Description:
London: Jonathan Cape,, 1936. First trade edition, first impression, originally published in 1914 by the Palestine Exploration Fund. "During January and February 1914, Lawrence and Woolley, in the company of a British Army surveying detachment led by Capt. Newcombe, under the guise of an archaeological survey, mapped the Negev region of the Sinai Peninsula, then under Turkish suzerainty. The British sought updated maps for the war they felt was coming. To complete the fiction of the archaeological work, Woolley and Lawrence wrote The Wilderness of Zin, the first of Lawrence's works to appear in book form [when it came out originally in 1914]" (O'Brien). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, top edge red. With dust jacket. With 40 plates, 2 maps, line drawings in the text. Foxing and toning to endpapers; jacket lightly soiled, spine toned with minor damp staining to foot, nicks and short tears to extremities, not price clipped: a very good copy in like jacket. O'Brien A006.