Woolf, Virginia

i) 1930 General Accicent Fire & Life Assurance Corporation Diary with entries on 233 days, 7 pages of addresses and memoranda, red covers, retaining original pencil in spine pocket
ii) 1933 Queen's Own Diary with entries on 240 days, 8 pages of addresses and memoranda, two clippings loosely inserted at rear, green covers with "L.W." gilt stamped on upper cover, retaining original pencil in spine pocket
iii) 1935 Collins' Royal Blue Diary with entries on 235 days, 5 pages of addresses and memoranda ("...MS. 1 5,000..."), blue covers
iv) 1936 Collins' Royal Blue Diary with entries on 149 days, 2 pages of addresses and memoranda, insurance coupon loosely inserted, blue covers
v) 1937 Collins' Royal Blue Diary with entries on 199 days, 2 pages of addresses and memoranda, blue covers customised by Woolf with overlays of crudely cut tan morocco to covers
vi) 1939 Collins' Royal Blue Diary with entries on 132 days, 1 page of addresses, customised by Woolf in blue morocco backed green patterned boards
vii) 1940 Letts' Spirax Pocket Diary with entries on 154 days, 2 pages of memoranda, spiral bound, covers customised by Woolf with overlays with tan morocco, black morocco triangular centrepiece to upper cover
viii) 1941 Collins' Royal Blue Diary with entries on 8 days (last entry 18 February)

all 12mo, in a custom made folding case, housed in two moire silk display trays

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A highly personal record of Woolf's daily life in the 1930s. She makes notes of more than one thousand social engagements, and the pages of these diaries are liberally scattered with the names of her illustrious Bloomsbury circle: her sister Vanessa Bell ("Nessa") and her husband Clive, T.S. Eliot ("Tom"), E.M. Forster ("Morgan"), Vita Sackville-West, John Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, Ottoline Morrell ("Ott"), Duncan Grant, William Plomer, Hugh Walpole, Robert Graves, Christopher Isherwood, Elizabeth Bowen, and many others. The diaries record literary encounters (Tom [Eliot] and Spender tea", in March 1935), her appointment at the BBC on 29 April 1937 at which she recorded Words Fail Me, the only surviving recording of her voice (the dairies show that she cancelled three further appointments at the BBC the following month), whilst on 28 January 1939 she dined with Eliot, met Sigmund Freud at six, then attended "Stephen's party" at nine. When in London she attended the theatre, opera, and concerts, but she also spent much time in Sussex, mostly at Monk's House in Sussex ("Rodmell"), but also her sister's house of Charleston and elsewhere. Her last year was spent largely in the country with the capital then facing the Blitz, but she continued to return regularly to London even after her London home was bombed.

These years were characterised by intense burst of creativity - her achievements included The Waves, The Years, Roger Fry, Flush, Three Guineas, and Between the Acts - and bouts of nervous exhaustion, revealed most obviously in the diary when periods of several weeks are simply crossed through with the word "bed" or "ill". The final entry is 18 February 1941, one month before she drowned herself.