Modern Books and Manuscripts
Though Gently. Laura and Francisca. Twenty Poems Less. ()
Limited editions, of 200 copies each, signed by the author. Small folio, original bindings of printed boards after designs by Len Lye, the first two with cloth spines, the third with a leather spine. Uncut. the first two published and printed in Majorca by the Seizin Press, 1930 and 1931, the third published in Paris by the Hours Press in 1930.
T.E. Lawrence's copies, each with the posthumous "Clouds Hill" ex-libris (the legitimate one, not the faked later state). The Hours Press book is un-numbered, Laura and Francesca is marked "Out of Series", and Though Gently has the comic number "338171" in Riding's hand, referring to Lawrence's service number. The inventory of Lawrence's library in Lawrence by his Friends lists these books, without mentioning the joke colophon, but also referring to a letter - not now present - inserted in the book. Lawrence was very unsympathetic to Riding, believing that she was likely to damage Robert Graves' poetry. Jeremy Wilson, in his authoritative life of Lawrence, suggests that a component of this was Lawrence's hostility to sexual relations in general: Graves certainly held a polar view on this particular point. Lawrence did, a couple of years later, contribute a section (on a fanciful auto-gyro) to Graves and Riding's unsuccesful thriller No Decency Left.
Stock Code: MO52753
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