"TO HIT BACK AT… THE TYRANNOUS HYPOCRISY OF MEN": VIRGINIA WOOLF'S SEQUEL TO A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN

WOOLF, Virginia. Three Guineas. London: Hogarth Press, 1938. Octavo, original yellow cloth, original dust jacket. $1650.

First edition of Woolf's Three Guineas, her important sequel to A Room of One's Own, in original dust jacket.

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. The jacket design by Virginia's sister Vanessa Bell was considered by Leonard Woolf to be her most successful. With five full-page photographic illustrations. Kirkpatrick A23a.

Book near-fine, with faint foxing to endpapers and text block edges only, cloth clean. Scarce original dust jacket with some foxing, but virtually none of the toning often found, a few short closed splits and shallow edge-wear, extremely good.