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A Virginia Woolf Writer’s Block for your bookshelf

Posted in commodification, tagged Literature Lodge, Robert Sadler, Virginia Woolf, Writer's Block on Monday 15 December 2014| Leave a Comment »

Here’s an interesting item to add to your bookshelf: a wooden block featuring Virginia Woolf and her works.

Dubbed Writer’s Block, each block is made to order and sold on Etsy by designer Robert Sadler of Literature Lodge.

Sadler says:

Virginia is one of my 2 favorite authors of all time, and my dream is to one day own a book signed by her (perhaps if this little shop of mine keeps gaining steam…).

Each 2″ x 2″ solid wood block features the portrait, signature, and famous works of a particular author. The Woolf block includes the Vanessa Bell cover designs for To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, Kew Gardens, and A Room of One’s Own.

Single blocks are priced at $8. The three-block bundle allows you to choose any three authors you like, from Shakespeare to Dr. Seuss.

The shop is temporarily closed until Jan. 1, 2015, to allow Sadler time to make and ship current orders.

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Woolf on the wall and the significance of color

Posted in commodification, tagged A Room of One's Own, Penguin classics, Virginia Woolf on Wednesday 25 September 2013| 5 Comments »

Here’s an easy way to surround yourself with books — wallpaper that features the covers of classic Penguin paperbacks, including Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.

It’s called Penguin Library, and it’s from Osborne & Little.

Then watch this little video about Penguin cover colors, which indicate their genre. The purple cover of Room indicates that it is classified as an essay.

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Wearing Woolf on your neck

Posted in art, commodification, Roger Fry on Thursday 5 September 2013| 2 Comments »

woolf pendant

Always on the lookout for all things Woolfian, I found this pendant at the Made in Ohio Craft Festival at Hale Farm in Bath last weekend.

The image of Woolf is affixed to a domino and sealed with a glossy substance. It is from a Roger Fry painting of Woolf, circa 1917.

Of course, this Woolf necklace is not the only one out there. A quick Google search turns up quite a few for sale on ebay, etsy, etc. Some feature Woolf’s face, others her words.

There’s also a Bloomsbury necklace with portraits of key members of the group. And a Woolf Whistle necklace. Not sure about that one.

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Put the famous first line on your behind

Posted in commodification, Mrs. Dalloway, tagged VirginiaWoolf on Tuesday 20 August 2013| 2 Comments »

Thanks to Title Wave for Books, you can put the famous first line of Mrs. Dalloway on your behind. And you can even choose from among three colors for your pair of boy-style underpants.

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself – Virginia Woolf

You can also put the quote under your head on a pillow and over your shoulder and at your side on a messenger bag.

You’ll find a variety of other commodities bearing the familiar quote here.

Mrs. Dalloway Said…. (plinthetal.com)

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Virginia Woolf plays ball — and then some

Posted in Alice Lowe, commodification, Woolf online, Woolf sightings, tagged Alice Lowe, Gertrude Stein, Girls of Summer, Moment And Other Essays, Rick Meyerowitz, Todd Avery, Virginia Woolf on Wednesday 15 August 2012| 8 Comments »

Screen shot of Virginia Woolf at bat in NYT Book Review caricature

In the years between the two world wars, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas played ball — baseball. Their team, known as Le Gang Stein, included female luminaries from the literary world.

New York Times illustrator Rick Meyerowitz captures the team as he imagines it in a caricature titled “The Girls of Summer.” Published in the Aug. 3 NYT Book Review, it features a snippet of a poem by Stein and includes Virginia Woolf.

But there’s more about Virginia Woolf and baseball. According to the Cosmic Baseball Association website, she played infield on the Paradise Pisces team.

What’s more, Woolf is said to consider Ring Lardner’s You Know Me, Al, her “favorite baseball book.”

Todd Avery documents the connection between Woolf and Lardner in “‘The Girls in Europe Is Nuts over Ball Players’: Ring Lardner and Virginia Woolf” (1968). Avery writes that “Both writers—Lardner as a matter of professional obligation as well as personal interest, Woolf as a feminist theorist—were attuned to an unusual degree to the ideological role of sports in their respective societies” (1). He adds that just one 1925 essay, “American Fiction,” which is included in The Moment And Other Essays, expresses Woolf’s interest in Lardner.

A July 23, 2012, Wall Street Journal article, “Taking Fiction Out to the Ballgame,” also mentions Lardner’s appeal to Woolf, citing her “American Fiction” essay: “[Lardner] writes the best prose that has come our way, often in a language which is not English.”

Alice Lowe manages to connect Woolf and baseball as well, in her essay ”Seventh Inning Stretch,” published in Hobart in April 2011.

And if you love baseball as much as you love Woolf, you can combine the two by purchasing your very own Woolf baseball jersey.