RARE PRE-PUBLICATION PROOF OF VIRGINIA WOOLF'S SEQUEL TO A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN—HER NEPHEW QUENTIN BELL'S COPY, WITH HIS MARGINALIA

(BELL, Quentin) WOOLF, Virginia. Three Guineas. London: Hogarth Press, 1938. Octavo, original plain paper wrappers, manuscript title to spine. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box. $6200.

First edition of Woolf's Three Guineas, her important sequel to A Room of One's Own, rare pre-publication proof copy in plain paper wrappers. The copy of her nephew Quentin Bell, with several interesting penciled marginal notes in his hand, one of them extensive. Laid in is Bell's printed card, inscribed, "With many thanks and best wishes, Quentin Bell."

When E.M. Forster refused to recommend Woolf for the all-male Committee of the London Library, "Virginia was furious and her projected book, which at this point was called On Being Despised, received new impetus… It enabled her to let off steam, to hit back at what seemed to her the tyrannous hypocrisy of men" (Bell, 427, 433). This collection of three essays provoked harsh criticism, but today is recognized as an important document in the history of feminism.

Her nephew Quentin Bell has made several penciled notes in the margins. The longest note, on pp. 71-72, reads in part: "I find these arguments difficult. Did men marry women because they held the 'right' views on war. I should have thought that the real m[ale] c[hauvinist] p[ig] would have disregarded women's views on war, and might even have found feminine pacifism 'touching.' I suppose any woman tends to adopt the views of her family and 'set,' thus J[ane] A[usten]'s heroines are quite uninterested in 'the war.'" Bell was the son of Clive Bell and Virginia's sister Vanessa. He was an art historian and professor, and went on to write a two-volume biography of his aunt, Virginia Woolf: A Biography (1972), as well as several books on the Bloomsbury Group and Charleston Farmhouse. Issued on publication with five full-page photographic illustrations, this pre-publication proof does not contain the photographs, and the "List of Illustrations" following the title page has been left blank. Kirkpatrick A23a. Penciled floorplan on rear wrapper.

Interior clean, fragile plain paper wrappers near-fine. An excellent association copy.