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Introduction
Jeremy Wilson
Why build a T. E. Lawrence website?
Like most historians, I set a high value on accurate information.
That isn't just a question of academic principle. In practical
terms, it reflects the time and money spent finding things out.
Therefore, I've often wished that the authors of historical
studies would publish not only their conclusions, but also a
research guide. The frontiers of knowledge would be rolled back more
quickly if less time were wasted looking for information that
someone else has already located.
Between 1975 and 1989, I and my research assistants gathered
an enormous amount of information for Lawrence of Arabia, the
Authorised Biography. More recently, my wife and I have done
further research while editing volumes in the T.E. Lawrence
Letters series.
In the past, there was no easy or economic way
to publish research guides. That changed with the advent of the
Internet. Encouraged by Jack Flavell of the Bodleian Library, I set
up the Lawrence of Arabia Factfile in 1997-8.
Response was
extremely positive, and in 2000 I expanded the site, moving detailed
information for researchers to a separate section called T.E.
Lawrence Studies.
During 2006 these two sites were amalgamated
as
www.telawrence.info, which is the site you are on
now. At the same time we built a new site,
www.telawrence.net,
which contains a large amount of Lawrence's writing that
has gone out of UK copyright. Giving it a separate URL
made it possible to provide a site-search facility.
In 2007
the sites will grow again, with the
addition of an online research journal
www.telawrencestudies.org.
Work in progress
The
problem has been the scale of the project, given that my time is
heavily committed elsewhere. There is still a long way to go, and we
have to make choices about what to add next.
You can help. First, we value your comments and
suggestions. Secondly, you may know something that we
don't. Documents and artefacts relating to Lawrence are
scattered all over the world. Do you, or a friend, or
your university library, own a letter by Lawrence, or a
portrait of him, or interesting material relating to him
or to one of his close associates? Please tell us about
it. As I am working on
the major scholarly edition of
Lawrence's correspondence, such information can be extremely
helpful.
Please also let us
know if you find a mistake on the site or a link that does not work.
When reporting an error, give the URL of the page so that we can
locate it and deal with it quickly.
Acknowledgements
I
am extremely grateful to Jack Flavell, Cliff Irwin, Jonathan
Mandelbaum, and Peter Metcalfe for their help in countless ways.
I must also thank all the others who, over the years, have helped me
gather the information here. These include the
late St. John Armitage, Lilith
Friedman, Martin Holmes, Vincent Landon, Jonathan Law, Edward Maggs,
the late Denis McDonnell, Jonathan Newell, Anthony Rota, Martin Rowe, John
Vice, Nigel Webb, Richard Westwood, Maria White and Ian Wood. Last
but not least, my wife Nicole, our sons
Peter and Edward and our daughter Emily have put in many hours'
work.
The web space for www.telawrence.info,
www.telawrence.net
and
www.telawrencestudies.org is paid for by
Castle Hill Press, publishers of the Oxford
Text of Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the T.E. Lawrence
Letters series.
Revised December 2006 |
