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Archive for October, 2008

“When the lights of health go down,” read On Being Ill

Posted in books, essays, Hermione Lee, Hogarth Press, On Being Ill, tagged , , , on Wednesday 22 October 2008| Leave a Comment »

Everywhere I go, I hear it — that hacking cough that people just cannot seem to get rid of this fall.

So how fitting that this week, the Financial Times published a review of Virginia Woolf’s 1930 volume On Being Ill.

As the story goes, Woolf fainted at a party in 1925. During the aftermath, which involved several months of recuperation, she wrote a thoughtful rumination on how illness changes one’s experience of the world.

Those thoughts were published by the Hogarth Press in a slim volume with cover art designed by her sister, Vanessa Bell. It was titled On Being Ill.

The Financial Times review mentions a new edition of the volume, published by Paris Press and with an introduction by Hermione Lee. It is a facsimile of the original, cover art and all.

Five years ago, in 2003, Lee presented the keynote address at the 13th Annual International Virginia Woolf Conference on the essay. The theme that year was “Woolf in the Real World.” Nothing is more real than illness.

The Paris Press edition is not that new. My volume, which I picked up several years ago at my local Borders, has a copyright date of 2002.

Perhaps you can pick up a copy for an ill friend. It just might change his or her experience of the world.

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Writer on Woolf to be honored at free speech event

Posted in awards, books, Ruth Gruber, tagged , , , on Monday 20 October 2008| 3 Comments »

Ruth Gruber, noted journalist, photographer and author of Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman, is one of five individuals who will be honored at the Annual Celeberation of Free Speech sponsored by the National Coalition Against Censorship.

The event will be held at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th St. at Seventh Avenue in New York City on Oct. 21.

You can listen to Gruber, Anthony Lewis and Barney Rosset discuss censorship — past, present and future — at noon Monday, Oct. 20, on 93.9-FM and 820-AM on WNYC.

For more about Gruber from Blogging Woolf, click here.

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Watching from the front row on Woolf’s last day

Posted in Between the Acts, Monk's House, performance, river ouse, Virginia Woolf, Vita and Virginia, Vita Sackville-West, tagged , , on Friday 17 October 2008| Leave a Comment »

I went alone to the world premier of “Unpublished Dialogues.” Perhaps that was most fitting.

Virginia Woolf was, after all, alone when she died. And “Unpublished Dialogues” was based on the last day of her life.

The theater-dance piece premiered last month in a dark and cavernous old ice house that seemed a fitting space for conducting an artistic exploration of Woolf’s mind on the day of her death.

The building sits on a tipsy street that ends at railroad tracks. Inside, just as the name implies, the structure is as cool as a refrigerated case, even on a warm sunny afternoon in early fall.

The rough brick and concrete walls of the main space stretch up and up. On that day, they ended in rows of multi-colored lights strung above a stage set to resemble Woolf’s writing Lodge at Monk’s House in Sussex.

I sat in the front row, just inches from the low stage, ready to absorb the wordless drama about a woman who chose her words so well.

The stage was simply set, but each item was placed with special meaning. The wooden coat rack at stage left held the dark coat that Virginia would wear on her last walk. The small table at stage right held a framed photo of a couple that I imagined as Leonard and Virginia on their wedding day.

In the center was her famous writing table. I imagined that the notebook sitting there contained her draft of Between the Acts. When I noticed a walking stick leaning nearby, I wondered if Woolf had actually used one when she left for the River Ouse.

The performance itself froze me in my seat. I was mesmerized by its darkness and drama and lightness and euphoria all at once.

Two Virginias — the adult and her younger self — teased each other lightly and played cat and mouse with a pen. Two half-brothers struggled with the terrified young Virginia, who was consoled by her adult self.

Her lover Vita Sackville-West let down her long, flowing hair and romanced Virginia. Her nephew Julian Bell played at being a soldier then marched off to war as a real one. And Leonard Woolf was either there in the background or by her side, the steady companion.

When Virginia’s companions left her, and she pulled her coat off the rack and slipped it on,  I felt new empathy for this brilliant woman who felt forced to take that final walk. I did not want her to go alone. (more…)

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Let’s cast our votes for Virginia

Posted in e-books, Night and Day, The Voyage Out, tagged , , , on Saturday 11 October 2008| 1 Comment »

I just found a blog that offers free e-books written by women — or as the blog puts it — by “the gals.” Virginia Woolf is listed among the gals whose works are offered in several formats.

Sadly, though, one of her novels, Night and Day, has garnered just two votes from readers. Another, The Voyage Out, has three.

So in this momentous election year here in the States, let’s cast our vote for the change we need at the polls and for Virginia online at Girlebooks.

Perhaps both ballots will help us move from night to day in this country so we don’t have to take the voyage out.

All puns intended.

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On Woolf, her work, and work she inspires

Posted in A Room of One's Own, books, The Waves, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , , , on Friday 10 October 2008| 2 Comments »

Lately we have been treated to a banquet of words written about Woolf, her work, and work she has inspired. Woolfians can read these online:

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