The Charleston Bulletin Supplements
Distributed for British Library
Edited by Claudia Olk
144 pages
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40 color plates
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5 1/2 x 8 1/2
In the summer of 1923, Virginia Woolf’s nephews, Quentin and Julian Bell, founded a family newspaper, The Charleston Bulletin. Quentin decided to ask his aunt Virginia for a contribution: “It seemed stupid to have a real author so close at hand and not have her contribute.” But instead of an occasional contribution, Woolf joined forces with Quentin, and from 1923 until 1927, they created booklets of stories and drawings that were announced within the household as Supplements. Written or dictated by Woolf and illustrated by Quentin, these Supplements present a unique collaboration between the novelist during her most prolific years and the child-painter. In Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell found not only a professional author and an experienced journalist, but, above all, a close companion and conspirator who shared his irreverence and, more often than not, his mischievous sense of humor.
The Supplements are transcribed in full here for the first time alongside forty of Bell’s original illustrations. The articles describe the escapades of family members, household servants, and associates of the Bloomsbury Group, leaving nobody unscathed by the sharp wit of aunt and nephew. Designed to tease the adults, they portray Bloomsbury eccentricities along with the foibles and mishaps of the residents and visitors at Charleston. This is the first time the Supplements have been published since they were written, and will be welcomed by fans of Woolf and her circle.
Daily Telegraph
“The lighter side of the novelist is revealed in unpublished sketches, published alongside her works, in which she lampooned family, household staff and members of the Bloomsbury Group and their escapades, antics and characters.”
Independent (UK)
“The jokes are still funny, the drawings jolly, the teasing sharp and clever. . . . When you read [the Supplements], Charleston’s long dead ghosts live again, reanimated by those who knew them.”
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings
“The Charleston Bulletin Supplements is an absolute treat, the finest masterpiece of illustrated literary snark since Mark Twain’s Advice to Little Girls.”
Lady
“Virginia Woolf’s wry, mischievous masterpiece.”
Publishers Weekly
“These charming supplements . . . hold a particular fascination both because they were produced during Woolf’s most fertile writing years, and Bell’s ham-fisted illustrations are laughable precursors of his future career as an artist, art historian, as well as author of Woolf’s biography. . . . For those with an interest in the quotidian life of the Bloomsbury Group, the outcome is charming and provides its readers with a glimpse of Woolf at her best as a high-spirited and loving aunt.”
Spectator
“This cheery publication will be appreciated by devotees of Virginia Woolf and may even jump-start an interest in those who have hitherto resisted the Bloomsbury cult.”
Contents
Preface, by David Bradshaw
Introduction
The Charleston Bulletin Supplements:
Special Supplement Xmas Number
Eminent Charlestonians
The Life and Death History of a Studio
The Dunciad
The Messiah
Monthly Calendar
Biographical notes
Notes and abbreviations
Select bibliography
Acknowledgements
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
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