Core Curriculum : Literature Humanities

Virginia Woolf & the Hogarth Press > Virginia Woolf, author

To the Lighthouse Cover

Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse

[London]: Hogarth Press, 1926

Columbia RBML B825W883 X3 1926

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Vanessa Bell made the woodcut for the dust jacket of the first British edition of her sister Virginia Woolf's novel, To the Lighthouse, published by the Hogarth Press in 1926. Between Two Stories in 1917 and To the Lighthouse in 1926, Virginia Woolf had become a publisher as well as an author of renown. Woolf made changes to the text of To the Lighthouse between the Hogarth (1926) and Harcourt Brace (1927) editions. In most cases, Harcourt Brace set their editions of Woolf's novels from the proofs of the Hogarth editions.

Three Guineas-front cover

Virginia Woolf. Three Guineas

New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1938

Columbia RBML B825W883 x3 1938b

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For the American edition of Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas, Harcourt Brace and Co. used another of Vanessa Bell's woodblocks on the dust jacket, printed in pink and purple. Vanessa Bell did not always read the works but would create the design after having a conversation with her sister. The design shows three banknotes, suggestive of the title. The book includes insets of photographs, such as a smiling guard (click on the image of the title to see more).

Monday or Tuesday-inscription on titlepage

Virginia Woolf. Monday or Tuesday

New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1921

Columbia RBML Samuels

 

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Monday or Tuesday, Virginia Woolf's first collection of short stories to be published, was released in 1921. On the title page of this Harcourt Brace (American) edition, the poet Hart Crane has copied a sentence from page 42, from the story “Monday or Tuesday,” which reads "from ivory depths words rising shed their blackness, blossom and penetrate.” He inscribes the volume to the poetry editor and publisher, Donald Allen: “What an ideal! And she is quite consistent, as you may agree with me, Allen. Had to slip you a copy anyway.” It’s as if Crane anticipates Allen’s reluctance or disagreement.



 

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