The Atlantic Bookshelf: A Guide to Good Books

PRIVATE T. E. SHAW of the Royal Air Force is, of course, none other than Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence of Arabia. Fresh from Oxford, Lawrence spent four years excavating on the Euphrates, an experience which stood him in good stead when at the age of twenty-nine he became the British firebrand who roused the Hejaz against the Turks. Believing that the Versailles Conference had broken faith with his Arabian allies, Lawrence declined all honors, changed his name, and hid himself away as a private soldier. To-day, speed, whether in the air or on the water, is his pastime, but in quieter moments he has found time to translate Homer.