[Vwoolf] Cecil Woolf

Diane gillespie at pullman.com
Tue Jun 11 18:16:53 EDT 2019


Drew and Paula have described Cecil Woolf so well that there's not much 
left to say.  As the reactions of others on this list have indicated, 
however, he touched many personal and professional lives, including my 
own, in a variety of ways.  His passing grieves us all, but his 
influence on Woolf and Bloomsbury studies is considerable and enduring.  
We will miss him and remember him with fondness and appreciation.

Diane Gillespie

On 6/11/2019 2:51 PM, Shannon, Drew [School of Arts & Humanities] via 
Vwoolf wrote:
>
> Like everyone else, I’m just heartbroken.  Something I wrote up on 
> Cecil below.
>
> FOR A TRUE MAN OF LETTERS
>
> I met Cecil Woolf in the summer of 2004, at the Back to Bloomsbury 
> Virginia Woolf Conference in London. I’d just heard him speak about 
> his memories of Virginia and Leonard, and nervously approached him in 
> the lobby of the Senate House.  He immediately grasped my hand, and, 
> visibly upset that someone had made a rather nasty remark about 
> Leonard as a husband, he peered at me through his glasses with those 
> big, clear eyes (his most striking feature, to my mind), and said, 
> “Can you tell me WHY some people hate Leonard?”  I was both startled 
> by the question and flattered that he should ask me, given that I was 
> a graduate student at my second Woolf conference, and what the hell 
> did I know?  I answered that I for one don’t hate Leonard, and think 
> that he was the best husband Virginia could have asked for.  At which 
> point he gripped my hand more tightly, and a friendship was born.
>
> We began corresponding almost at once.  I think every Woolfian who met 
> Cecil spent the first bit of time in his presence overcoming the fact 
> that he KNEW VIRGINIA WOOLF.  But happily this was really the least of 
> it, at least for me, and I quickly began to love the man for himself: 
> for his wit, his charm, his ceaseless energy, his tack-sharp mind, his 
> kindness and consideration.  And, underneath his charm, there was his 
> biting wit.  I will forever cherish the occasional whispered remark in 
> my ear at many an event, remarks calculated to make me giggle and 
> which required whatever poise I possess to keep myself 
> straight-faced.  And what might’ve seemed like name-dropping to the 
> outsider was simply a catalog of his friendships and acquaintances.  
> He’d say, “Jean, what year was it that we had Edward Heath over for 
> dinner?”  (Yes, that Edward Heath.)  Or, “I bumped into Quentin Crisp 
> in Regent’s Park, and he said…”  Or, “T. S. Eliot once said to me…”  
> And his priceless anecdote about Duncan Grant, looking long-haired and 
> shaggy in the 1960s, wandering around Piccadilly; when questioned by 
> Cecil about his appearance, Duncan spacily replied, “Well…my barber 
> died.”
>
> Over the years, we stayed in each other’s homes, ate many meals 
> together, drank countless bottles of good wine, watched films 
> together, took walks together.  The Woolfs’ kindness to me and my 
> husband John McCoy was boundless.  They also quite graciously 
> entertained three groups of my students from Mount St. Joseph 
> University, regaling them with stories of Leonard and Virginia, and 
> letting the students touch the Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant 
> paintings, and the lovely table from the Omega Workshop in their 
> sitting room.  I will always remember the quiet room full of students, 
> listening to Cecil speak in his soft, sometimes gravelly voice.
>
> Some other moments of being:
>
> Cecil and Jean coming to my rescue when I was stranded in London for a 
> night on my way to Barcelona, coming to pick me up at the Mornington 
> Crescent tube station, hustling me to their house, planting me at the 
> table where Leonard and Virginia once printed Hogarth Press books, 
> Jean making me a plate of scrambled eggs at one in the morning and 
> Cecil soothing my nerves over my missed flight.
>
> John and Jean and Cecil and I getting miserably lost on the backroads 
> near Georgetown College during the 2010 conference, due to a mixup 
> between the roads called “Lemon’s Mill” and “Old Lemon’s Mill.”  The 
> following morning, Jean screamed from the backseat, “Now, John, as 
> you’re driving, remember:  It’s Lemon’s Mill, not OLD Lemon’s Mill!” 
> She gripped my arm and said, “Last night, I really thought we were 
> going mad, didn’t you?”
>
> Sitting with Jean and Cecil and John in our pajamas at our dining 
> table late at night after the conference proceedings in Georgetown, 
> drinking wine and eating cheese and talking about the literary life in 
> London.
>
> Watching DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Cecil was obsessed with Al Pacino, though 
> he’d never seen this one) on DVD, which I’d bought for him earlier 
> that day, on a small TV screen in their sitting room, the four of us 
> hunched over together.  When Al Pacino screams, “Attica! Attica!”  
> Cecil said, “Only in America.  Only in America.”
>
> Interviewing Cecil about his history in publishing, and the colorful 
> figures he encountered there. With his usual modesty, he said, “Surely 
> you’ve had enough. Aren’t you bored?”
>
> His patience with me as I labored over a monograph for him, which I 
> simply couldn’t get finished due to busyness, teaching, and neurosis.  
> When I finally turned it in, he said, “Ah, at last.  I have your 
> magnum opus.”
>
> There are others, but some I prefer to keep to myself.
>
> We lost a great man yesterday.
>
> Rest easy, Cecil Woolf.  Thank you for being our link to a past that 
> we all long to connect to, and such a force of nature in our present.
>
> 	
>
> *
> Drew Shannon**
> *Associate Professor of English
> Department of Liberal Arts
> Historian / Bibliography of the International Virginia Woolf Society
> Mount St. Joseph University
> 5701 Delhi Road | Cincinnati, OH 45233-1672
> 513-244-4541 | Drew.Shannon at msj.edu <mailto:Drew.Shannon at msj.edu>
>
> "I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual." 
> -- Virginia Woolf, Diary, 17 February 1922
>
> *Please consider the environment before printing this email.*
>
> *From:*Vwoolf 
> [mailto:vwoolf-bounces+drew.shannon=msj.edu at lists.osu.edu] *On Behalf 
> Of *Jane Marie Garrity via Vwoolf
> *Sent:* Tuesday, June 11, 2019 4:21 PM
> *To:* K L Levenback <kllevenback at att.net>
> *Cc:* vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> *Subject:* [Vwoolf] Cecil Woolf
>
> Paula, just to echo what others have said: thank you so much for that 
> lovely and moving tribute. Cecil was such a gracious and generous 
> human being—he will be sorely missed! Is there an address where we can 
> drop a condolence card to Jean? So sad to hear this news, but many 
> thanks—
>
> Jane
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>
> On Jun 11, 2019, at 8:03 PM, K L Levenback via Vwoolf 
> <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>
>     So sad.  Every word of every response to the news is resonant with
>     the feelings of all of us in the Woolf community.  His spirit will
>     be forever with us.
>
>     I, like all of us, am bereft.
>
>
>     Karen
>
>     Sent from my iPad
>
>
>     On Jun 11, 2019, at 2:40 PM, Catherine Hollis via Vwoolf
>     <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>
>         What very sad news. Thank you Paula for letting us know and
>         for your beautiful tribute. I am so grateful that we all were
>         able to spend so much time with him at Woolf conferences. His
>         compassion and generosity will always be remembered.
>
>         Catherine
>
>         On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 11:01 AM Neverow, Vara S. via Vwoolf
>         <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>
>             Thank you so much, Paula, for your beautiful remembrance
>             of Cecil. I am so grateful that he was honored at the
>             conference in the panel on Saturday morning.
>
>             Cecil's presence and his communications were always
>             inspiring, and his vivacity, wisdom, humor and affection
>             were priceless.
>
>             I am heartbroken.
>
>             Vara
>
>             Vara Neverow
>             Department of English
>             Southern Connecticut State University
>             New Haven, CT 06515
>             203-392-6717
>             neverowv1 at southernct.edu <mailto:neverowv1 at southernct.edu>
>
>             ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>             *From:*Vwoolf
>             <vwoolf-bounces+neverowv1=southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu
>             <mailto:southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu>> on behalf of Paula
>             Maggio via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
>             <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>>
>             *Sent:* Tuesday, June 11, 2019 1:34 PM
>             *To:* vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
>             *Subject:* [Vwoolf] Cecil Woolf
>
>             I am sharing the sad news that our beloved Cecil Woolf
>             passed away Monday, June 10. I have posted a tribute to
>             him on Blogging Woolf. Please feel free to share your own
>             tributes and memories in the comments section below that post.
>
>
>                 In memoriam to our dear Cecil Woolf: Mentor, friend,
>                 speaker, publisher
>
>             https://bloggingwoolf.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/in-memoriam-to-our-dear-cecil-woolf-mentor-friend-speaker-publisher/
>             <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbloggingwoolf.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F06%2F11%2Fin-memoriam-to-our-dear-cecil-woolf-mentor-friend-speaker-publisher%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cneverowv1%40southernct.edu%7C31e5ba688dbb40464e9d08d6ee930b40%7C58736863d60e40ce95c60723c7eaaf67%7C0%7C0%7C636958712646512861&sdata=32JKgLsPq8oVZ70gqWve%2Buvx9%2BVrwrAblj4SsDH5VFE%3D&reserved=0>
>
>             Paula Maggio
>
>             Blogging Woolf
>
>             _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>         -- 
>
>         Catherine W. Hollis, PhD
>
>         Instructor, Fall Program for Freshmen
>
>         U.C. Berkeley
>
>         Berkeley, CA 94720
>
>         hollisc at berkeley.edu <mailto:hollisc at berkeley.edu>
>
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