Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, £114,000. James Joyce’s Ulysses, £150,000. Virginia Woolf’s Orlando — priceless.
At least it would be priceless to readers of this blog.
But according to Simon Roberts, a book expert at Bonhams in central London, a Penguin paperback first edition of Woolf’s classic is only worth a tenner.
Whether pounds or dollars, that doesn’t seem like much to pay for a first edition of our idol’s 1928 psuedo-biography.
Bonnie Kime Scott, president of the International Virginia Woolf Society, announces that members of the society are invited to submit a panel topic for the next MLA Convention in 2008, which will be held in San Francisco. The deadline for proposals has been extended to Dec. 13.
Kime Scott notes that this is a call for whole panels, not individual paper proposals. She asks that you submit only one topic please.
Members should submit the following:
1. A 35-word description of your panel (word count must include the title).
2. The name(s) and contact information of the proposed organizer(s), i.e. e-mail, snail mail, preferred telephone number, institutional affiliation, if any.
3. Deadline by which the organizer(s) wish to receive submissions (usually March 15).
4. The format for submissions (500-word abstract, full-length paper, etc.). All of the above should be submitted to Bonnie Kime Scott electronically or by mail. Electronic submissions are strongly preferred. Please type “Woolf Society Panels MLA” in the subject line of your e-mail.
Panel proposal submission deadline is Dec. 13, 2007. Voting on the resulting proposals will be completed by Dec. 30, to meet MLA deadlines.
If you would like to propose your own special session, visit the MLA Web site for instructions.
Contact: bkscott@mail.sdsu or Bonnie Kime Scott, President IVWS, Dept. of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-6030.
In Bloomsbury Bell, Kara Wilson uses her skills as a writer, painter, and actress to tell the story of Vanessa Bell’s reaction to her sister Virginia Woolf’s death in 1941.
The one-woman play features Vanessa at her easel at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex just a few weeks after Virginia Woolf’s suicide in the nearby River Ouse. While Vanessa paints, she shares her thoughts with Virginia, according to a story on living.scotsman.com. During the monologue, Wilson puts brush to canvas to create a portrait of Woolf.
Wilson says her inspiration for the play, which she wrote, included the letters the two sisters wrote to each other, as well as Jane Dunn’s book, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: A Very Close Conspiracy.
Wilson’s solo show is playing at Lyon & Turnbull, Broughton Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on Nov. 23 -24, Tickets for the Edinburth production are available from www.karawilson.co.uk. For more information, call 0207 435 2225.
Bloomsbury Bell was also staged at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Paul Roche, the poet and novelist who conducted a long-term relationship with Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant, died Oct. 30 at the age of 91. Read The Telegraph story or a later account in the New York Times.
