Virginia Woolf: Difference between revisions

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=== Hogarth Press (1917–1938) ===
{{main|Hogarth Press}}
[[File:Shakespeare Plays hand bound by Virginia Woolf.JPG|thumb|Shelf of [[Shakespeare]] plays hand-bound by Virginia Woolf in her bedroom at [[Monk's House]]{{efn|It has been suggested that Woolf bound books to help cope with her depression, as is hinted at in her writing: "A great part of every day is not lived consciously. One walks, eats, sees things, deals with what has to be done; the broken vacuum cleaner; ... cooking dinner; bookbinding."{{sfn|Sim|2016}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}}}]]
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Virginia had taken up book-binding as a pastime in October 1901, at the age of 19.{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Chronology |p=192}}{{sfn|Heyes|2016}} The Woolfs had been discussing setting up a publishing house for some time{{snd}}Leonard intended for it to give Virginia a rest from the strain of writing, and therefore help her fragile mental health. Additionally, publishing her works under their own outfit would save her from the stress of submitting her work to an external company, which contributed to her breakdown during the process of publishing her first novel ''The Voyage Out''.{{efn|Her second novel, ''[[Night and Day (Woolf novel)|Night and Day]]'' (1919), was also published by Duckworth's, but ''[[Jacob's Room]]'' (1922) was published by Hogarth.}} The Woolfs obtained their own hand-printing press in April 1917 and set it up on their dining room table at Hogarth House, thus beginning the [[Hogarth Press]].{{sfn|Heyes|2016}}{{sfn|Zakaria|2017}}
| header = The Woolfs' homes in Richmond
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| image1 = 17 The Green Richmond, 2017.jpg
| caption1 = 17 The Green
| alt1 = The Woolfs' home at 17 The Green
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| image2 = Hogarth Press House, Richmond, Surrey.jpg
| caption2 = Hogarth House
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[[File:Shakespeare Plays hand bound by Virginia Woolf.JPG|thumb|Shelf of [[Shakespeare]] plays hand-bound by Virginia Woolf in her bedroom at [[Monk's House]]{{efn|It has been suggested that Woolf bound books to help cope with her depression, as is hinted at in her writing: "A great part of every day is not lived consciously. One walks, eats, sees things, deals with what has to be done; the broken vacuum cleaner; ... cooking dinner; bookbinding."{{sfn|Sim|2016}}}}]]
Virginia had taken up book-binding as a pastime in October 1901, at the age of 19,{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Chronology |p=192}}{{sfn|Heyes|2016}} and the Woolfs had been discussing setting up a publishing house for some time, and at the end of 1916 started making plans. Having discovered that they were not eligible to enroll in the St Bride School of Printing, they started purchasing supplies after seeking advice from the Excelsior Printing Supply Company on [[Farringdon Road]] in March 1917, and soon they had a printing press set up on their dining room table at Hogarth House, and the [[Hogarth Press]] was born.{{sfn|Heyes|2016}}
 
TheirThe first joint publication was ''Two Stories'' in July 1917, inscribed ''Publication No. 1'', and consistedconsisting of two short stories, "The Mark on the Wall" by Virginia Woolf and(which ''Threehas Jews''been bydescribed Leonardas "Woolf.'s Thefirst workforay consistedinto ofmodernism"{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|p=67}}) 32and pages,"Three handJews" boundby andLeonard sewn,Woolf. andThe illustratedaccompanying by [[woodcuts]] designedillustrations by [[Dora Carrington]]. The illustrations were a success, leading Virginia to remark that the press was "specially good at printing pictures, and we see that we must make a practice of always having pictures." (13 July 1917) The process took two and a half months with a production run of 150 copies.{{sfn|British Library|2018c}} Other short short stories followed, including ''[[Kew Gardens (short story)|Kew Gardens]]'' (1919) with a [[woodblock printing|woodblock]] by Vanessa Bell as [[book frontispiece|frontispiece]].{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} Subsequently, Bell added further illustrations, adorning each page of the text.{{sfn|British Library|2018d}}
 
Unlike its contemporary small printers, who specialised in expensive artisanal reprints, the Woolfs concentrated on living avant-garde authors,{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|p=63}} and over the subsequent five years printed works by a number of authors including [[Katherine Mansfield]], [[T.S. Eliot]], [[E. M. Forster]], Clive Bell and Roger Fry. They also produced translations of Russian works with [[S. S. Koteliansky]], and the first translation of the complete works of [[Sigmund Freud]].{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|p=68}}{{sfn|Heyes|2016}} In 1921 they acquired a larger press and began to sell directly to booksellers.{{sfn|Heyes|2016}} The Press eventually became Leonard's only source of income, but his association with it ended in 1946, after publishing 527 titles, and Hogarth is now an imprint of [[Penguin Random House]].{{sfn|Zakaria|2017}}{{sfn|Heyes|2016}}
The press subsequently published Virginia's novels along with works by [[T.S. Eliot]], [[Laurens van der Post]], and others.{{sfn|Messud|2006}} The Press also commissioned works by contemporary artists, including Dora Carrington and [[Vanessa Bell]].
 
The Press also produced explicitly political works. Pamphlets had fallen out of fashion due to the high production costs and low revenue, but the Hogarth Press produced several series on contemporary issues of international politics, challenging colonialism and critiquing Soviet Russia and Italian fascism.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|pp=72,74}} The Woolfs also published political fiction, including ''Turbott Wolfe'' (1926) by [[William Plomer]] and ''In a Province'' (1934) by [[Laurens van der Post]], which concern South African racial policies and revolutionary movements respectively.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|p=75}} Virginia Woolf saw a link between international politics and feminism, publishing a biography of Indian feminist activist [[Saroj Nalini Dutt]] and the memoirs of [[suffragette]] [[Elizabeth Robins]].{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|p=71}} Scholar Ursula McTaggart argues that the Hogarth Press shaped and represented Woolf's later concept of an "Outsiders' Society", a non-organised group of women who would resist "the patriarchal fascism of war and nationalism" by exerting influence through private actions, as described in ''Three Guineas''. In this view, the readers and authors form a loose network, with the Press providing the means to exchange ideas.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010|pp=63,65,66,70}}
Woolf believed that women writers needed a "room of their own" to develop and often fantasised about an "Outsider's Society" where women writers would create a [[Safe space|virtual private space for themselves]] via their writings to develop a feminist critique of society.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010}} Though Woolf never created the "Outsider's society", the Hogarth Press was the closest approximation as the Woolfs chose to publish books by writers that took unconventional points of view to form a reading community.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010}} Initially the press concentrated on small experimental publications, of little interest to large commercial publishers. Until 1930, Woolf often helped her husband print the Hogarth books as the money for employees was not there.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010}} Virginia relinquished her interest in 1938, following a third attempted suicide. After it was bombed in September 1940, the press was moved to [[Letchworth]] for the remainder of the war.{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|p=135}}
 
Both the Woolfs were internationalists and pacifists who believed that promoting understanding between peoples was the best way to avoid another world war and chose quite consciously to publish works by foreign authors of whom the British reading public were unaware.{{sfn|McTaggart|2010}} The first non-British author to be published was the Soviet writer [[Maxim Gorky]], the book ''Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaiovich Tolstoy'' in 1920, dealing with his friendship with Count [[Leo Tolstoy]].{{sfn|Heyes|2016}}
 
=== Mental health ===