"THE TURNING-POINT IN VIRGINIA'S CAREER AS A SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST": HOGARTH PRESS FIRST TRADE EDITION OF VIRGINIA WOOLF'S ORLANDO

WOOLF, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1928. Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $5000.

First English and first Hogarth Press edition of Woolf's fantastical and often whimsical novel, with eight plates showing Orlando in various incarnations, in original dust jacket.

The character of Virginia Woolf's young Elizabethan nobleman who does not age through four centuries and appears in male and female manifestations was based on Woolf's intimate friend Vita Sackville-West, to whom the book is dedicated. At the time of Orlando's publication critics praised Woolf, who "once more… has broken with tradition and convention and has set out to explore still another fourth dimension of writing. Not that she has abandoned the 'stream of consciousness' method… but with it she has combined what, for lack of a better term, we might describe as an application to writing of the Einstein theory of relativity" (New York Times). "The popular and commercial success of Orlando both in England and America… meant that the Woolfs [as publishers] became financially secure and prosperous. Leonard, with the sales in mind, called the publication of Orlando 'the turning-point in Virginia's career as a successful novelist'" (Willis, Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers, 133). Sally Potter directed the Oscar-nominated 1992 film adaptation starring Tilda Swinton. Preceded by the signed limited edition of 861 copies issued in New York on October 2, 1928; the Woolf's Hogarth Press published this trade edition of 5080 copies on October 11. Kirkpatrick A11b. Woolmer 185. Bookplate.

Book near-fine; bright dust jacket lovely with a only a few instances of tape reinforcement on verso.