The Mint is a book written by T. E. Lawrence and published posthumously in 1955. It describes his time in the Royal Air Force, working, despite having held senior rank in the army (colonel), as an ordinary aircraftman, under an assumed name, 352087 Ross.
First (expurgated) general edition, 1955
A 1919 pencil sketch by Augustus John, possibly the one that Lawrence had intended to use as frontispiece to a limited hand-printed edition
Start of chapter 19 'Shit-cart' showing blanks for expurgations in both chapter title and main text
Detail of title page showing elegant hardback style on cream cartridge paper
Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918) against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities.
Lawrence in 1918
Lawrence's birthplace, Gorphwysfa, Tremadog, Carnarvonshire, Wales
The Lawrence family lived at 2 Polstead Road, Oxford from 1896 to 1921
Leonard Woolley (left) and Lawrence at the excavation of Carchemish, c. 1912
