Thomas Edward Lawrence was a brilliant polymath: he was an archaeologist before World War I, and during the war he became a map-maker, intelligence agent and leader of Bedouin and Arab insurgent forces against the Turks, developing and applying a powerful guerrilla warfare strategy. From 1919-1926, while serving as diplomat at the post-war Paris Conference and in the Colonial Office under Winston Churchill (who became a friend and admirer), and then in the Royal Air Force and the Tank Corps, Lawrence wrote several drafts of his memoir of the war, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), which is now regarded as one of the masterpieces of twentieth century British autobiographical writing. Praised by Hardy, Forster, Shaw and Churchill, …
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Citation: Tabachnick, Stephen. "T. E. Lawrence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2643, accessed 24 November 2024.]
