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Archive of letters and photographs from the collection of Peggy Belsher, secretary and clerk at the Hogarth Press, highlighted by two ALSs by Virginia Woolf:
- ALS signed "Virginia Woolf," one page on a 3.5 x 5.5 postcard, postmarked December 27, 1933, in full: "I am delighted with my calendar, & hope that it will keep me as punctual & neat as it looks during 1934. I have no excuse now for forgetting engagements!"
- ALS signed "Virginia Woolf," one page both sides, 8 x 5.25, no date, in full: "Dear Miss Belsher, (I hope you don't mind this name). I meant to write before, but I have been so lazy, to thank you for your card. Here we are beginning to pick apples, in the rain, & playing bowls, & getting mushrooms, also in the rain. I hope you are well, & that we shall see you when we go back. I always meant to say how sorry I was you were going—if for no other reason than you were always so kind to me But somehow I missed seeing you. So I write this at least 3 months late. I'm not able to work very long hours, but I'm getting on slowly with my proof." During this period, Woolf was wrapping up her penultimate novel, The Years, which had begun years earlier as a 'Novel-Essay.'
Additionally includes six letters signed by her husband, Leonard Woolf (five TLSs and one ALS), dated from 1928 to 1961. Two are on Hogarth Press letterhead—the first offers her "the post of Assistant Secretary here," and the second is a letter of recommendation: "Miss P. Belsher (Mrs. Stangroom) has been employed in the Hogarth Press for over eight years and is leaving for domestic reasons. Her work has been in every way admirable." Another significant letter, dated April 27, 1941, sends thanks for condolences after Virginia's death: "I want to thank you for your letter & words of sympathy. Mrs. Woolf often spoke of you with affection. She had been fairly well until the end of last year. The symptoms of the old nervous trouble came back & she became very depressed & convinced that this time she would not recover."
Also included in two snapshots of Belsher (one reportedly at the wheel of Leonard Woolf's car) and an autobiographical note about her relationship with the Woolfs; two snapshots of the Woolf dogs, Sally and Mitzi; and two letters to her by Anne Olivier Bell, discussing her time at the Press. In overall fine condition, with foxing to one of Virginia's letters.
