The Moment and Other Essays by Virginia Woolf

WOOLF, Virginia. The Moment and Other Essays. London, The Hogarth Press, 1947.

First edition of this collection of twenty-nine essays, selected and posthumously published by the author’s husband Leonard Woolf.

The book, released six years after Virginia Woolf’s death, comprises a selection of the ‘considerable’ material which she had ‘left behind… some unpublished and some previously published in newspapers’. In his editorial note to the volume, Leonard Woolf some-what poignantly acknowledged: ‘I have printed these [essays] exactly as they were left, except for punctuation and the correction of obvious mistakes, but I have done so with some hesitation, if only because the hand-writing is occasionally extremely difficult to decipher’. The essays encompass sketches, literary criticism, biographical content, and political commentary.

The charming dust jacket was designed by Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, who often collaborated with the Hogarth Press, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s publishing company.

Octavo, pp. 191; a very good copy in original burgundy cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, with the illustrated dust jacket (dust jacket slightly faded, especially on the spine).