And now Paula Maggio has reminded us
of the publication of a new book by Barbara Lounsberry on Virginia Woolf’s early
diaries. Paula’s “Blogging Woolf” (link below) is very up to date and
informative about Woolf’s work and ongoing writing about that extensive opus. Lounsberry’s
book, Becoming Virginia Woolf: Her Early
Diaries and the Diaries She Read, speaks of the mid-1918 to mid-1929
period. So Woolf would already have published a considerable amount, including Jacob’s Room, Mrs.Dalloway, and To the
Lighthouse. As is well known (and pretty logical, for all that), Woolf used
her diaries at times to try out ideas for her fiction writing. In the end she
produced documents full of thought-provoking reflections on the writing
process, providing great insight into the ongoing process of reading/writing. One
of my favorite passages from the early diaries was written on or about
Christmas Day 1904. It can be found in Mitchell A. Leaska’s A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals,
1897-1909 (p. 215). For reasons of space (and maybe copyright), I’ll cite
just part of the entry:
“Each blade of grass with a white
line of frost on it.
“The
sunset makes all the air as though of melted amethyst; yellow flakes dissolve
from the solid body of amethyst which is the west. Against this, standing as
though in an ocean of fine air, the bare trees are deep black lines, as though
drawn in Indian ink which has dried dull & indelible. The small branches
& twigs make a fringe of delicate lines, each one distinctly cut against
the sky. The highest tips of the branches are russet, & so is the top of
the trunk, in the red light. The trees stand round in a circle, & in their
midst is a kind of little stage of grass & heather-bog where it is greenest
in which a pastoral play might be acted. Then the trees close together again,
with pathways radiating at intervals to the open space— …”.
This of course was written prior to
the period dealt with in Barbara Lounsberry’s new book. But it’s always
interesting to compare, and often incredible surprises come out, looking at
ways in which writers deal with similar ideas at different times in their
careers. Intervals to the open space. Link >>>