WOOLF, Virginia (1882-1941). Orlando. London: The Hogarth Press, 1928.

WOOLF, Virginia (1882-1941). Orlando. London: The Hogarth Press, 1928.

First English edition, presentation copy inscribed by Woolf to Noël Coward, and with a further inscription in the margin of a Preface leaf adding Coward to her list of acknowledgements. Coward first met Woolf in January 1928 at a party hosted by Lady Sybil Colefax and they quickly became very fond of each other. Woolf wrote to Vita Sackville-West in February that she had fallen ‘in love with Noel Coward, and he’s coming to tea’ (Hoare, p.199). Coward’s response to her latest novel, Orlando, was even more adoring: ‘I am still hot and glowing with it… At the risk of sounding insincere, I am completely at your feet over it. Oh, I do so congratulate you and thank you for the lovely “unbuttoned” feeling you’ve given me and I hope to God it will last… If ever I could write one page to equal in beauty your “Frozen Thames” description… I should feel that I really was a writer’ (Letters, p.151). Kirkpatrick A11b.

Octavo (215 x 135mm). 8 half-tone plates, 3 of these with Vita Sackville-West as subject. Original orange cloth, spine lettered in gilt (lacking the dust-jacket, slightly cocked, spine faded, cloth just nicked at head of spine and worn at foot of fore-edge on upper cover). Provenance: Noël Coward (1899-1973; author’s presentation inscription, bookplate).

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