Virginia Woolf: A Portrait
Page 27
LW.v Woolf, Leonard. The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: An Autobiography of the Years 1939–1969. London: Hogarth Press, 1969.
SLS Stephen, Leslie. Sir Leslie Stephen’s Mausoleum Book. London: Clarendon Press, 1977.
WV Woolf, Leonard. The Wise Virgins. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Letters
Letters are identified with the writer’s name followed by the recipient’s name, then the date written. Frequent correspondents are identified by their initials:
CB Clive Bell
ES Ethel Smyth
LS Lytton Strachey
LW Leonard Woolf
OW Octavia Wilberforce
VB Vanessa Bell
VD Violet Dickinson
VS Virginia Stephen
VS-W Vita Sackville-West
VW Virginia Woolf
Selections of letters are abbreviated as follows:
CDL Carrington: Letters and Extracts from Her Diaries. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
L.i-vi The Letters of Virginia Woolf: 1888–1941. Ed. Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975–79.
LSL The Letters of Lytton Strachey. Ed. Paul Levy and Penelope Marcus. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005.
LWL Letters of Leonard Woolf. Ed. Frederic Spotts. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.
VBL Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell. Ed. Regina Marler. London: Moyer Bell, 1998.
VH Vita and Harold: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. Ed. Nigel Nicolson. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992.
NOTES
Part 1
1. Virginia Woolf, The Waves (Orlando: Harcourt, 1931), 114.
2. Virginia Woolf, The Complete Shorter Fiction, ed. Susan Dick (London: Hogarth Press, 1989), 87.
3. February 27, 1926. D.iii, 62.
4. Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (Orlando: Harcourt, 1925), 184.
5. How is one: April 28, 1897. Virginia Woolf, A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals: 1897–1909, ed. Mitchell A. Leaska (London: Hogarth Press, 1990), 77. Very very … day: MD, 8. I feel: November 1, 1940. D.v, 335.
6. Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being, ed. Jeanne Schulkind (San Diego: Harcourt, 1985), 72.
7. O le sale monde: LW to LS, July 30, 1905. LWL, 98. Why one: LW to LS, October 11, 1904. LWL, 47. Did he invent: LW to LS, July 23, 1905. LWL, 97. The saddest: LW to LS, September 29, 1907. LWL, 132–33.
8. LW.iii, 74, as cited in Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (London: Chatto & Windus, 1996), 301.
9. The crash: LW to LS, September 27, 1904. LWL, 44. A battered usher: LW to LS, September 27, 1904. LWL, 44.
10. Very yellow and silent: LW to LS, September 29, 1904. LWL, 45. Oh no, no: LS to LW, September 30, 1904. LWL, 45.
11. LS to LW, November 20, 1904. LSL, 35.
12. LW to LS, July 15, 1905. LWL, 95.
13. The Goth: nickname for Thoby Stephen, Virginia’s older brother.
14. I feel that: LW to LS, October 11, 1904. LWL, 48. It was always: LW to LS, January 26, 1905. LWL, 75. You can’t exist: LW to LS, December 16, 1904. LWL, 67.
15. LW to LS, November 17, 1907. LWL, 134.
16. LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150.
17. I sometimes wonder: LW to LS, March 21, 1906. LWL, 115. Damn damn: LW to LS, April 21, 1906. LWL, 118.
18. LS to LW, September 9, 1904. LSL, 32.
19. LS to LW, September 9, 1904. LSL, 32.
20. Oh but the Goth!: LS to LW, October 23, 1905. LSL, 84. The Gothic: LS to LW, October 23, 1905. LSL, 84. Rather wonderful: LS to LW, December 21, 1904. LSL, 43.
21. LW to LS, March 4, 1906. LWL, 114.
22. LW to LS, October 2, 1908. LWL, 137.
23. LW to LS, September 29, 1907. LWL, 133.
24. appalling: LW to LS, September 29, 1907. LWL, 133. My only news: LW to Saxon Sydney-Turner, March 10, 1907. LWL, 125.
25. Adrian Stephen to Duncan Grant, July 1911. As cited in Jean MacGibbon, There’s the Lighthouse: A Biography of Adrian Stephen (London: James & James, 1997), 84.
26. He has ruled: VS to Lady Robert Cecil, June 1912. L.i, 504. confession: VS to VD, June 4, 1912. L.i, 500. A penniless: VS to VD, June 4, 1912. L.i, 500.
27. Marcel Proust, Selected Letters: 1904–1909, ed. Philip Kolb (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 221.
28. LW to LS, July 13, 1902. LWL, 24.
29. degraded debauch: LW to LS, October 1, 1905. LWL, 102. these degradations: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 145.
30. among other: LW to LS, May 19, 1907. LWL, 128. nonetheless: LW to LS, May 19, 1907. LWL, 128. cancerous kiss: LW to Saxon Sydney-Turner, June 12, 1910. LWL, 151. dead man’s lips: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 146.
31. Would you: LW to LS, July 7, 1907. LWL, 130. a half naked: LW to LS, July 7, 1907. LWL, 130. Most women: LW to LS, November 25, 1908. LWL, 142.
32. VS to VD, May 13, 1908. L.i, 331.
33. Am I to: VS to VB, August 10, 1908. L.i, 348. I have heard: VS to VB, August 14, 1908. L.i, 354.
34. Marriage is: VS to VB, July 21, 1911. L.i, 469. What am I: VS to VD, March 1907. L.i, 289.
35. Adrian Stephen to Duncan Grant, July 1911. In MacGibbon, There’s the Lighthouse, 84.
36. VS to VB, June 8 (?), 1911. L.i, 466.
37. MB, 188.
38. VS to LW, May 1, 1912. L.i, 496.
39. The final: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 145. It certainly: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 145. on the principle: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 145. I don’t: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 145. Do you: LW to LS, February 1, 1909. LWL, 144.
40. October 17, 1924. D.ii, 317.
41. greater or less: LS to LW, February 19, 1909. LSL, 173. You would: LS to LW, February 19, 1909. LSL, 174. copulated: LS to LW, February 19, 1909. LSL, 174.
42. LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 149.
43. You must: LS to LW, August 21, 1909. LWL, 148. young, wild: LS to LW, August 21, 1909. LWL, 149. the opportunity: LS to LW, August 21, 1909. LWL, 149.
44. the one: LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 149. The horrible: LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150. As cited in Lee, Virginia Woolf, 298.
45. From the perspective: Recorded as part of a series of programs broadcast by France Culture. These broadcasts were transcribed and taken up again by Maurice Nadeau in a 1973 supplement of the Quinzaine Littéraire. France Culture, 1973; program transcribed 1973, Maurice Nadeau, Quinzaine Littéraire.
46. France Culture, 1973.
47. VW to Roger Fry, May 27, 1927. L.iii, 386.
48. TL, 165.
49. TL, 165.
50. And as usual: June 13, 1923. D.ii, 247. An attempt: MD, 184.
51. Excitement: HL, 331: Gerald Brenan to Rosemary Dinnage, November 4, 1967. LWL, 162. Ça lui dit trop: VS-W to Harold Nicolson, August 17, 1926. VH, 159.
52. I want: June 13, 1923. D.ii, 247. Leonard told me: HL 331–332: Gerald Brenan to Rosemary Dinnage, November 4, 1967. LWL, 162.
53. ghastly: HL, 304. LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150. preliminary: LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150.
54. HL, 331: Gerald Brenan to Rosemary Dinnage, November 4, 1967. LWL, 162.
55. her attacks: HL, 331: Gerald Brenan to Rosemary Dinnage, November 4, 1967. LWL, 162. excitement: Victoria Glendinning, Leonard Woolf: A Biography (New York: Free Press, 2006), 143.
56. VW to LS, July 25, 1916. L.ii, 107.
57. horrible: LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150. ghastly: LW to LS, September 14, 1909. LWL, 150.
58. Why do: VW to Katherine Cox, September 4, 1912. L.ii, 6. I might: VW to Katherine Cox, September 4, 1912. L.ii, 7. Don’t marry: VW to Katherine Cox, March 18, 1913. L.ii, 20.
59. The W.C.: VW to LS, September 1, 1912. L.ii, 5. Several times: VW to LS, September 1, 1912. L.ii, 5.
60. TL, 146.
61. Virginia Woolf, The Waves (Orlando: Harcourt, 1931), 57.
62. Love between: MD, 89. How Shakespeare: MD, 88.
; 63. VS-W to Harold Nicolson, August 17, 1926. VH, 158.
64. VS-W to Harold Nicolson, August 17, 1926. VH, 159. As cited in HL, 326.
65. I do hope: Harold Nicolson to VS-W, July 7, 1926. VH, 150n. It’s a relief: Harold Nicolson to VS-W, September 2, 1926. As quoted in Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, ed. Nigel Nicolson (New York: Atheneum, 1973), 229.
66. VW to VS-W, December 8, 1926. L.iii, 306–7.
67. VW to VS-W, December 5, 1927. L.iii, 442–43.
68. Talking to Lytton: VW to VS-W, March 23, 1927. L.iii, 352–53. I do feel: VW to LS, March 21, 1927. L.iii, 351.
69. LW.iii, 18–19.
70. Vanessa was: LW.iii, 27. the form: LW.iii, 27. some resemblance: LW.iii, 27.
71. I always: LW to LS, July 30, 1905. LWL, 97. You think: LW to LS, July 30, 1905. LWL, 98.
72. Leonard had already described his first vision of the two sisters, in keeping with the general opinion: “In white dresses and large hats, with parasols in their hands, their beauty literally took one’s breath away, for suddenly seeing them one stopped astonished and everything including one’s breathing for one second also stopped as it does when in a picture gallery you suddenly come face to face with a great Rembrandt or Velasquez…. It was almost impossible for a man not to fall in love with them…. It must, however, be admitted that at that time they seemed to be so formidably aloof and reserved that it was rather like falling in love with Rembrandt’s picture of his wife, Velasquez’s picture of an Infanta, or the lovely temple of Segesta.” (In white dresses: LW.i, 183 and 186.)
a very different: LW.iii, 28. She was, as: LW.iii, 28. when she was: LW.iii, 28. when, unexcited: LW.iii, 28. painful: LW.iii, 28.
73. LW.iii, 28.
74. strange: LW.iii, 28. ridiculous: LW.iii, 28–30. would go into: LW.iii, 29.
75. LW.iii, 29.
76. May 26, 1924. D.ii, 301.
77. LW.iii, 52.
78. On March 28: LW.iv, 157. I must return: LW.iv, 157. At 7:30: LW.iii, 83. whistling through: LW.iii, 83.
79. November 23, 1926. D.iii, 118.
80. His first novel, The Village in the Jungle, met with great success.
81. utterly vulgar: LS to LW, June 20, 1905. LSL, 68. how many: LS to LW, June 20, 1905. LSL, 69. Your Jewish: LW to LS, July 16, 1905. LWL, 95.
82. July 11, 1930. Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters, Vol. 1, 1930–1939, ed. Nigel Nicholson (London: Collins, 1966). As quoted in Glendinning, Leonard Woolf, 236.
83. LWL, 470, citing Quentin Bell.
84. Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (New York: Harcourt, 1941), 219.
85. In the beginning: Leonard Woolf, The Wise Virgins (New York: Harcourt, 1914), 1. jealous for the: WV, 2.
86. BA, 219.
87. Are you in your stall, brother: June 14, 1925. D.iii, 30. I said to: VS to VB. October 8, 1938. L.vi, 286.
88. As quoted in Glendinning, Leonard Woolf, 294.
89. Morocco is here code for homosexuality. LW to LS, November 1, 1911. LWL, 167.
90. pure, often: LW.iii, 35. in love with: LW.iii, 52.
91. I only: “Volume I” in Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 186. the strength: VS to LW, May 1, 1912. L.i, 496. Again, I want: VS to LW, May 1, 1912. L.i, 496. being half: VS to LW, May 1, 1912. L.i., 496. As cited in HL, 311.
92. VS to VD, June 4, 1912. L.i, 500.
93. LW and VS to LS, June 6, 1912. Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf, ed. Joanne Trautmann Banks (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989), 72.
94. Virginia always referred to her mother-in-law as Mrs. Woolf. When used here, “Mrs. Woolf” never refers to Virginia but to Marie Woolf.
How I hated: VW to ES, August 2, 1930. L.iv, 195. immense vitality: VW to ES, August 2, 1930. L.iv, 196. They can’t die: VW to ES, August 2, 1930. L.iv, 196.
95. January 4, 1915. D.i, 6.
96. WV, 59. As cited in HL, 313.
97. LW.iii, 70.
98. Marie Woolf to LW, August 7, 1912. LWL, 178.
99. VS to VD, October 9, 1912. L.ii, 9. As cited in HL, 334.
100. VW to ES, March 17, 1930. L.iv, 151.
101. a world of good: LW.iii, 82. I am rather: VB to LW, January 22, 1913. Vanessa Bell, Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell, ed. Regina Marler (London: Moyer Bell, 1998), 134. They confirmed: LW.iii, 82.
102. France Culture, 1973.
103. O dearest Gwen: VW to Gwen Raverat, March 11, 1925. L.iii, 171. To think: VW to Gwen Raverat, March 11, 1925. L.iii, 171. My own: September 5, 1926. D.iii, 107. As cited in HL, 329.
104. MD, 99.
105. VW to VB. June 2, 1926. L.iii, 271.
106. Bell, Virginia Woolf, 8.
107. As with many: LW.iv, 56–57. The mother wants: LW.iv, 58.
108. VS to Duncan Grant, August 8, 1912. L.i, 508.
109. HL, 314.
110. May 14, 1912, CB to Molly McCarthy, Charleston Papers, University of Sussex. As cited in HL, 321.
111. CB to Mary Hutchinson, January 21, 1915, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Washington State: Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Holland Library, Washington State University. As cited in HL, 308.
112. [The dictator]: Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas (New York: Harcourt, 1938), 156–57. Common interest: TG, 217.
113. October 13, 1937. D.v, 114.
114. W, 58.
115. VS to VD, April 5, 1905. L.i, 184.
116. the richest: VW to Quentin Bell, December 12, 1933. L.v, 258. gloves, hat: VW to Quentin Bell, December 12, 1933. L.v, 258. didn’t like: VW to Quentin Bell, December 12, 1933. L.v, 258.
117. Virginia and the Jew: John Maynard Keynes to VB, July 28, 1917. Garnett Collection, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Ill. As quoted in Alex Zwerdling, Virginia Woolf and the Real World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 116. but no Jew: John Maynard Keynes to VB, January 31, 1918. Garnett Collection, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Ill. As quoted in Zwerdling, Virginia Woolf and the Real World, 116.
118. What is: VW to Jacques Raverat, September 4, 1924. L.iii, 130. I make: VW to Jacques Raverat, July 30, 1923. L.iii, 58.
119. A sandwich: VS to Janet Case, June 1912. L.i, 502–3. Work and love: VS to VD, June 1912. L.i, 502.
120. 10 Jews: VW to ES, February 28, 1932. L.v, 23. I do nothing: VW to Ottoline Morrell, October 31, 1933. L.v, 240. these dull plain: September 3, 1928. D.iii, 195. I am so: VW to ES, September 28, 1930. L.iv, 222–23.
121. To be: September 3, 1928. D.iii, 195. How many: September 29, 1930. D.iii, 321.
122. Angel of: Virginia Woolf, “Professions for Women,” in Collected Essays, Volume 2 (New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1967), 286–87. to want: TL, 165.
123. VW to Quentin Bell, October 28, 1930. L.iv, 237–38.
124. VW to Julian Bell, October 25, 1935. L.v, 436.
125. VW to ES, January 11, 1934. L.v, 269.
126. Belonged to: Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, vol. IV: Sodom and Gomorrah, trans. Terence Kilmartin and C. K. Scott Moncrieff (London: Chatto & Windus, 1992), 121. One can: Proust, In Search of Lost Time, IV:121.
127. VW to ES, August 8, 1934. L.v, 321.
128. My Jew had: VW to Katherine Cox, November 1912. L.ii, 11. a good: VW to VB. June 2, 1926. L.iii, 269.
129. VW to ES, August 28, 1930. L.iii, 204.
130. Virginia Woolf, The Years (London: Hogarth Press, 1951), 365.
131. like a drowned sailor: MD, 93. The depths: TL, 168.
132. Y, 365–66.
133. Abrahamson was Marie Woolf’s cousin, Sir Martin Abrahamson, whom her mother-in-law sometimes invited when Virginia came to visit, as she mentions in her diary.
134. Y, 366.
135. Y, 366.
136. Y, 367.
137. an odious: April 2, 1937. D.v, 75. It was: November 3, 1936. D.v, 29.
138. Very tired: November 3, 1936. D.v, 29. in
to one: November 3, 1936. D.v, 30. The miracle: November 5, 1936. D.v, 30.
139. LW.iv, 155.
140. we are Jews: VW to Margaret Llewelyn Davies, April 28, 1935. L.v, 388. our Jewishness: VW to ES, April 26, 1935. L.v, 386.
141. France Culture, 1973.
142. LW.v, 46.
143. This morning: May 15, 1940. D.v, 284–85. No, I dont: May 15, 1940. D.v, 285. its all bombast, this war: May 15, 1940. D.v, 285.
144. March 24, 1940. D.v., 274.
145. our waiting while: June 27, 1940. D.v, 299. I will continue: June 9, 1940. D.v, 292–93.
146. VW to Margaret Llewelyn Davies, April 28, 1935. L.v, 388.
147. VW to Margaret Llewelyn Davies, April 28, 1935. L.v, 388.
148. MB, 39.
149. MD, 184.
150. There is a: LW.v, 95. The long: LW.v, 95.
151. April 8, 1941. VS-W to Harold Nicolson. Reproduced in Harold Nicolson, The War Years: Diaries and Letters 1939–1945 (New York: Atheneum, 1967), 159.
152. LW, note found after his death. LWL, 165.
153. June 10, 1919. D.i, 280.
154. John Lehmann, Thrown to the Woolfs (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979), 10.
155. Lehmann, Thrown to the Woolfs, 17.
156. France Culture, 1973.
157. VW to CB, January 28, 1931. L.iv, 283.
158. Glendinning, Leonard Woolf, 294.
159. France Culture, 1973.
160. LW to Trekkie Ritchie, June 1, 1944. Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons (1941–1969), ed. Judith Adamson (London: Chatto & Windus, 2001), 128.
161. Caption of lithograph produced by Trekkie of Leonard. See LWL, 480n2.
162. VB to Angelica Garnett, December 25, 1944. VBL, 484.
163. Quentin Bell, introduction to D.i, xvi.
164. LW to Trekkie Ritchie, June 15, 1944. Adamson, ed., Love Letters, 144.
Part 2
1. MB, 84.
2. MB, 124.
3. As quoted in HL, 112.
4. The world has: MD, 14. my wings still: MB, 124.
5. MB, 83.
6. How difficult it: MB, 87. What would: MB, 36.
7. TL, 68.
8. TL, 146.
9. TL, 146.
10. May 4, 1928. D.iii, 183.
11. Sir Leslie Stephen, Leslie Stephen’s Mausoleum Book (London: Clarendon Press, 1977), 40.
12. SLS, 41.