“FROM… THE SENTIMENTAL AND LYRICAL, TO THE STARK, THE BRUTAL, AND THE OBSCENE”: LIMITED EDITION OF T. E. LAWRENCE’S THE MINT, 1955

LAWRENCE, T.E. The Mint. A day-book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922, with later notes by 352087 A/c Ross. London: Jonathan Cape, (1955). Quarto, original half dark blue morocco, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut; original slipcase. $850.

Limited first English edition, number 874 of 2000 copies printed, a handsome copy.

Lawrence's "semifictionalized memoir of Royal Air Force recruit training… horrified Whitehall officialdom and in his lifetime never went beyond circulation in typescript to his friends. In it he balanced scenes of rage at the desecration of the recruit's essential inviolate humanity. He described dehumanization as an ironic good, the metaphor of minting conveying the concept of men being stamped into the uniform image necessary for discipline and interchangeability; and he aimed at communicating the feel of life at a training camp and at a working station, using short-journal-entry chapters, which ranged from the oppressive and humdrum, as well as the sentimental and lyrical, to the stark, the brutal, and the obscene" (Britannica 10: 726). "With… The Mint Lawrence achieved his ambition to be recognized as an accomplished stylist" (James, 346). Preceded by the New York edition of the same year (1000 copies), and the extremely rare edition of 1936 (50 copies).

A fine copy in a moderately worn slipcase.