Lawrence and Gould

[Anne Chrystine <glenn24p@hotmail.com>]

             Dear F minors,
I now would like to bring up a subject that I don't think has ever been
discussed on this list before. Before I had ever heard of Glenn Gould (3 or
4 years ago), I was intensly interested (okay, obsessed) with another
fascinating personality, Thomas Edward Lawrence, a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia.
The reason I bring this up here is because he was the means by which I
really became interested in Glenn Gould as a person.
         Let me explain. It originally started when I saw the classic film
"Lawrence of Arabia." I just had to find out about this person,he just
intrigued me. So I read every article I could find, everything on the
internet, and then the 1000+ page biography by Jeremy Wilson. And what I
discovered was that the real man was much more interesting than the myth(as
is often the case). This is what I discovered about this man: As a young boy
he  was fascinated by the middle ages, chivalry, knights and ladies and so
forth. I don't have time to go into detail, but he was apparently very smart
and became an archeologist who excavated pottery shreds from medieval times.
He had a great abhorence for shaking hands and would clasp them behind his
back and bow when introduced to people. When he got a job in the Cairo
intelligence department at the beginning of Wolrld War 1, he was reported as
being the sloppiest dressed man in the office. When he eventually rose to
great fame because of some romanticized writings by Lowell Thomas, he
refused to be knighted(something he had dreamt of all his life) and instead
brought to attention the bad treatment the Arabs were getting from his
country. He renounced his fame(or attempted to) and went into obscurity by
joining the air force. He became a man of letters and prefered to
communicate with people that way. Some people he knew only by mail. He was a
recluse and after he left the air force he went to live in a cottage alone.
He died at the age of 46 in a motorcycle accident. Also, he was an author,
something he had also dreamed of being since he was a boy. Sound familiar?
Well, when I discovered that a pianist I liked so much had something in
common with him, I was hooked.
             Lawrence was quite a scholar, and some of his writing really
reminds me of Glenn's. Any thoughts? Has anyone else ever noted the
parallels? I think a meeting between these two men would be hilarious. One
would be bowing and the other would be handing out a card explaining why he
didn't shake hands.

       I apologize for the length. Anne C.



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