Virginia Woolf's revisions of The 'Voyage Out': some new evidence

Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 1996 by James M. Haule

"It must be late!" she exclaimed.

It was nearly eight o'clock.

"But eight o'clock doesn't count here, does it?"

NOTES

1 Leonard Woolf. Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911-1918. (London: Hogarth, 1968) 87.

2 A detailed discussion of the 1920 revision can be found in Louise A. DeSalvo's "Virginia Woolf's Revisions for the 1920 American and English Editions of The Voyage Out" (Bulletin of Research in the Humanities. Virginia Woolf Issue II. Autumn, 1979. 338-66). In her article, DeSalvo says that "B. J. Kirkpatrick's Bibliography erroneously indicates that the Adams copy served as the printer's copy for the revised first American edition. In fact, the printer's copy for the first American edition is probably the one that has been offered for sale recently by the Bow Windows Bookshop in Lewes, Sussex" (341). This conclusion was based on a description provided her by Bow Windows.

DeSalvo also concludes that since the "layout and pagination of the first American edition do not follow the layout man's instructions to compositor, altered pagination, and signature changes marked in the Adam's copy" (342), the first American edition could not have been set from Adams. In fact, several sets of circumstances could easily account for the inconsistencies she carefully documents. Among the most likely is that the Adams copy was marked with initial instructions that could not be followed exactly owing to a number of common circumstances, not the least of which was the effect of Woolf's own additions and deletions.

DeSalvo's article also includes a discussion of the effect of Woolf's revisions on the structure and artistic merit of The Voyage Out.

3 In her introduction to the most recent Hogarth edition of The Voyage Out (London, 1990), Elizabeth Heine reports her efforts to locate the copy sold by Bow Windows. Following DeSalvo, she also says that "Virginia Woolf may even have kept a third annotated copy as a matter of record" (448). There is currently no evidence aside from minor differences between the Adams copy and the Doran edition to suggest its existence, since these differences may also be explained without the presence of another annotated copy.

4 The Shakespeare Head Press edition of Virginia Woolf is published by Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. Several volumes have appeared to date, including To the Lighthouse (ed. Susan Dick), The Waves (eds. James M. Haule and Philip H. Smith, Jr.), and Night and Day (ed. J. H. Stape). Other volumes are scheduled to appear shortly: The Voyage Out (eds. C. Ruth and Lawrence Miller), Roger Fry (ed. Diane Gillespie), and Mrs. Dalloway (ed. Morris Beja).

5 It would be impossible for me to thank the legions who made my search for the Sydney text successful and this article possible. However, some attempt must be made. First and foremost is S. P. Rosenbaum, who initially suggested the project, lent invaluable aid throughout, and spent time searching through antiquarian catalogues and correcting my assumptions and challenging my conclusions. Susan Dick repeatedly took time from her own work to help me with this project, and carefully reviewed and corrected my manuscript.