The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf [Hardcover]

Vita Sackville-West (Author), Louise De Salvo (Author), Mitchell Leaska (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

After they met in 1922, Vita Sackville-West, a British novelist married to diplomat Harold Nicolson, and Virginia Woolf began an intense and passionate relationship that lasted until Woolf’s death in 1941. In their correspondence, the women leave no aspect of their lives untouched: they record daily dramas, bits of gossip, the strains and pleasures of writing, and their mutual joy in each other’s company. This edition includes over 500 letters spanning 20 years; features 25 photographs, eight new to this edition; and has a new introduction and bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

"Rarely can a collection of correspondence have cast into more dramatic relief two personalities more individual or more complex; and rarely can an enterprise of the heart have been carried out so near the verge of archetypal feeling." —Mitchell A. Leaska, from the introduction --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Louise DeSalvo is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hunter College. She has published eleven books, including Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work and the award-winning memoir Vertigo. She is the editor of Virginia Woolf's Melymbrosia.

Mitchell A. Leaska, Professor of Humanities at New York University, is the author of The Novels of Virginia Woolf and editor of Woolf's early journals, A Passionate Apprentice, which was named among the year's most notable books by the New York Times Book Review. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Press; 1st edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573441368
• ISBN-13: 978-1573441360
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Amazing Women, May 20, 2005

By 

G. Messersmith "calliopemuse" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf (Hardcover)

I have long been interested in Virginia Woolf and her works but only recently have I come to admire and respect Vita Sackville-West also. This is a wonderful account of a close friendship between two highly intellectual women and the lives they led. If you are interested at all in either of these women, I highly recommend this book. You can either it read it in order or you can skip around to sections you find most interesting, it doesn't matter, you will get the same results. They had amazing and wonderful lives which they chose to share with each other and then left us their letters. This book is like finding a treasure!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, June 17, 2010

By 

sweet beluga (spain) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf (Hardcover)

I came to this book without knowing much about Vita Sackville West (just that I loved her book "all passion spent", and that she was, at one point, Virginia's lover), to my surprise and enjoyment I found out after reading it how deep their relationship was. How open, interesting, generous, complicated, funny, sweet, tender and amusing their relationship really was. It is a great read and if you are lucky to read the letters of Virginia Woolf (another great book, the letters of VW between 1925-1930), you get the whole view of what was going on between them. To anyone who loves Virgina Woolf this is a great book to read and to all the ones who have been intrigued by who Vita Sackville West was, this book is a great start, a really interesting one.