An intimate biography of the years that turned T. E. Lawrence into
Lawrence of Arabia.
Lawrence of Arabia's heroism during the Arab revolt and his disgust at
the subsequent betrayal of the Arabs in the postwar negotiations have
become the stuff of legend. But T. E. Lawrence's adventures in the
Levant began long before the outbreak of war.
This intimate biography is the first to focus on Lawrence in his
twenties, the untold story of the awkward archaeologist from Oxford who,
on first visiting the East, fell in love with Arab culture and found his
life's mission. Few people realize Lawrence's classic autobiography,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was not the first book to carry that iconic
title. Lawrence himself burned his original draft. Anthony Sattin here
uncovers the story Lawrence wanted to conceal: the truth of his birth,
his tortuous relationship with a dominant mother, his deep affection for
an Arab boy, and the personal reasons that drove him from student to
spy.
Drawing on surviving letters, diaries, and accounts from close
confidantes, Sattin brings a biographer's eye for detail and a travel
writer's verve to Lawrence's extraordinary journeys through the region
with which his name is forever connected.
In a masterful parallel narrative, The Young T. E. Lawrence charts the
maturation of the man and the incipient countries he treasured, both
coming of age at a time when the world's foundations were coming undone.
