Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth essays

These three first edition volumes of the Hogarth Essays were printed between 1924 and 1926 by Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press.  The essays were written by significant twentieth-century writers, poets, artists, economists, and academics and give an insight into important debates and arguments of the time.  Contributors include Roger Fry, Robert Graves, Edith Sitwell, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Bonamy Dobrée, and Willa Muir.

Potential research ideas

You could use the publication as a starting point to explore modernism in literature and twentieth century culture more generally. Literary criticism often discusses the form of the novel, literary trends, styles and convention. What were the main criticisms discussed in the essays and how important were the Hogarth essays in setting the tone for the Modernist movement of the early 20^th century?

You could also concentrate on the print run of the Hogarth Essays specifically look at the purpose and the scope of the Hogarth Essays.  How widely read were the Essays? Who were their readership? What key themes or debates did it popularise?  The Hogarth Essays were one of many popular collections of essays.  Perhaps this could lead to more detailed research into independent publishers of the 20^th Century.  Were Hogarth Press doing anything differently?

Another way to begin research with the Hogarth Essays is to focus specifically on an author.  For example, in Virginia Woolf’s Mr Bennett & Mrs Brown what ideas and links can you find in her other works? Can you find traces of the Hogarth Essays in other works published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf?

Perhaps you are more interested in the physicality of the essays and of ownership, book history could be an interesting avenue of research. The original covers have been removed from these essays and they have been rebound.

Selected background reading

The second Hogarth Essays to be published was:

Woolf, L., 1927. Hunting the highbrow. London: L. & Virginia Woolf (Hogarth Press).

For further reading into Hogarth Press and Modernism:

McTaggart, U., 2010. Opening the Door’: The Hogarth Press as Virginia Woolf's Outsiders' Society.Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 29, no. 1. Available at:  www.jstor.org/stable/41337032. (Accessed on 21 Apr. 2020)

Howard, A., 2012. Dismantling the Modernist Myth: Samuel Beckett and Virginia Woolf in the Literary Marketplace. Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 36, no. 1, Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.1.153 (Accessed on 21 Apr. 2020)

Potter, R. (2012) Modernist literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Battershill, C., 2018. Modernist lives biography and autobiography at Leonard and Virgina Woolf's Hogarth Press. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

What can I find here in Special Collections?

Our 20th Century Collection and 21st Century Collection  include published works associated with the press:

• Another from the series of Hogarth Essays:
  Graves, R., 1926. Impenetrability: or, The proper habit of English. London: L. & Virginia Woolf. 20th C Collection.  821.91 GRA. Twentieth Century Collection. Newcastle University, GB 186.
• Sitwell, E., 1965. Collected poems., London: Macmillan. 20th C. Coll. 821.91 SIT. Twentieth Century Collection. Newcastle University, GB 186.

The 20th Century Pamphlets includes pamphlets and short publications on world affairs in the Twentieth Century. Many themes are covered largely politics, economics, civil liberty, democracy and religion.  Titles include:

• West, Ranyard. – Psychology and world order
• Hadham, John – God and human progress
• Mao Tse-tung – Problems of art and literature
• Plekhanov, G.V. – The materialist conception of history

The Thomas Sharp Archive includes letters to and from Leonard Woolf. Sharp was a significant figure in town planning and a major influence on the development of ideas of townscape.  He was approached by Leonard Woolf to write articles about the subject. 

• Woolf, L., 1940. Letter from Woolf to Sharp requesting that he write an article about Reconstruction [manuscript]. THS 5.2.39. Thomas Sharp Archive. Newcastle University, GB 186.
• Sharp, Thomas., 1934. Letter from Sharp to Leonard Wolfe about the agreement for the publication of A Derelict Area [manuscript]. THS 41.3.13. Thomas Sharp Archive. Newcastle University, GB 186.

Other correspondence from literary figures and contemporaries can be found in the Jack Common Archive. Common corresponded with E.M. Forster and George Orwell.

What can I find elsewhere?

As publishers and authors Leonard and Virginia Woolf had a large network of important and interesting literary and cultural figures of the 20^th Century.  To get a better understanding of these relationships and how they might relate to Modernism and works published by Hogarth Press you could look at their personal papers.

• Virginia Woolf’s papers are held in several repositories, but mainly at the British Library.
• Hogarth Press papers can also be found across Sussex University, University of Reading and the Archives of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
• Leonard Woolf’s papers can be found in a number of repositories across the country but Sussex University and King’s College Cambridge have significant correspondence collections.

For essays and pamphlets published by the Hogarth Press it could be useful to search the Library Hub Discover for relevant titles. For example:

• A copy of Thomas Sharp’s pamphlet A Derelict Area: a study of the south-west Durham coalfield, published in 1935 by the Hogarth Press can be found at Durham University.