Lawrence, of course, had his flaws. But I greatly admire him for the following: he had finished "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and was taking it to the publisher in a briefcase in a train station. He set it down, and the briefcase was stolen when he took his eyes off it. He rewrote the entire thing, from memory.
Similar story with Thomas Hart Benton, whose book in the 1800s, "Thirty Years' View," burned up in a fire.