News | July 24, 2023

Virginia Woolf’s Copy of Her Debut Novel Made Publicly Available

University of Sydney Library

Woolf's copy with her annotations

The University of Sydney's Fisher Library has digitised Virginia Woolf's personal copy of the first edition of her debut novel, The Voyage Out, featuring inscriptions and edits by her hand. This first edition and Woolf's personal copy is the only one of its kind publicly available in the world.

First acquired by the Library's Rare Books team in the 1970s through Bow Windows Bookshop in Lewes, East Sussex, England, the book was rediscovered in 2021 by Metadata Services Officer Simon Cooper from the Fisher Library with science books in the Rare Books and Special Collections. 

He was cataloguing a collection in the Library's Rare Books room when he noticed the book was incorrectly shelved among science titles. The call number for the book (an association sequence written on a paper slip), which is a part of the Deane collection, had a similar sequence to science books, which meant it was inadvertently placed.

"I knew the book didn't belong there, so I took it out and then saw the author’s name handwritten on the first page,” he said. “I could feel there were other things inside, with bits pasted in. Originally, I thought, 'Could it really be her copy, or is it another editor's copy or someone else's?' So, I looked up her handwriting to compare it, and it matched."

While investigating the mystery, Simon Cooper discovered the article The Voyage Out: some new evidence from 1996 by James M. Haule explaining the story behind this rediscovered book. The article revealed the book was a working copy that appears to be a backup for another Woolf was altering to publish in the United States, which she resumed working on at some point.

The rediscovered copy of The Voyage Out
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University of Sydney Library

The rediscovered copy of The Voyage Out

Woolf's inscription in the book
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University of Sydney Library

Woolf's inscription in the book

etadata Services Officer Simon Cooper with the copy of The Voyage Out
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University of Sydney Library

Metadata Services Officer Simon Cooper with the copy of The Voyage Out

Inside the book, in handwritten and typed adjustments, are edits made by Woolf in blue pencil, brown pencil (potentially from an editor), and typed excerpts pasted onto the pages. While some modifications are grammatical and partial edits, others are more robust including removing paragraphs and sentences. In Chapter 25, whole pages are boldly struck out with handwritten revisions, which were ultimately not followed through.

Mr Cooper considers the book a remarkable find, with the adopted and abandoned revisions providing an insight into Woolf’s interior thoughts. "The pasted-in typed notes were ultimately adopted in the US print edition, but the handwritten ones weren't. One theory is that this was Virginia’s personal copy, with a second marked-up copy sent to the American publisher for publication. The inscriptions are what makes our copy unique, and the revisions are fascinating in terms of what Woolf was thinking at the time."

Professor of Modern Literature Mark Byron from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences explained the copy speaks to Woolf's turbulent process of writing the book and is a beguiling artefact within the literary sphere.
"This copy carries the aura of the author's hand and her immediate interventions in the text. It carries iconic value," he said. "This copy carries the aura of the author's hand and her immediate interventions in the text. It carries iconic value. Woolf appears to be very carefully calibrating how the narrator is reporting the characters' thoughts - an indication she's taking great care with revealing the character's thoughts but also developing the role of the narrator.

"It's really the characters' psychology and how much of that the narrator reveals. That may be the key feature. It's also about Woolf's understanding of her own process of writing. It forms a part of a big constellation. Because it's at the start of her career and it's her first novel, this copy could be an important agenda-setting text, in terms of speaking more fully about how Woolf developed her craft."