Letters of Leonard Woolf

These 600 letters are arranged thematically to focus on the principal aspects of Woolf's life, giving new insights into this brilliant, uncompromising seeker of truth. 16 pages of photos.

Although remembered mainly only as Virginia Woolf's husband, Leonard Woolf (1880-1969) distinguished himself in many fields. He was a precocious (and anti-imperalist) colonial administrator; an influential publisher (most notably of T. S. Eliot and Freud); a political adviser to the Labour Party; and the author of novels, books on political philosophy, essays and a striking autobiography. He was also, as these 600 selected letters attest, a man who preferred the typewriter to the telephone. Arranged thematically and efficiently introduced, the letters cover in lively fashion the major phases of Woolf's life, his wife's bouts of madness included, revealing an attractive personality and a tough-minded exponent of the cultural ideal associated with "Bloomsbury" and the Cambridge of humanist philosopher G. E. Moore. The correspondents include E. M. Forster, Eliot, H. G. Wells and Sylvia Townsend Warner. Spotts ( The Churches and Politics of Germany ) is to be commended for a job well done. Illustrations.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Woolf was more than Virginia's husband. He also wrote 24 books, published Freud, Eliot, and other creators of the "modern" sensibility, and became a lifelong political agitator. These 600 letters (written from 1900 to 1969) shed new light on English literature and politics from Victoria to Vietnam. They show Woolf opposing tyranny, defending social justice, and nurturing young writers on a daily basis; every letter to Virginia is also included. Woolf comes across as a warm-hearted, tender man who fell in love again at 63--a far cry from the ascetic caricature of many Bloomsbury memoirs. Fast-paced and delightful, these letters will please everyone interested in modern literature and history.
- Michael Edmonds, State Historical Soc. of Wisconsin Lib., Madison
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.