[Vwoolf] VW CD-ROM inter alia

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Thu Sep 29 06:28:30 EDT 2016


1. I bought the Haule and Smith concordances to the 9 novels of VW on microfiche as they appeared from 1981 onwards.  They were rather expensive.*  I never managed to get the last 2: “Jacob’s Room” (1988) and “The Voyage Out” (1988).  On purpose, they didn’t use the first US and UK editions of the novels – which seems a pity now.  I didn’t buy the 1991 3 vol. printed composite edn, although I have referred to it on at least one occasion.  Stephen Barkway gave me a microfilm reader, which I never covered with a dust sheet.  This was a mistake as it is now thick with dust.  I have never used it.  I have never looked at any of the microfiches for any purpose, except curiosity, in all the years I’ve had them.

2. When I was considering buying the CD-ROM for £1000, I wanted to know how many of the MSS that had also been issued on microfilm were also on the CD-ROM, for I was expecting to use it primarily to look at the MSS.  Anyway, I bought it.  I use the CD-ROM almost every day, but only look at the MSS infrequently.  Of course, they are digitised and not as clear as the microfilms, but I still find it quite easy to read VW’s mature hand, even digitised.  The CD-ROM has been invaluable as a tool for my role as Editor of the “Virginia Woolf Bulletin”.

3. Not long before Julia Briggs died, I borrowed 9 of the 27 microfilms from her, to help me with the editing of Vols 5 & 6 of “The Essays”.  After she died, I told her sister that I would give them back to her in due course.  “No, you keep them.”  “No, I can’t.”  I don’t know often the we went back and forth, but I *have* kept them.  Now I find them useful in editing “Jacob’s Room” for CUP.  Of course, I have to go to a library to read them.  The microfilms still seem to be available:
http://www.cengage.com/search/showresults.do?N=197&Ntk=APG&Ntt=woolf&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nr=197

4. Of course, many of VW’s works are now available online, such as here:
http://gutenberg.net.au/pages/woolf.html
See also:
http://victorian.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/concordance/woolf
But I should hate to be without the CD-ROM.

*I’ve just found how much I paid for some of them (inc. postage):
W - £18?
Y - £30
MD - £27
O - £27
ND - £42.05
Those of us who subscribed to all were to get the last one free.  I’m sure I did so; I wonder what went wrong.

Stuart
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20160929/fa083e9a/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the Vwoolf mailing list