[Vwoolf] Leonard would have approved . . .
Suzanne Bellamy
suzannebellamy at bigpond.com
Thu Aug 29 19:19:21 EDT 2013
Oh Stuart you always impress me but your reading list is a new high. I just love this list of yours.
I don’t have a list as well organised but realise that I could probably construct one from my journals which I have kept continuously since 1973. I have already written an account of my first experiences with Woolf’s work and ideas in a chapter of the Eileen Barrett and Pat Cramer collection Lesbian Readings from 1998, called “The Pattern Behind the Words.”
There was one skirmish with Mrs Dalloway at high school in the English Honours class, but alas nothing at University in the embers of the Leavisite dominated English Dept of Sydney University. The real ignition for me happened in the 1970’s in women’s liberation, and much influenced by my great friend the brilliant activist and intellectual Bessie Guthrie who had been Australia’s first woman publisher (modernist poets in the 20’s and 30’s) who worked with us on MeJane, Australia’s first women’s liberation newspaper (1971-74). Bessie Guthrie had read Woolf as the books appeared, had all the early editions and opened all this up to me as a young reader. She died in 1977 just after the first Diary came out. That was the biggest moment for me with Woolf, that diary. It pulled all the reading together. I then made two ABC Radio programmes on Woolf in 1979 and from then on was always engaged with her ideas and work.
What fascinates me about the stories on the list is how we take the long journey, renewed by the originating texts and the great scholarship that keeps happening around them. Here I am decades later researching another young Australian woman Nuri Mass who discovered Woolf and wrote a wonderful 180,000 word thesis on Woolf’s novels in 1942 at Sydney University, corresponded with Leonard, had his interest, and then the war cut off all the possibilities for publication.
All our stories matter.
Suzanne Bellamy
From: vwoolf-bounces+suzannebellamy=bigpond.com at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:vwoolf-bounces+suzannebellamy=bigpond.com at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Stuart N. Clarke
Sent: Friday, 30 August 2013 6:43 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
Subject: [Vwoolf] Leonard would have approved . . .
Except that this list can’t be complete, as I know I read the Bell bio when it came out: Vol. 1 was bought on 12 Oct 1972; Vol. 2 arrived on 6 Dec 1972.
VIRGINIA WOOLF BOOKS READ, July 1966–September 1978
BOOK
STARTED
FINISHED
Between the Acts
9 July 1966
13 July 1966
The Years
14 July 1966
19 July 1966
A Haunted House …
19 July 1966
31 July 1966
Orlando
1 Aug 1966
11 Aug 1966
The Waves*
20 Aug 1966
24 Aug 1966
Jacob’s Room
7 Sep 1966
12 Sep 1966
The Voyage Out
28 Sep 1966
12 Oct 1966
Night and Day
25 Oct 1966
15 Nov 1966
The Years*
17 Nov 1966
22 Nov 1966
Between the Acts*
4 Dec 1966
7 Dec 1966
Mrs. Dalloway*
24 Apr 1967
4 May 1967
A Haunted House …*
19 May 1967
23 May 1967
Jacob’s Room*
30 May 1967
c. 5 June 1967
The Years*
c. 1 July 1967
4 Aug 1967
Between the Acts*
10 Jan 1968
10 Jan 1968
Jacob’s Room*
2 Sep 1968
11 Sep 1968
The Waves*
1 Jan 1969
c. 5 Jan 1969
The Years*
14 March 1969
28 March 1969
A Haunted House …*
13 Sep 1969
2 Oct 1969
Nurse Lugton’s Golden Thimble
14 Nov 1969
14 Nov 1969
A Haunted House …*
c. 2 Nov 1970
c. 17 Dec 1970
The Waves*
c. 10 Sep 1971
21 Sep 1971
The Years*
6 April 1972
11 April 1972
Mrs. Dalloway*
14 Sep 1972
4 Oct 1972
Orlando*
c. 2 Jan 1973
? March 1972 (not finished)
Mrs Dalloway’s Party …
22 Aug 1973
27 Aug 1973
Flush*
c. 27 April 1974
30 April 1974
The Voyage Out*
25 Dec 1976
? Feb 1977 (not finished)
The Pargiters
15 Sep 1978
16 Sep 1978
*Re-read
Stuart
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