"IT'S ALL SAPPHISM SO FAR AS I'VE GOT": AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

WOOLF, Virginia. Autograph letter signed. Rodmell, England, circa 1919. One sheet, measuring 4 by 6 inches, writing on recto; framed with portrait, entire piece measures 16 by 13-1/2 inches. $7500.

Autograph letter signed by Virginia Woolf to her brother-in-law Clive Bell, written in her characteristic purple ink.

This letter was written by Woolf to art critic Clive Bell, who married her sister Vanessa in 1907. Although the Bells had separated within a decade, they never formally divorced, and often spent time together; Vanessa's daughter with the artist Duncan Grant was raised by Clive as his own, and he would often visit with them at the farmhouse they shared. The letter, sent from Monk's House, the Woolfs' country house in East Sussex, reads in full: "Monk House, Wednesday. My dear Clive, Will you come on Sunday or Monday for the night? Come over for tea, and seek us at the very bottom of the village street. At this moment Leonard is tortured with eczema, but I hope by then the disease may have gone, and I have to review Hope Mirrlees, which is even worse, as every word will be picked over. It's all Sapphism so far as I've got—Jane and herself. V.W." A pencil annotation at the top reads "24 Sept 1919." Hope Mirrlees, mentioned in the letter, was a writer who Virginia would eventually develop a deep admiration for, describing her as "her own heroine – capricious, exacting, exquisite, very learned, and beautifully dressed." In 1920, the Woolf's published her 600-line modernist poem Paris at their Hogarth Press. Mirrlees lived with the eminent classical scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, finally moving with her to Paris in 1922; Hogarth published Harrison's Reminiscences of Student's Life in 1925. With penciled map on verso in an unidentified hand.

Expected fold line. Fine condition, beautifully framed.