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<DIV>I don’t think this is by Virginia Woolf.</DIV>
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<DIV>Stuart</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>JJ
Wilson via Vwoolf</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, June 26, 2018 11:11 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=smhall123@yahoo.co.uk>Sarah M. Hall</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vwoolf] Misquotations and
misattributions</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>This
thread gives me an opening to ask if any of you scholars sans pareil can answer
me this query: for years I have been, when appropriate and it all too
often is, quoting Virginia Woolf as saying that”the only true tragedy is
premature death” . The other day someone called me on it, asking me where
this telling and comforting quote appears in Woolf. Darned if I could come
up with an answer….
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<DIV>Is it hers? and if so, where is it? And there will be a prize
for the first person to clue in</DIV>
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<DIV>J.J. Wilson, the clueless<BR>
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<DIV>On Jun 26, 2018, at 4:34 AM, Sarah M. Hall via Vwoolf
<<A>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A>> wrote:</DIV>
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<DIV>Another common Bloomsbury-related example is that they '<SPAN>lived in
squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles', most often attributed to
Dorothy Parker. Those who read their Virginia Woolf Bulletin assiduously will
know better (No. 57, Jan 2018). Stuart N. Clarke, researching a tip from Vara
Neverow, discovered a novel by the largely unsung Margaret Irwin called Fire
Down Below (now there's a title to conjure with), in which a character
describes 'Gloomsbury' with the line:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN>'It is a circle [ ... ] composed of a few squares where all the
couples are triangles.'</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV>Although I've given away the punchline, the article is a lovely read. The
journey is as interesting as the destination (with apologies to Montaigne, and
L Woolf).</DIV>
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<DIV>On Tuesday, 26 June 2018, 09:45:42 BST, Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf
<<A>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A>> wrote: </DIV>
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<P>There are various web pages that list misattributed, misunderstood, or just
plain false quotations. But they are generally popular, and not open to
submissions or reliably monitored. What is needed is something of the reach
and reliability of Snopes, a place where false quotations can be reported.</P>
<P>And rather than a soundbite, a virus would perhaps be a more appropriate
analogy, as such falsities spread, as the saying has it, like the plague. My
own recent encounter with a similar fake quotation came in connection with
writing an introduction to a reissue of Ernest Bramah's <I>What Might Have
Been</I> (1907, reissued in 1909 as <I>The Secret of the League</I>). Every
bookseller advertising a copy of this book seems to have to include the claim
that George Orwell acknowledged the book as a source or inspiration for
<I>1984</I>. Even Bramah's biographer Aubrey Wilson, repeats the claim,
asserting that "in his letters" Orwell made this acknowledgement. None of
these claims is backed up by evidence from the letters or elsewhere, although
there is evidence that Orwell was familiar with a number of Bramah's books.
For those interested, the next number of <I>Notes and Queries</I> will have a
short piece by me questioning the claim.</P>
<P>All this confirms that when we impress upon students the need to check
sources and to provide full references, we are doing something important.</P>
<P>Jeremy<BR clear=none></P><BR clear=none>
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<DIV class=ydp603e23eyiv0164709105moz-cite-prefix>On 26.06.2018 09:44, Sarah
M. Hall via Vwoolf wrote:<BR clear=none></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV>
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class=ydp603e23eyiv0164709105yqt4286176193>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">This is the most common Woolf misquotation, it
seems. Googling just now gave <SPAN></SPAN>51,600 results for the fake and
5,190 for the real one. It looks as though truth is a casualty not just of
war*, but of the soundbite.<SPAN><BR clear=none></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=1>*Which itself is a contested quotation; see <A
class=ydp603e23eyiv0164709105
href="https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21510,00.html"
shape=rect rel=nofollow
target=_blank>https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21510,00.html</A>.
Some think the original of this is Samuel Johnson's '<SPAN>Among the
calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth,
by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.' But you
may prefer to believe that Aeschylus had already come up with a snappier
version.</SPAN></FONT><BR clear=none></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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