Here is another Woolf sighting, and this one is most distressing. Virginia is featured on the cover of the Dec. 3 issue of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard magazine.
As if that is not bad enough, she is pictured playing ice hockey wearing an ugly uniform that features a sports logo made up of her first name and the head of a wolf.
On the original Web page, which has now moved into the black hole of cyberspace, her image appeared with a story titled “Not Your Father’s Tories,” by Reihan Salam. But in the hard copy version, the Woolf cover art doesn’t appear with any article.
However, upon closer perusal of the print edition, the Woolf graphic seems to have been inspired by a book about Woolf’s era: The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson, which we wrote about back in August.
Written by Tracy Lee Simmons, the review is titled “On the Brink: England’s Indian Summer Before the Great War.”
Woolf, in fact, is mentioned in the opening lines of the review: “Perhaps posing a bit for pithy immortality, Virginia Woolf famously declared that human nature changed somewhere in the leafy neighborhood of 1910.”
The magazine, considered the bible of right-wingers, is owned by Robert Murdoch, which means Blogging Woolf is not a subscriber.
However, my kind husband — who tipped me off to the Woolf cover — braved the cold and snow of Northeast Ohio to bring me a borrowed copy of the issue, just so I could satisfy my curiosity regarding the unlikely connection between Virginia and The Weekly Standard.
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As the illustrator of the cover in question, I feel I should reply.
I’ve been doing the summer reading and holiday reading covers for about 6 years. I usually just pick a recognizable author or literary character and insert them into a seasonal setting or activity. I’ve had Mark twain surfing, for example. The editors had been pressing me to include a woman and Woolf seemed a logical choice. I’ve always thought that “The Virginia Woolfs” would be a great name for a sports team. That is the total depth to the matter.
Your question prompted me to get my hands on a hard copy of the Dec. 3 issue. I edited the above post to include my findings. So thanks for asking, Jeanette.
is it the tories she’s illustrating or the holiday reading?