Revolt in the Desert.

LAWRENCE, T. E.

Item Number: 95151

London: Jonathan Cape, 1927.

Limited first edition of T. E. Lawrence’s own abridgment of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which achieved immediate popular success. Quarto, bound in full red morocco by Zaehnsdorf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, top edge gilt, quadruple gilt ruled, inner dentelles, silk endleaves, colored frontispiece of Lawrence, illustrated with full color portraits with tissue guards after the portraits commissioned for the limited edition of Seven Pillars. folding map at rear. One of 315 numbered large paper copies of which 300 only were for sale, this is number 254. From the Adventure and Exploration collection of James Stephen “Steve” Fossett with his bookplate to the pastedown of each volume. American businessman and record-setting aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in 2002 in his 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. He completed the 2002 trip in 13 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes and set records for both the Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon and Fastest Balloon Flight Around the World. Fossett was also one of sailing’s most prolific distance record holders set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships with a Zeppelin NT in 2004. He received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including aviation’s highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which he was awarded in 2002. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. In near fine condition. A stunning example with noted provenance.

"Lawrence had lavished the finest materials and spared no expense in publication of the 1926 Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In doing so costs for production of the book ballooned from his first estimate of £3000 to £13,000. In a letter of 26 March 1925 we find him contemplating selling first his library and then perhaps some of his property at Pole Hill, Chingford. He finally settled on an abridgment of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. This was undertaken in 1926 by Lawrence himself…Three impressions were soon sold out and two more quickly followed in a period of four months" (O'Brien, A100).