“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, end of March, 1924, Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London

Virginia Woolf, 42, settles into the big old armchair in the corner of the room, positions herself beside the gas fire to get the best morning light through the skylight, and pulls the three-ply board on to her lap to continue working on her novel, The Hours.

Tavistock Square

A couple of weeks ago Virginia and her husband Leonard, 43, moved themselves and their business, the five-year-old Hogarth Press, into the basement of this three-story building.

The Press’s offices, printing press, storage room and a shop for the booksellers’ representatives who call on them are adjacent to Virginia’s room. Above, on the ground floor are the offices of Dollman and Pritchard, solicitors; the Woolfs live on the second floor.

They have asked Virginia’s sister, Vanessa Bell, 44, and her partner, Duncan Grant, 39, to decorate their rooms.

Sitting room in 52 Tavistock Square

Of necessity, Virginia’s studio is turning into a storage room also. As she works, she is surrounded by piles of books and piles of papers. Pen nibs, paper clips, buttons, ink bottles, stationery and cigarette butts have already begun to accumulate.

But, in all the years the Woolfs have been sharing their private lives with their working life—the Hogarth Press—this is the first time they think they have enough room for both.

Virginia feels she has a space she can call her own. She decides she will finish this novel in the next four months.

A portion of the manuscript of The Hours

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Mark your calendars! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books will take place Saturday, May 11, at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Stop by the “Such Friends” table in Writers’ Row.

This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.

“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, January 9, 1924, Hogarth House, Richmond, London

Novelist Virginia Woolf, 41, is feeling quite proud of herself.

Of course she is proud of her most recent novel, Jacob’s Room, which has gathered good reviews as well as strong sales. And she’s proud of her short story in last year’s Dial magazine, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street,” which she is now expanding into a novel.

But today she’s feeling particularly proud of her skill negotiating a lease for a new home in Bloomsbury’s Tavistock Square for herself, her husband Leonard, 43, and their publishing company, Hogarth Press.

Tavistock Square

Nine years ago the Woolfs bought a printing press, with the idea of publishing Virginia’s works along with those of some of their friends out of their home here in Richmond, southwest London. Two years later they got started and have been expanding ever since.

In the past seven years they have produced 18 handset and hand-printed books and 18 set by commercial printers.  They’ve added—and subtracted and added again—staff and filled up Hogarth House with books, books and books.

Their new home, No. 52 Tavistock Square, has a law firm, Dollman and Pritchard, on the ground floor, so Virginia and Leonard will occupy the top two floors. Hogarth Press’ equipment, office and inventory will be set up in the basement, a former kitchen, scullery and pantry. The large back room with a skylight, formerly used for billiards, will become Virginia’s studio, where she can write. Although part of this room will probably fill up with books as well.

Despite Leonard’s role as the businessman on the team, Virginia has usually handled the details of any leases they have signed in the past. She admits she has sometimes enjoyed playing the naive, unwitting female to get what she wants.

This will be a good move for the Woolfs and the Press. But there is emotion wrapped up in leaving their Richmond home, where Virginia found relative “stability and calm” during the Great War. She writes in her diary,

nowhere else could we have started the Hogarth Press, whose very awkward beginning had risen in this very room, on this very green carpet. Here that strange offspring grew & throve; it ousted us from the dining room, which is now a dusty coffin; & crept all over the house.”

Hogarth House

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, and at Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

On Saturday, February 3^rd, we will be celebrating Gertrude Stein’s 150^th birthday at City Books, 908 Galveston Avenue, north side, Pittsburgh, a five-minute walk from where Stein was born. For more details, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early this year, I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts such as the Stein family at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.