I wrote, on or about 12 May, that I
wanted to encourage people to participate in this year’s Dalloway Day by
writing, drawing, making music, in order to promote the achievements of
Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury colleagues.
Since that time I’ve found, through the writer Gretchen Gerzina, that
Swann Auction Galleries, a company specializing in rare and antiquarian books,
has a number of publications by Woolf, many of these first editions. So it
seems to me good to mention this for the purpose not only of adding book
collecting to my short list of activities related to Dalloway Day but also to
call attention to ways in which adaptations of one kind of poetry—in the ample
sense of the word—can spur work in other kinds. Woolf’s comment that “painting
and writing have much to tell each other” has been cited so often that I almost
hesitate to repeat it here. However, oft quoted and perhaps obvious as it may
be, it serves as an indication of the way different disciplines influence each
other. In this regard, and in the context of examining acculturation in general,
I think people will be interested in looking at the Swann website. Once there,
you’ll find the options of searching different catalogs or searching the site
itself. To date I’ve only searched on “Woolf” (without the quotes) and a few
other twentieth-century artists. But the site is obviously very full and I
think the results are pretty interesting in a variety of ways.
The Swann website: / https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2511+++++145+&refno=++758511&saletype=
/
Gretchen Gerzina posted the address
of the Swann Galleries website on the Listserv of the International Virginia
Woolf Society. Her own website is at / https://www.gretchengerzina.com/about-gretchen-gerzina.html
/
