Editing T. E. Lawrence (section)

===''Revolt in the Desert''===
''[[Revolt in the Desert]]'' was an abridged version of ''Seven Pillars'' that he began in 1926 and that was published in March 1927 in both limited and trade editions.<ref>''Grand Strategies; Literature, Statecraft, and World Order'', Yale University Press, 2010, p. 8.</ref> He undertook a needed but reluctant publicity exercise, which resulted in a best-seller. Again he vowed not to take any fees from the publication, partly to appease the subscribers to ''Seven Pillars'' who had paid dearly for their editions. By the fourth reprint in 1927, the debt from ''Seven Pillars'' was paid off.{{sfn|Wilson|1989|p=786}} As Lawrence left for military service in India at the end of 1926, he set up the "Seven Pillars Trust" with his friend D. G. Hogarth as a trustee, in which he made over the copyright and any surplus income of ''Revolt in the Desert''. He later told Hogarth that he had "made the Trust final, to save myself the temptation of reviewing it, if ''Revolt'' turned out a best seller."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telstudies.org/writings/letters/1927/270407_hogarth.shtml|title=T.E. Lawrence to D. G. Hogarth|date=7 April 1927|publisher=T. E. Lawrence Society|access-date=19 January 2020|archive-date=3 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803170754/http://www.telstudies.org/writings/letters/1927/270407_hogarth.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The resultant trust paid off the debt, and Lawrence then invoked a clause in his publishing contract to halt publication of the abridgement in the United Kingdom. However, he allowed both American editions and translations, which resulted in a substantial flow of income.{{sfn|Wilson|1989|p=786}} The trust paid income either into an educational fund for children of RAF officers who lost their lives or were invalided as a result of service, or more substantially into the [[RAF Benevolent Fund]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICT5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT96|title=T.E. Lawrence: Tormented Hero|first= Andrew|last= Norman|publisher=Fonthill Media |year=2014|isbn=978-1781550199}}</ref>