<html><head><base href="x-msg://929/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>It's 1971 and having dropped-out of Clarenceville High School (which is on the outskirts of Detroit) in my junior year, I'm in a strange musician's bed (an extraordinary pianist, but a stranger nonetheless), and it's three in the morning and the boy left the room to go prepare us some snacks, so to keep myself from the boredom of waiting in yet another musician's unfamiliar bed, (it seems that sleeping with musician's has become my profession since I haven't yet figured-out that writing, which I do obsessively, as well as reading, can be a profession), I reach for the book I have stashed in my big shoulder bag and I remember it's "To The Lighthouse." Odd that it's not my usual Sartre or Dostoyevsky. And I begin reading where I left off and I remember not quite understanding the book---it isn't as cut and dry as "The Idiot." Probably I'm reading Woolf for the first time because Anais Nin, in her diaries (which I'd stumbled upon in a tiny pre-chain bookstore and most likely bought because the cover had such an intriguing photo of an exotic looking woman) had mentioned Woolf as well as other women authors such as George Sand and Colette and I'm determined to read every book Nin mentions---which took me to Artaud and Sontag, too! So I'm reading Woolf but I'm an unconscious young woman and I let Woolf's words sink in and they become a part of my body, my nervous system, and I'm not aware that I will come back to Woolf and some day read "The Waves" every day, as if it's the Bible-- I still read a few pages a day and when I reach the end I just begin again because "The Waves" (Woolf's masterpiece I staunchly believe) is like listening to Beethoven or like going to another planet where there's stark and beautiful wisdom floating every which way. And in Detroit in 1971, in a strangers bed, I didn't feel so alone with Woolf in my hands. And I decided I'd go on living.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Laurie Lessen Reiche</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>It was 1971 and, having dropped out of Clarenceville High School which is and was on the outskirts of Detroit, I was wondering from one musician's bed to another and, from the bed of one particular I remember reaching <br><div><div>On Aug 23, 2013, at 10:38 AM, Eleanor McNees wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I’ve been reading these responses with interest as I think they would be great to share with students we’re currently teaching. I honestly can’t recall the first work by Woolf that I read, but I do remember that I decided not to take a course on the Bloomsbury Group my first year in college in 1969 because I had never heard of that group! I know I began teaching Woolf first in the 1970s, specifically<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>To the Lighthouse</i>, because I took high school students on a literary tour of the U.K., and we spent two nights in St. Ives. The characters in that novel and in her other works have remained with me for decades as I’ve aged and gained new perspectives on them. That E.M. Forster questioned her ability to create truly vital characters has always puzzled me.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Eleanor<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(192, 0, 0); "><span><image001.jpg></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(192, 0, 0); "><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35); ">Eleanor McNees<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Associate Dean<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Professor of English<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Sturm Hall, 463<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">2000 E. Asbury Ave.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Denver, CO 80208-0900<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b>TEL:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>303.871.2057<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b>FAX:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>303.871.4436<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35); "><a href="mailto:EMcNees@du.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35); ">EMcNees@du.edu</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35); "><a href="http://www.du.edu/AHSS" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35); ">www.du.edu/AHSS</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>Vwoolf mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</a><br><a href="https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf</a><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>