VIRGINIA WOOLF | AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("VIRGINIA WOOLF") TO LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH, REGARDING A SUBMISSION FOR PUBLICATION

VIRGINIA WOOLF

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("VIRGINIA WOOLF") TO LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH, REGARDING A SUBMISSION FOR PUBLICATION

2 pages (8 1/8 x 6 5/8 in.; 207 x 169 mm) on a sheet of blue Tavistock Square letterhead and a blue second sheet, London, 21 July 1935; staple and filing holes in upper corner, small loss to lower margins, bit of paper adhered to second sheet. Matted, framed, and glazed with a photographic portrait of Woolf.

CATALOGUE NOTE

A tactful and pragmatic rejection letter by Woolf, writing in her capacity as publisher of the Hogarth Press, to her literary acquaintance Logan Pearsall Smith: "With reference to the essay, charming as it is I am afraid that it would be of no use for us to attempt to publish it. The public appetite for separate essays seems to be exhausted, so far as I am concerned, so we have had to bring our essay series to an end. And even if we tried the experiment of beginning another series with your essay, the fact that you are so soon going to include it in your book of essays would, we fear, be a fatal drawback."

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) was an American-born essayist and critic. He settled in England after graduating from Oxford and eventually took British citizenship. His literary experience was long: as a young man he knew Walt Whitman, and as an established writer he employed Cyril Connolly as a secretary. The Hogarth press had published his Stories from the Old Testament in 1920.