T. E. Lawrence to Bruce Rogers

10/2/30

Dear B.R.

I like the roundels better without the lettering. The gold (if it takes) will be so good in mass : also it leaves the readers to guess.

Thank you for the page-proofs. I hopped through them gaily, as if I were reading a book. Parts of it go better than I expected. Your beauty of type flatters the text.

Several points showed up at once for amendment in a later edition: only as a matter of principle, shouldn't we make the U.S.A. public text worse than your masterpiece? It will be worse, typographically, and it seems to me we should damage the text too, in keeping. Revolt in the Desert was worse, many times, textually than the Seven Pillars.

Also I saw some misprints. Here they are, on a slip. I have marked them in my sheets. Too late, I think to do anything else. I do not care. Misprints are trifles and take nothing from the goodness of a printed page.

I have done very little work since I saw you. The 'rest' continues. Yesterday I even turned my old bike out again, and went for a ride on it.

Yours

T. E. Shaw