Sale 2530 - Fine Books & Manuscripts, February 20, 2020

“WE HAVE SPENT THE LAST 3 NIGHTS MORE OR LESS IN THE CELLAR” 158 c   WOOLF, VIRGINIA. Autograph Letter Signed, “V.W.,” to her brother-in-law art critic Clive Bell (“My dear Clive”), praising his gift of grapes, anticipating a trip to Asheham, reporting having spent nights sheltering in her cellar, and repeating news (or joking) about Molly [Mary MacCarthy?], Fredegond and Gerald Shove, and R.C. Trevelyan. 1 page, 8vo, personal stationery; slight fading to text near lower edge including signature, marginal discoloration from prior matting, remnants of hinging at upper edge recto, folds. “Hogarth House” [London], “Tuesday” [19 February 1918] [2,000/3,000] “I haven’t seen such a splendid bunch of grapes since the early nineties when such gifts were not uncommon in our circles. The pink paper brought it all back. . . . “We are off to Asheham this afternoon. We have spent the last 3 nights more or less in the cellar, though there wasn’t much need, but when the servants take cover I can’t help thinking what an irony if they should escape & we be killed. “I hear Molly’s novel [Mary MacCarthy’s A Pier and a Band?] is taken; the Shoves [Fredegond and Gerald Shove] have broken loose, & it is rumoured that you have bought the Egoist, & engaged Bob T[revelyan] permanently as your poet.” Published in The Question of Things Happening: 1912-1922, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, 2, ed. Nicolson, London, 1976. Between 1915 and 1918, decades before the Blitz, London had been terrorized by bombs dropped from German Zeppelins and biplanes, driving inhabitants to take cover in cellars and public shelters.