Thomas Edward Lawrence, mostly known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British archeologist, military man, and writer. He was born in Wales in 1888, and as a young soldier was sent to the Middle East and fought during World War I. He wrote down his experiences in the volume Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He died in 1936, at the age of forty-six. The 1962 motion picture Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O’Toole, was based on his experiences and turned Lawrence to an iconic, yet controversial, figure in popular culture.