A screenshot of the title page of the scanned Common Reader: Second Series
Edward Mendelson of Columbia University has shared scanned images of three sets of proofs newly discovered in Columbia’s library. They include two Virginia Woolf novels, as well as an edition of The Common Reader: Second Series.
These invaluable resources are available on Mendelson’s web page — where he has shared his scanned proofs of other Woolf novels. The new scans include the following:
- The corrected proofs sent to Harcourt, Brace of The Waves (1931) “in which the multicolored revisions on p. 301 are a sight to behold,” according to Mendelson. He notes that the page contains links to scanned PDF images of the proofs and early printings of The Waves and to PDF documents containing the texts of those editions, extracted from the scanned images. This page also includes notes on the text and on existing editions of the novel.
- The corrected proofs sent to Harcourt, Brace of The Common Reader: Second Series (1932). Scanned images of the marked proofs sent to Harcourt, Brace from the Columbia University Library.
- The uncorrected proofs sent to Harcourt, Brace of Orlando (1928), with some index entries added in an unknown hand. Scanned images of the proofs sent to Harcourt, Brace of Orlando from the Columbia University Library. Mendelson notes that Virginia or Leonard Woolf removed the leaf with the list of illustrations (pp. 13-14) before sending these proofs.
More Woolf scans from Mendelson
Mendelson has provided scans of other Woolf works.
- On “Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway: Texts and Scanned Images,” Mendelson shares links to searchable scanned PDF images of four early printings of Mrs. Dalloway and to PDF documents containing the texts of those editions. Read more about these scans.
- On “Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse: texts and scanned images, Mendelson includes links to searchable scanned PDF images of three early printings of To the Lighthouse, PDF documents containing the texts of those editions, extracted from the scanned images, and more.
More on The Waves
You can also read about Mendelson’s take on “the chapter gone wrong” in The Waves.
Mendelson is the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. His new book, The Inner Life of Mrs Dalloway, is out this month from Columbia University Press, along with Mrs. Dalloway: The First-Edition Text with the Author’s Revisions, edited by Mendelson and published by New York Review Bookshis new edition of Mrs. Dalloway.
A screenshot of pg. 1 of the comparison of the first American edition and the first British edition of The Waves.
A page in Woolf’s first notebook in which she penned a draft of The Waves
