A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence

I selected this biography, among the many written about TE Lawrence because of the Pulitzer and because of its reputation of being balanced. Reviews of other biographies warn of hagiography or vilification and I wanted "just the facts, ma'am". Granted, this is a psychological biography, so the facts are presented beautifully, but there is a bit of interpretation that is well-presented. After all, Mr. Mack had been a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He should know. Mack is a compassionate biographer, and it is apparent from the text how deeply moved he was by his research into Lawrence's troubled life. I actually cried several times while reading this, and learned to not sit down with this book unless I had the tissues show more next to the chair. I never knew when something would leap up from the page and stab at me. There is a scene described, when Lawrence, as a young man, shyly and painfully proposes marriage to a girl he has loved since they were children. She laughs at him. (She thinks he can't be serious. He has never made any indication that his company has ever been other than brotherly.) Later in Seven Pillars he writes, "There was my craving to be liked--so strong and nervous that never could I open myself friendly to another. The terror of failure in an effort so important made me shrink from trying; besides, there was the standard; for intimacy seemed shameful unless the other could make the perfect reply, in the same language, after the same method, for the same reasons." And after a different kind of traumatic experience in Dera'a, he could not bear to be touched. By anyone. This is an excellent biography of a complex and troubled man who tried to do the impossible and failed tragically. Or succeeded magnificently, depending on who you ask, and when. show less

A psychological take on the life of T.E. "of Arabia" Lawrence. Mack tries awfully hard to avoid sensationalism, which is tricky given the subject, but he pulls it off. The history and politics is fascinating but terribly depressing; the analysis of the heroic aspects of Lawrence's personality just plain fascinating. Mack can't avoid some in-depth analysis of his sexual disfunction, but you're left with the feeling that he'd really rather not focus on it -- his preferred topic is the aspects of personality that (combined with opportunity) can create a hero (in a rather carefully specified sense), and his take on Lawrence's sexual peculiarities is that these are more fallout from some traumatic experiences during his campaigns than show more features contributing to his unique abilities. Whether he's right or not, he makes the historical/political/psychological stuff far more interesting (I got the feeling he's also trying to avoid the label of sex-obsessed psychologist/psychiatrist). show less

2155 A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence, by John E. Mack (read 18 Jul 1988) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1977) I only read this book because it won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for biography. It is written by a Harvard psychiatrist, and it is heavy in psychiatric discussion, which did not much appeal to me. Lawrence was born to an Irishman who left his wife in Ireland and took up living with a governess, by whom he had five boys. T.E. was the second one and was born Aug 16, 1888. He died May 19, 1935, as a result of a motorcycle accident. He was a most unusual man, and the author is quite laudatory of him. He can only be said to have led a tortured existence. I cannot say I really enjoyed this book. It did not tell the show more story straightforwardly, and in fact assumes the reader knows much of the Lawrence story. show less

Uitstekende biografie van T.E. Lawrence, misschien niet toevallig door een psychiater geschreven. Mack gebruikt zijn professionele capaciteiten op een doordachte manier. Hij leeft mee met TEL maar houdt tegelijk voldoende afstand. Hij wisselt het feitenrelaas ook af met hoofdstukken over Lawrence' emotionele en psychologische houding en reacties. Alles bij elkaar één van de evenwichtigste biografieën die ik al gelezen heb. Milliscent Dillon identificeerde zich teveel met J.B. Alleen in haar tekstanalyses overtreft ze Mack. Maar die geeft zelf toe dat het TEL niet literair-kritisch wil benaderen.