Henry Williamson’s connection with T.E. Lawrence first came about when in 1928 TE wrote a long letter to Edward Garnett, the well connected publisher’s reader, about Tarka the Otter, this including a near line by line critical analysis. This letter followed on from Garnett having sent TE a proof copy of the book out to Karachi, where he was at that time posted by the RAF. Now Garnett, wasting no time, sent this long letter on to Williamson, who had fortunately been impressed reading Revolt in the Desert, which had been serialised in The Daily Telegraph, and so the connection began. These notes on Tarka, as contained within the letter were to be largely incorporated into a later edition of Tarka. The letter was published for the first time by the Golden Cockerel Press in the edition of Men in Print, in July of 1940.
The newly formed connection was mainly maintained by correspondence, in fact the two men only appear to have actually met on a couple of occasions. The “friendship” if such it was, proved in fact of a relatively short duration, some seven years, indeed TE probably had some reservations about Williamson, possibly in particular his extra-marital affairs!
It was of course on a motorcycle ride on the 13th May 1935, returning from the Post Office at Bovington where TE had sent a Telegram, handed in at 11.25, to Williamson, Lunch Tuesday wet fine cottage one mile North Bovington camp Shaw, that he had the accident from which he was to die some six days later. The purpose of the meeting, never to be, were wholly literary and probably surrounding the writings of the recently deceased V. M. Yeates. There was no political motivation behind the meeting, despite unfounded speculation and rumour circulated later. Indeed this was created by Williamson and he possibly began to believe his own tales.
It was following TE’s death that Williamson commenced writing his own memoir in 1936 using quotations from the letters TE had written to him. At this period A.W. Lawrence was to heavily edit Williamson’s contribution to “Friends“, the collection of essays about TE by those who had known him, published in 1937. However Williamson planned for a longer version aimed at Atlantic Monthly of his memoir. A.W. Lawrence always appears to have reservations about Williamson’s text and indeed imposed a five year embargo on quotes from his brothers’ letters which postponed any such publication. This no doubt brought about to some extent by David Garnett’s (son of Edward) splendid collection The Letters of T.E. Lawrence published by Jonathan Cape in 1938. By 1940 however Williamson now pressed ahead and the Golden Cockerel Press. owned at this time by Christopher Sandford, Owen Rutter and Francis J. Newbery took an interest in it. They had some success in recent years with TE related volumes such as Crusader Castles 1936, Secret Despatches 1939 and Men in Print 1940. These were uniform volumes bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe and sold well, so they we keen to develop the series. The proposal appears to have been that the Williamson volume would be in this format, matching the other publications.
By 1940 it appears that A.W. Lawrence had relented on the quotes following the five year hiatus, although Williamson could not find the relevant letter and there remained concerns regarding permissions that may have needed clearance from Raymond Savage, the literary agent. These concerns are related by Williamson in a postcard to Owen Rutter dated 1 Dec 1940.
Discussion with A.W. Lawrence obtained the necessary permissions, although he retained reservations about the text (as surviving letters to Owen Rutter indicate), and was as always cautious about controlling copyright. Christopher Sandford too had some concerns about the planning of the publication, which he expressed to his partners in a note. His suggestion was for a 2 guinea production in the style of Crusader Castles.
Eventually in April of 1941 it was all agreed to press ahead and publish and in a format matching the recent Lawrence series of GCP volumes. The Press had very recently published the Men in Print volume in July of 1940. In April of 1941 Owen Rutter wrote to A.W. Lawrence with the news.
But the story does not end here, or happily for the Golden Cockerel Press, writing to A.W. Lawrence on the 6th May, here is a file copy letter from the Press, which explains that after months of negotiation Williamson declined to let the Golden Cockerel Press publish his memoir of TE as he wanted more of an advance payment which the Press could not afford. One can sense the frustration and possible disappointment in the brief note and the continuing concerns regarding copyright with another publisher becoming involved. In the event the Golden Cockerel Press consoled itself with a different letters volume in the series, Shaw-Ede. T.E. Lawrence’s Letters to H.S. Ede, published September 1942, which in the event proved to have its own difficulties meaning that a correction slip had to be issued.
However, Williamson obviously seems to have gone for the money and was now eager to have his memoir published. So all appears to have been speedily agreed and a contract with Faber was signed by 20 August 1941. Genius of Friendship was published by Faber in November of 1941. It was to be a less glamorous edition than the Golden Cockerel Press would have produced, if more accessible for the general reader priced at just 10/6d. The edition has 80 pages, only 70 pages of actual text. The pages are untrimmed, which is unusual in a commercial book at this time. It is in a pale blue dust wrapper with classic Faber typographical design. But time has not been kind to it. as it does tend to fox and fade.
To conclude our TE/ Williamson connection, here is a tantalizing little puzzle, a proof copy from the library of Henry Williamson of the only and exceedingly scarce biographical novel by Myfanwy (Ann) Thomas, daughter of poet Edward Thomas, writing under the pseudonym of Julia Hart Lyon which provides a fictionalised account of her long affair with Williamson. Entitled Women must love it was published by Faber in 1937. Many of the events of the novel reflect what is known about their affair, from the early days as his secretary to the birth of a child. This proof copy being corrected by Williamson steering the narrative to be more sympathetic to the male character. Pasted in the proof, presumably by Williamson, a photograph of TE and underneath the words “ill-fated”. Why I wonder?
