Through an exhaustive collection of [Lawrence’s] letters, from his youth to the close of his life, Garnett has revealed a man of original mind, sincerity, humor, perceptiveness, sensitivity, tantalizingly elusive, lacking in emotional balance, brilliant and gifted beyond most in turn of phrase. The material is drawn not only from actual letters, but from official papers and autobiographical notes. Garnett has divided them into periods, and arranged the material chronologically, with clarifying notes and brief introductions to each section.