ALS, two pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, All Souls College letterhead, September 18, 1920. Letter to Miss Baird in London. In full: “I regret the delay in answering your letter but I gave instructions that letters were not to be forwarded to me from All Souls. This will give you the measure of the accuracy of the article in ‘John of London.’ Mr. Lowell Thomas is responsible for the ‘Facts’ in it, and the less exact they are, the more they please me. Incidentally I can neither read nor write Arabic. I don’t think it is worthy while puzzling yourself over Moslem services. It is a religion of the Desert, incomprehensible outside it. May I implore you not to put my autograph close to that of Mr. G. K. Chesterton.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Lawrence’s hand.
Also accompanied by a one page TLS, signed “Lowell Thomas,” 7.25 x 10.5, on his personal letterhead, dated June 11, 1975. Written to Vincent Edmunds, the letter reads, in part: “Many thanks for … sending me a copy of the letter from Oxford. How did you happen to get it? I see it is addressed ‘Dear Madam.’ As you know a stream of books about Lawrence descended upon us in the past thirty years. How many of them have been accurate, I don’t know. But most of it has been pure speculation … I had found him a grand person in every way. In 1967 Doubleday brought out a revised edition of my Lawrence of Arabia … In this edition I reply to those who have attempted to belittle Lawrence, saying he was a homosexual and so on -- all of which was untrue … As for the reference to John-of London, I’m sure this referred to a publication and not to an individual.”
Thomas, an American newscaster, encountered Lawrence, a British Army captain, in Jerusalem during the Arab revolt of Ottoman Turkish rule and set about telling the romantic and adventurous tales of this ‘mysterious blue eyed Arab in the garb of a prince wandering the streets’—a story that became an instant hit. Thomas' screen show showed to packed audiences in New York and then London, and his story later served as the basis for the film, Lawrence of Arabia. It turned Lawrence into a household name, but the instant fame did not sit well with the officer, who here criticizes Thomas’ “facts” in John O'London's Weekly, a British literary magazine, showing his bemusement when “the less exact they are, the more they please me.” The notoriety eventually led to Lawrence being invited to join the British Colonial Office, under Winston Churchill, as an adviser on Arab affairs by the end of 1920. However, Lawrence said that he never forgave Thomas for exploiting his image, and called him a ‘vulgar man.’ For his part, Thomas genuinely admired Lawrence and continued to defend him against attacks on his reputation. Chesterton, also mentioned here, was a columnist with The Illustrated London News, and it would seem a man for whom Lawrence held no great regard! Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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