ORLANDO A BIOGRAPHY

Octavo. Orange cloth, lettered in gilt. 300pp. 8 ⅝ x 5½ in. White dust jacket printed in black. The jacket reproduces an unidentified portrait from the Worthing Art Gallery. Frontispiece and seven black and white photographic plates. Index. Spine lightly sunned, else a near fine copy in a dusty dust jacket with a triangular piece missing from the lower edge where it is creased; at some point a copy of a dust jacket was made and the missing piece was slipped in behind the panel to complete the wrapper, but not permanently affixed. Dust jackets in any condition on this edition are rare, and none currently found in commerce by this cataloguer. From the library of James Strohn Copley, with his bookplate.

First English edition, first impression; published 11 October 1928, 5080 copies printed, 9s. Dedication to V. Sackville West.  In an excess of emotion, Woolf wrote to her dearest friend, Vita, "dipped my pen in the ink, and wrote these words, as if automatically, on a clean sheet: Orlando: A Biography. No sooner had I done this than my body was flooded with rapture and my brain with ideas. I wrote rapidly till 12. Then I did an hour to Romance. So every morning I am going to write fiction (my own fiction) till 12; and Romance till 1. But listen; suppose Orlando turns out to be Vita; and its all about you and the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind [ ... ] suppose, I say, that Sibyl next October says 'Theres Virginia gone and written a book about Vita' [ ... ] Shall you mind? Say yes, or No: Your excellence as a subject arises largely from your noble birth." - 9th Oct. [1927] V. W. to V. Sackville West.   "To this letter Vita replied on 11 October: 'My God, Virginia, if ever I was thrilled and terrified it is at the prospect of being projected into the shape of Orlando. What fun for you; what fun for me. . . . You have my full permission. Only I think that having drawn and quartered me, unwound and retwisted me, or whatever it is that you intend to do, you ought to dedicate it to your victim' (Berg). Virginia did." Nicolson, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Volume III: 1923 - 1928, 428-429pp.