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T. E. Lawrence to A. E. Chambers
21.3.23
Dear Jock,
It makes a good letter: but
god help you if ever you decide to write a book. Your bill for raw
paper!
To start Sartor
requires courage. To finish it is pretty near folly, to my mind. I don't
think Carlyle was quite the best possible (as H.M. was) and I don't
think he has much to say to the mind of 1923. Some day people will draw
pleasure from him: but not us.
You want to know about
Lilith! I once read a mediaeval German philosopher (in Latin) who made
her a great figure in the first world: but I forget his name and his
book hadn't a name. Look up Lilith in the Encyclopaedia Brit. and
see if they refer you to other authorities. The only thing I've ever
seen in English about her is Rossetti's poem, and that is more beautiful
than informing. I've written to a learned man who lives near a reference
library, and he perhaps will reply to the point - but I haven't a book
dealing with the lady, and she's so rare an interest that all her books
will be even rarer. However patience and hope.
The British Museum allow no
books to be taken outside their Reading Room. It's an Act of Parliament
says so. For books to borrow and read at home you would have to go, for
educational books to the Workers Educational Association, who have a
very decent library, and are very decent to deal with... and for more
learned books to the London Library. The W.E.A. is run by Albert
Mansbridge, a very earnest but excellent man. The L.L. by Dr. Hagbert
Write [sic] a scholar with an international reputation. Let me
know which you choose and I'll write the proper him a letter smoothing
your path.
Yes, it was hard luck that
my A.C.IIship should have come upon two such as [name omitted]
and [name omitted] conjoined. I bear them a grudge, because I
liked B.iii and the R.A.F. and this Army life feels very drab in
comparison. Also you know we really were a decent crowd: and the present
lot with me are the sort who'd always throw something at any cat they
saw. It's a moral difference, I feel, and unless I can get over it I'll
find myself solitary again.
The camp is beautifully put
- a wide heath, of flint and sand, with pines and oak-trees, and much
rhododendron coming slowly into bloom. When the heather flowers in a few
weeks there will be enough to please me.
One of my sorrows is the
recruits' course (new name, naturally, new age, no previous service) and
a consequent imprisonment in the camp for a month, being damnably
shouted at.
No there's no book coming
out yet. You don't call it selfish of some women to refuse to any man
what prostitutes give: and so why should I expose myself for money, or
for others' edification? Besides, is it edification? Often I think the
book is a pernicious one.
Regard me to B3. My only
present likeness to it is another corner bed!
Yours
R.
The W.E.A. is in Eccleston
Sq. near Victoria. The L.L. in S. James' Square. The L.L. would cost a
little.
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