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T. E. Lawrence Society Symposium 2000
St. John's College, Oxford, 23 & 24 September

Organised and chaired by Gigi Horsfield

Programme: "Reflections and Projections"

A discussion on the disposition of the Clouds Hill library in the years following Lawrence's death; the roles played by A.W. Lawrence, the London book trade and the ubiquitous Clouds Hill bookplate were explored. Paul also discussed Lawrence's involvement in the world of books and book collecting.
     Paul Helfer is a New York attorney specializing in literary property and copyright law. Extensively active in the world of books, Mr. Helfer, together with his domestic partner Jennifer Lee, taught the course in bibliography and book collecting at Brown University from 1993 to 1995 and has been lecturing about T. E. Lawrence since 1970. He is a member of the Grolier Club, The Bibliographical Society of America and the Royal Asiatic Society (London). His collection has been exhibited at the Beinecke Library at Yale and the John Hay Library at Brown University.

A challenge to the criticisms of Lawrence as imperial agent put forward by Edward Said and Lawrence James, arguing that Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a Triumph subverts the project of empire in the writer's attempts within the narrative to establish a coherent identity. 
     Susan Williams is completing a PhD in English literature at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) with a dissertation on T. E. Lawrence and Edmund Spenser. As a lecturer, she has taught introductory philosophy courses and a range of literature courses at several universities in the United States. She was also a lecturer in language arts at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Ms. Williams has been awarded participant status in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar (1989), an institute on African literature (1996) that required a stay in Ghana and is now the recipient of the University of Arkansas' Baucum Fulkerson award in fiction.

Lawrence is often associated with Oxford and Dorset; yet London played a large part in his life and was one of his favourite places. He was employed there at the War Office and the Colonial Office, worked there on Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the Odyssey, sat there to artists and photographers, and (despite his loyalty to Oxford institutions) occasionally gave exhibits to London's galleries and museums. This talk reviewed Lawrence in London and the places associated with him, first in his lifetime, and then in terms of the libraries, galleries, and museums where "Lawrenciana" can be found today. 
     Jeremy Wilson is a contemporary historian with strong leanings towards both industrial history and international relations. He graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, and holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics. Best known in the Lawrence field for Lawrence of Arabia the Authorised Biography (1989), he has now returned to an earlier project - a major scholarly edition of T. E. Lawrence's works and letters. Jeremy was the principal adviser to the National Portrait Gallery's Lawrence of Arabia Centenary Exhibition, and compiled its catalogue. While chairman of the T. E. Lawrence Society (1990-4) he founded its Journal. His current hobby is building the "Lawrence of Arabia Factfile", a biographical reference web site, which receives thousands of visitors each month from all over the world.

Fame attracted Lawrence, enticed him, then destabilised him and in the end virtually destroyed him.
     Former BBC TV Producer, Malcolm Brown, is now a free-lance historian at the Imperial War Museum. Co-author of 'A Touch of Genius' and editor of 'The Letters of T. E. Lawrence' (1988) and 'Secret Despatches from Arabia'; also author of numerous books about the First World War.

An exploration of the 16th century Chapman-Sir Walter Raleigh family connection down to Lawrence, plus the circumstances of the establishment and extent of the early and later Chapman estates in Ireland. 
     Born at Portsmouth, Hampshire, Ronald Knight first read about Lawrence of Arabia when as a child he was evacuated to Weymouth during WW2. He worked for twenty years in H.M. Customs & Excise; after which he opened a bookstore. He was also involved with local government in the various departments of Trading Standards, Environmental Health, Waste Regulation and the Environment Agency. He was Chairman of the T. E. Lawrence Society from 1986 to 1990 and is now a Trustee of the Society. Ronald has written several books on Lawrence and is now a volunteer assistant curator at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester for its T. E. Lawrence Collection.

Jack Flavell spoke about Lawrence's connections with the Bodleian and printed books material that has been acquired over the years. Anna Dunn talked about the Lawrence manuscripts and, in particular, about the "Reserved" collection, which was embargoed until 2000. 
     Anna Dunn began cataloguing the embargoed Lawrence papers in the Bodleian Library in January 2000. She read history at Nottingham University, trained as an archivist in Aberystwyth, and has worked for Birmingham City Archives. Jack Flavell has worked in the Bodleian Library since 1977, and is currently Head of Legal Deposit Collections. He organised an exhibition on Lawrence for the Library in 1988 and is a Trustee of the T. E. Lawrence Society.

A tour of the regions through which T. E. Lawrence travelled in the campaign, each with their distinctive scenery and Arabic names.
     Ian Brookes was born in Torquay, brought up in the Worthing area of Sussex and has lived in Canada since 1962. He is a graduate in Geography of Kings College, London and McGill University, Montreal. He taught at York University in Toronto from 1965-95 and has since been enjoying early retirement

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Programme of the Oxford 2002 Symposium