[Vwoolf] Madge Vaughan "believed in her genius"

[Mary Ellen Foley]

Thanks! But surely for that to be the case Madge would have to
have written, TO Woolf, something like "I believed in her genius", which
seems pretty unlikely, unless QB misquoted.  Surely she'd've said "I
*believe* in *your* genius".  Madge could've written the line to Vanessa as
part of the correspondence QB quoted elsewhere on the page, or Vanessa
could have written something about knowing it will have meant a lot to her
sister--pure fantasy here, of course--"that you told her you believed in
her genius"--which we see from Virginia's letter to Madge was pretty much
the case.  It's probably going to remain a mystery, but geez--wish he'd
given the source!

Mary Ellen
M.E.FoleyUK at gmail.com
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','M.E.FoleyUK at gmail.com');>

On Sunday, August 24, 2014, Stephen Barkway <sbarkway at btinternet.com
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','sbarkway at btinternet.com');>> wrote:

>  Dear Mary Ellen
>
> It would seem likely that QB would have been quoting from a letter from
> Madge which prompted Virginia to respond as follows:
>
> 'I do enjoy flattery! I never seriously meant to deny myself the pleasure
> of writing, however bad it be for the public morals!—As a matter of fact I
> am vain enough to think it had better read me than more popular authors. "
> Genius" is not a word to be used rashly; it gives me enormous pleasure,
> and something more than pleasure, that you should find anything of that
> kind in me.'
>
> (*Letters* I, 1 Dec [1904])
>
> Stephen
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Mary Ellen Foley
> *To:* vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> *Sent:* Saturday, August 23, 2014 6:23 PM
> *Subject:* [Vwoolf] Madge Vaughan "believed in her genius"
>
>   Quentin Bell says
>
> >>>
> Madge, who liked Virginia and "believed in her genius," was nevertheless
> sensible of...
> <<<
>
> That's in vol 1, page 92, of the 1972 2-vols-in-1 paperback from
> Harcourt/Harvest.  But there's no footnote to let us know where he got the
> phrase or who said/wrote it.  The page has two block quotations from
> Vanessa Bell's letters to Madge Vaughan, which have proper citations in the
> end notes; I looked up those letters and the quoted phrase isn't taken from
> them, unless I've got some kind of bizarre blind spot and couldn't see it
> right in front of me.
>
> Am I overlooking something tremendously obvious here?  Who's he quoting?
>
> Mary Ellen
>
> M.E.Foley
> MEFoleyUK at gmail.com
>
>  ------------------------------
>
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