Virginia Woolf.
Margaret Drabble’s Annotated Proof Copy
(Woolf, Virginia). Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: A Biography. London: The Hogarth Press, 1972.
2 vols.; 8vo.; brown printed wrappers.
Proof copy of the foundational biography of Virginia Woolf written by her nephew Quentin Bell. Heavily annotated throughout by English novelist, biographer, and critic Margaret Drabble, who published “How Not to be Afraid of Virginia Woolf” in Ms. Magazine in November 1972 (later reprinted in a limited edition as Virginia Woolf: A Personal Debt (Aloe Editions, 1973)). With her penciled underlinings and marginalia throughout both volumes, and ink and pencil notes covering the lower panels of both books and the rear endpaper of the second volume.
Drabble’s notes primarily relate to Bell’s structuring of the biography. For example, she writes on the back of Volume 1, “Does not recreate her life in time, but accumulates all the information…in a clean, concise, [manner] that is made up largely for his conclusion” and “1st person singular…good biography, authentic…”
The text is heavily underlined, with Drabble’s occasional marginal notes. In one instance, Bell writes, “It is hard to imagine Virginia as a mother. But it was to be a permanent source of grief to her and, in later years, she could never think of Vanessa’s fruitful state without misery and envy.” Drabble added, “bring words in line with action” (Vol. 2, p.8). Later, next to Bell’s comment that Virginia “admired Leonard in a way that she could never admire Vita,” Drabble noted “owed more to” (Vol. 2, p.119).
Drabble (1939-) is widely recognized as a member of the wave of female writers who drew themes from the emerging feminist movement of the mid-twentieth century. Born to a county judge in York, England, Drabble – with her sister, the Booker prize-winning writer A.S. Byatt – attended a Quaker boarding school before being awarded a scholarship to study English at Cambridge University. The author of seventeen novels, Drabble’s fiction frequently comments on contemporary England and specifically women’s placement into the country’s society, economy, and politics.
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