T. E. Lawrence to C. M. Doughty

All Souls College,
Oxford.

Nov. 7. 1920.

Dear Mr. Doughty,

Here is the proof back again, inked as you suggested, except on p. xxxv, where I have not put in 'Ottoman'. I've taken out the past participle, which broadens the sense. In some other places I have not used your actual word, mainly for the printer's sake, to lessen the disturbance of type. It is very good of you to have changed so little.

I quite understand your saying about your neglect of Arabia Deserta: and I'm entirely of your opinion that it is less than Dawn in Britain, Mansoul, and Adam: but it is easier than these others, and so it's the best wedge to drive into the public. They will all read Arabia Deserta, and those who are seized with it will go on to the poems afterwards. I advise those who ask me, to read Adam second, Mansoul third, and then Dawn - because Dawn has to be read whole, and it takes courage to start so long a book. Those who have taken my advice have all become partisans of yours: and the clan is getting a large one. Still, it may be years yet before you sweep the board, and meanwhile the best weapon is Arabia. It's exceedingly good to have it out again, and as fifty copies have been sold already, it looks as though it might sell fairly quickly. I hope so very much, because then we'll have a third, and cheap edition.

Yours sincerely

T. E. Lawrence

Note: Lawrence is responding to Doughty's suggested amendments to his introduction to a new edition of Travels in Arabia Deserta, published in January 1921 by Jonathan Cape and the Medici Society.