T. E. Lawrence to Gertrude Bell

18.8.23.

Dear Gertrude,

The £300 was an old estimate for setting up 350,000 words. Chiswick Press. There is a slight smugness about the Clarendon Press, and I shrink from the task of educating them suddenly.

The difficulty of a subscription edition is how many to print, and what to do with the materials left over (plates etc.). For this reason I would rather be indebted to one than to many. I'm turning over in my mind the alternative - to publish Garnett's abridgement (approved by Hogarth) and do the subscription edition with its profits. On Monday I may go to Oxford (they may send me near there as escort to a lorry column) and if so will try to see D.G.H.

Yours

T E L