WOOLF, Virginia.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Orlando. A Biography. True first edition, number 208 of 800 copies signed by the author. This copy belonged to the Welsh writer Hilda Vaughan, whom the Woolfs invited to dine on at least one occasion.Vaughan's works of realism, set mostly in her native Radnorshire, were the antithesis of Woolf's experimental style. Woolf particularly loathed the novels of Vaughan's husband, Charles Langbridge Morgan, accusing him "of wrapping up tame little reputable platitudes in words of twenty five syllables, and thus posing, and thus undermining the health of English letters... But I explode so easily against fiction that I have hardly any trust in my own vehemence" (Letters, p. 24).Her experience as organizing secretary of the Women's Land Army inspired Vaughan's depiction of working-class women in her novels. Her service also inspired the romance writer Berta Ruck, who portrayed Vaughan in The Land Girl's Love-Story (1919). Vaughan's literary prestige gradually waned following her well-reviewed debut The Battle to the Weak (1925), though her contributions to Anglo-Welsh literature have since been posthumously reassessed. Her ownership inscription is on the front pastedown.This edition comprised 861 copies published nine days before the first trade edition, issued by the Hogarth Press on 11 October. Inspired by Vita Sackville-West, the novel was described by her son Nigel Nicolson as "the longest love letter in history".

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