[Vwoolf] Leonard would have approved . . .

[Suzanne Bellamy]

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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