The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

"I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands," the dedication begins, "and wrote my will across the sky in stars, to earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house." Lawrence built that house for a dead friend, then spent the rest of the book recording himself unable to live inside it. What follows is his account of the Arab Revolt: two years of camel columns crossing waterless desert, railway lines mined in the dark, Aqaba taken from the landward side when everyone said it could not be done.