Woolf in the World: A Pen and a Press of Her Own

The Hogarth Press published the Uniform Edition of Virginia Woolf’s writings beginning in 1929. According to the advertisement, shown below, “there is no writer who can give the illusion of reality with more certainty and with so complete a concealment of illusionist devices behind a perfection of style which is at once solid and ethereal.” Woolf also shows genius as a critic: “Rarely in one mind is found an equal measure of two diverse and usually conflicting qualities.” In The Common Reader, “northern austerity is shot with Latin gaiety, a marriage of true minds consummated between a wood nymph and a don.”

Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse. London: Hogarth Press, 1930. Uniform edition inscribed by the author to “Mela Spira from Virginia Woolf.” Presented by Frances Hooper ’14.

Hogarth Press. Virginia Woolf New Uniform Edition, 1929.
Two copies presented by Elizabeth P. Richardson ’43.

Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College

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