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Posts Tagged ‘Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain’

The good news is that The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf (2025) is now out in print. The bad news is the cost: $245. But the other good news is that Edinburgh University Press is offering a “launch discount” code that saves you 30 percent off the published price. Use code NEW30 at checkout.

Amazon U.S. is also offering the volume at a price of $246.39, but no discount is available.

Edited by Stephen Barkway and the late Stuart N. Clarke, the volume includes more than 1,400 uncollected and newly discovered letters from Virginia Woolf, including several substantial series of letters with previously unrecorded correspondents.

Important letters to contemporary writers, such as Stella Benson, Rebecca West, Lyn Lloyd Irvine and Berta Ruck, have been unearthed from archives, as well as fifty letters to T. S. Eliot. This book also features substantial collections of letters to Lady Colefax, Winifred Holtby, Mary Hutchinson, Christabel McLaren (Lady Aberconway) and Raymond Mortimer, as well as previously unrecorded correspondents, according to the publisher.

Background on the new letters and the editors

For 25 years, Clarke and Barkway searched for previously unpublished letters from Virginia Woolf and included them in the pages of the Virginia Woolf Bulletin, which is issued free to members of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.

During their search, the pair of editors also put out a call to members and beyond for any letters from Woolf  that did not make it into the six-volume collection of her letters published by Hogarth Press/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich between 1975-80.

Clarke is a co-founder of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and was editor of the Virginia Woolf Bulletin from 1999 to 2022. As well as contributing almost 300 items to the Bulletin, he edited Volume five and Volume six of The Essays of Virginia Woolf (2009 and 2011) and transcribed Orlando: The Original Holograph Draft (1993). Barkway is a co-founder of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and was its Chair from 1998 to 2018.

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The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, in association with the directors of the Clifford’s Inn Management Company Limited, has commissioned and installed a blue plaque on London’s Clifford’s Inn where Virginia and Leonard lived from 1912-13 following their honeymoon.

The Woolfs lived in flat 13, with Virginia writing most of her first novel, The Voyage Out (1915) while living there. The block of flats was rebuilt in the 1930s, but the entrance on Clifford’s Inn Passage, where the plaque is placed, is where the Woolf’s would have entered the building.

The Passage, one of the oldest alleys in London, is the route which the Woolfs would have used to go to the Cock Tavern on Fleet Street.

Other tenants in the building during the Woolfs’ residency were individuals working in law, as well as photographers, tailors, architects, and artists including both painting and sculpture. The building was also used for commercial purposes. It was home to organizations including the Society of Women Writers and Journalists, the London Typographical Society, the London Positivist Society and the Art Workers’ Guild.

When ongoing construction work in the neighborhood is finished and the Clifford’s Inn Passage undergoes renovation and tree planting, the VWSGB will hold an unveiling ceremony for the plaque.

 

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The irreplaceable Stuart N. Clarke, who co-founded the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain in 1998 and served as editor of the Virginia Woolf Bulletin for 23 years, died peacefully on Feb. 10, 2025.

Stuart was known for his encyclopedic  knowledge of Virginia Woolf, often stepping up to answer esoteric questions posed to the VW Listserv.

“His vigorous recall of facts and quotations not only astounded those around him but became a reliable resource for the Society and its members,” according to the email from the society’s executive committee that announced his passing. “The Society would not have been what it has grown to become without the seemingly endless, encyclopaedic knowledge that Stuart had of Virginia Woolf’s life and work.”

The Centre for Modernist Cultures at the University of Birmingham made him an Honorary Fellow in 2022 “in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the study of Virginia Woolf.”

His work as a distinguished textual editor includes Volumes 5 and 6 of The Essays of Virginia Woolf (Hogarth Press, 2009 and 2011), A Room of One’s Own with David Bradshaw (Shakespeare Head Press, 2015), and Jacob’s Room for The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Among his earlier publications are Orlando: The Original Holograph Draft (1993), and Translations from the Russian (2006), a volume devoted to the collaborative translations undertaken by Virginia Woolf and S.S. Koteliansky.

To honor Stuart’s dedication, the VWSGB will produce a supplement with the next issue of the Bulletin, containing pieces written by his fellow Woolfians in appreciation of his huge contribution to Woolf studies over the years.

Tributes should reach the society at bulletinvwsgb@gmail.com by March 1. You can also post your memories about Stuart in the Comments section below.

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Are you a member of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain? If so, join an online reading of “Bloomsbury in Love.” If not, consider joining so you can participate in this free member-only online event in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Who: The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
What:  “Bloomsbury in Love,” an evening of readings by members from works by Virginia Woolf and her friends.
When: Wednesday 19 February 2025, 5:30 p.m. GMT or 12:30 p.m. EST
How: Via Zoom. If you are a society member you should have received the Zoom login details via email. If not, you can join here.

Want to read your favorite passage?

The society is looking for people who would like to read out a favorite passage on the topic of love (in its many forms) from a Bloomsbury novel, diary, letter, essay, or other piece of writing. All you need to do is introduce the piece, with a brief word about its context, and then read it out to other members. Readings should be four or five minutes long, including your introduction.

If you would like to do a reading, please email: onlinevwsgb@gmail.com by Wednesday 12 February, with details of what you would like to read. If it is a diary entry or letter, please include the date; if a section from a longer piece of writing, please include the first and last lines.

 

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The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain‘s Annual Birthday Lecture 2025, in honor of Virginia Woolf’s birthday, will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday,  Jan. 25, the date of her birth in 1882.

This year, the lecture will be given by Eleanor McNees, Professor of English at the University of Denver and the topic will be “Channelling/Challenging Leslie Stephen: How Should Virginia Woolf Read the Victorians?”

Lecture location is the Claudia Jones Room in Camden Town Hall, 5 Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE. The location is a short walk from either Kings Cross or Euston stations.

The lecture will be followed by a birthday cake and wine/soft drink reception.  Attendees will receive a printed copy of the lecture.

Cost and payments

Cost: £25 for members of the Society and £30 for non-members.

Payment may be made by: 

  • cheque payable to the Society and sent to Lindsay Martin, 12 Elm Park Road, London N21 2HN
  • bank transfer to: account name: Virginia Woolf Society GB, Sort Code: 09-06-66, account no.: 40411044
  • PayPal to lindsay.martin@cantab.net

In each case use ‘ABL25’ to indicate clearly what the payment is for.  Tickets will not be issued. Ticket holders names will be on a registration list at the lecture.

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