The Young T. E. Lawrence

November 24, 2014
Sattin (Lifting the Veil), a travel writer with an extensive background in the Middle East, approaches the oft-profiled T.E. Lawrence from a new angle, focusing exclusively on the first half of Lawrence’s life, prior to the events that would make him famous. He wonders “how the second son of a quiet, comfortably off, apparently unexceptional Oxford family came to play a role—any role—in the Arab uprising.” An enterprising and brilliant archaeologist with a taste for adventure, Lawrence spent several formative years on a dig at Carchemish (on the modern Turkey-Syria frontier) and made a number of exploratory treks around the region. Noting the extent to which Lawrence adopted local culture, Sattin points out that he was, by Arab standards, “an extremely unusual for being wealthy and still wanting to walk alone, in the remote countryside, in the summer.” Brief and engaging, the book makes extensive use of Lawrence’s correspondence with his parents, brothers, and colleagues. Sattin argues that Lawrence fought for Arab self-determination because he viewed it as “an acceptable present for the man he had loved,” a teenager who taught him Arabic at Carchemish and died in late 1916 or early 1917, probably of typhus. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency.

November 1, 2014
Sattin (The Gates of Africa: Death, Discovery, and the Search for Timbuktu, 2004, etc.) details the early years of the man who loved the Arabian people and determined to free them from Turkish rule.As a young man, even before his years at Jesus College at Oxford, T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) developed a love of all things medieval, especially knights and castles. In 1906, as an 18-year-old, he bicycled 2,400 miles through France seeking medieval churches and doing brass rubbings. Even at this young age, his strength of character was obvious. His intense gaze, obsessive concentration and photographic memory helped him become a man who would succeed in being accepted and admired by all those he met. In 1909, Lawrence journeyed to Syria to explore crusader castles and research his thesis, which was titled "Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture." He walked everywhere in the area for the entire summer, felt he could never be English again, and only left when he was robbed and beaten. His mentor, D.G. Hogarth, Director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, then led him into his happiest years, as an archaeologist. The author has explored and followed in the footsteps of Lawrence, and it shows in his deep understanding of his goals, why he did what he did and how he managed. Lawrence was assigned to the dig in Carchemish near the Euphrates searching for a method to reveal their cuneiform writings. He mastered Arabic and gained the respect of the natives, easily winning their appreciation through his abilities and fearlessness in the face of danger or hardship. Lawrence's accomplishments in his youth are only the beginning of the legend, something he fiercely disdained; what he did after his 26th birthday is another story that readers hope Sattin will tackle. A masterful account of the beginnings of a unique man.

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Starred review from December 1, 2014

The dramatic exploits of T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) during World War I are widely known; however, journalist Sattin (The Gates of Africa) reaches further back; his engaging portrait covers the maturation of the young Lawrence and illuminates his intellectual and emotional connections with Arab culture. Sattin avoids glib psychological speculation but links Lawrence's upbringing in a self-isolating and unconventional family to his happiness living in a vastly different world. The work demonstrates how Lawrence's ability to earn broad respect as a university student, an archaeologist, and an expert on the disintegrating Ottoman Empire prepared him for an important role when Britain opened a Middle Eastern front in World War I. Sattin read widely in letters and memoirs by Lawrence and his colleagues, as well as numerous secondary sources, to create a convincing explanation of his subject's emergence as a leader who combined intense focus and discipline, physical bravery and endurance, and cultural understanding. VERDICT Recommended as an insightful, gracefully written, and sensitive account that explains how a shy, private young man developed into a widely known and revered "hero" who was never comfortable with his fame. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/14.]--Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL

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