[Hashemite]] family.


==Notes==
==Notes==
<references/>
{{reflist|2}}
 
==Bibliography==
===TEL's most important writings===
* Woolley, C. Leonard, and T. E. Lawrence. ''The Wilderness of Zin: Archeological Report.'' With a chapter on the Greek inscriptions by M[arcus]. N. Tod. Palestine Exploration Fund, Annual, 3. London: Off. of the Fund, 1915. New edition, Preface by Jonathan Tubb, introduction by Sam T. Moorhead. London: Stacey International, 2003.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Revolt in the Desert.'' London: Jonathan Cape / New York: George H. Doran, 1927. (Lawrence's abridgement of the ''Seven Pillars.'')
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.'' [First privately printed in 1926.] London: Jonathan Cape, 1935. (Many reprints.) Still available at Penguin Books.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Crusader Castles.'' London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1936. (The best edition by Denys Pringle [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988]).
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Secret Despatches from Arabia.'' Ed. by Arnold W. Lawrence. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1939. New edition, ''Secret Despatches from Arabia and Other Writings.'' Ed. and introduced by Malcolm Brown. London: Bellew Publishing, 1991. Best edition, ''T. E. Lawrence in War and Peace.'' Edited by Malcolm Brown. Greenhill Books, 2005.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Oriental Assembly.'' With photographs by the author. Ed. by Arnold W. Lawrence. London: Williams and Norgate, 1939. (Includes Lawrence's diary of his tour in 1911, which he undertook after the end of the excavation season; also the first chapter of the ''Seven Pillars'', which remained unpublished in 1935.) Facsimile edition with new introduction by Malcolm Brown. London: Imperial War Museum, 1991.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Mint [: A Day-Book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922 with Later Notes by 352087 A/c Ross.]'' London: Jonathan Cape, 1955. (Published posthumously; the first edition of the unexpurgated text was published in London by Jonathan Cape, 1973. Reprinted)
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Evolution of a Revolt.'' Ed. by Stanley and Rodelle Weintraub. University Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1968. (Good, but incomplete collection of Lawrence's post-war writings.)
* Wilson, Jeremy, ed. ''Minorities.'' Preface by C. Day Lewis. London: Jonathan Cape, 1971. (Lawrence's collection of his favorite poetry.)
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Lawrence of Arabia, Strange Man of Letters.'' Ed. By Harold Orlans. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993. (Letters, reviews and literary writings.)
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Complete 1922 Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The ‘Oxford’ text.'' Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson. 1997. Fordingbridge, Hampshire: J. and N. Wilson, 2004.
 
===Important letter editions===
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''T. E. Lawrence to His Biographer, Robert Graves: Information about Himself, in the Form of Letters, Notes and Answers to Questions, Edited with a Critical Commentary'' [by Robert Graves]. London: Faber and Faber, 1938.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''T. E. Lawrence to His Biographer, Liddell Hart: Information about Himself, in the Form of Letters, Notes, Answers to Questions and Conversations.'' [Edited by Basil H. Liddell Hart.] London: Faber and Faber, 1938.
* (Both editions in one book reprinted, with original paging and an index:] Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''T. E. Lawrence to His Biographers Robert Graves and Liddell Hart.'' London: Cassell 1963.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Letters of T. E. Lawrence.'' Edited by David Garnett. London: Jonathan Cape, 1938. [Reprint edition:] With a Foreword by Captain B. H. Liddell Hart. London: Spring Books, 1964.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Shaw-Ede: T. E. Lawrence’s Letters to H. S. Ede, 1927-1935.'' Edited, with a Foreword and a Running Commentary by Harold Stanley Ede. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1942.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence and His Brothers.'' [Edited by M. R. Lawrence.] Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1954. (Important for the early years from 1906 to 1918; some expurgations by the editor, i.e. Lawrence's oldest brother.]
* Lawrence, Arnold W., ed. ''Letters to T. E. Lawrence.'' London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Letters from T. E. Lawrence to E. T. Leeds.'' Edited by Jeremy Wilson. Andoversford: Whittington Press, 1988.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Letters of T. E. Lawrence.'' Selected and edited by Malcolm Brown. London: Dent, 1988. Corrected edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. (A very good one-volume edition, supplements Garnett's one.)
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''The Correspondence with Henry Williamson.'' Edited by Peter Wilson. Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 2000.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, 1922-1926.'' [T. E. Lawrence, Letters, volume I] Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson. Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 2000.
* Lawrence, Thomas Edward. ''Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, 1927.'' [T. E. Lawrence, Letters, volume II] Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson. Fordingbridge: Castle Hill Press, 2003.
 
===Biographies and special studies===
* James, Lawrence. ''The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia'' (1995) [http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Warrior-Legend-Lawrence-Arabia/dp/0349106738/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195563555&sr=1-11  excerpt and text search]
* Liddell Hart, Basil. ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1934), by leading military historian. [http://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-Arabia-Da-Capo-Paperback/dp/0306803542/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195563555&sr=1-12 excerpt and text search]; [http://www.questia.com/read/209077 full text online]
* Tabachnick, Stephen E. ''Lawrence of Arabia: An Encyclopedia.''  Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004. xxxviii + 248 pp.
 
===Online Links===
* One of the best web-pages on any well-known person are probably those by Lawrence-biographer Jeremy Wilson: indispensable even for those who already know a lot about Lawrence: [http://telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/index.htm telawrence.info, telawrence.net, and telawrencestudies.org]
* [http://telsociety.org.uk/telsociety/index.htm The T. E. Lawrence Society]

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Thomas Edward Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia (August 16, 1888 in Tremadoc, Wales - May 19, 1935 in Bovington, Dorset), was educated as an archaeologist and historian. After the outbreak of the Great War, he became an intelligence officer and a liaison officer with the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. From 1921 to 1922 he was a member of the Colonial Office and instrumental in the founding of the Arab states in the Middle East. Though ending the War as a Colonel, he served from 1922 to 1935 as a soldier in the Tank Corps and the Royal Air Force. Despite his awareness of his extraordinary personality and his self-confidence, he ardently wished to be considered not as a war hero, or even an adventurer, but as an author.

His masterwork is Seven Pillars of Wisdom,[1] an immense book that he summarized in Revolt in the Desert. While an excellent film, Lawrence of Arabia (film), starring Peter O'Toole, does not have much historical accuracy. Increasing amounts of data, now that copyrights are expiring, are available online, through his official biographer, Jeremy Wilson.[2]

John E. Mack, author of a biography of Lawrence[3] that won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize in biography, spoke of Lawrence's view of the Middle East and how it applies to today's politics.[4] In response to Steven Tabachnick's observation that "Lawrence (unlike the pro-Arab Gertrude Bell or the pro-Zionist Richard Meinertzhagen) was one of the few and one of the last people in his own time and ours to achieve true sympathy for both national movements. His references to both movements in Seven Pillars are positive", Mack said

‘ Neither Lawrence, nor Weizmann when he wrote of Lawrence, foresaw World War II or the European Holocaust and the overwhelming pressure of immigration and for creation of a Jewish state. Nor did either predict the subsequent seemingly irreconcilable clash of nationalities between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine...Lawrence did not anticipate the degree to which the region would be caught in the geo-political maelstrom of superpower rivalries, or the coming together of U. S. strategic interests, American Jewish support for Israel and the political power of the American Jewish community to tilt U. S. policy in the direction of Israel in the Arab Israeli conflict. ’

Early life and education

One of five illegitimate sons of his father and his governess, all of whom attended Oxford High School.[5]

With increasing tension at home, he briefly enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery at St Mawes Castle, in Cornwall, with the British Army. His father bought him out, a permissible action. [6]

College

He received a scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford University, under the guidance of David Hogarth.

In World War I

While the public perception of Lawrence is as a guerrilla combat leader, his role was much more as an intelligence officer and political adviser. His mission was to support an Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Turks, a position supported by Lord Kitchener, and his first task was to find an effective Arab leader ally, who might be one of the sons of the Sherif of Mecca, Abdul Hamid, of the Hashemite family.

Notes

  1. ↑ T.E. Lawrence (1935), Seven Pillars of Wisdom: a triumph, Doubleday, Doran & Co.
  2. ↑ "Jeremy Wilson", T.E. Lawrence Studies
  3. ↑ John E. Mack (1976), A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E Lawrence, Little, Brown
  4. ↑ John E. Mack (20 May 1988), T. E. Lawrence's Vision for the Middle East: How Does It Look Now?, T. E. Lawrence Symposium, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
  5. ↑ Phillip Knightley and Colin Simpson (1971), The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia, Bantam, pp. 5-10
  6. ↑ "Outline chronology: 1888-August 1914", T.E. Lawrence Studies
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