Freshwater. A Comedy.

First UK edition. Crown 8vo. Pp. xi, [1], 76. Publisher's khaki cloth, lettered in gilt to spine; matching endpapers. Edited and with a Preface by Lucio P. Ruotolo. B/w illustrations by Loretta Trezzo (pseudonym of Edward Gorey). Frontispiece photo of Angelica Garnett in the role of Ellen Terry by Vanessa Bell. 1/2140 copies printed.

Dustjacket backstrip discoloured, else Fine.

Woolf's only play, two versions of which (dated 1923 & 1935, and both printed here) were found amongst Leonard Woolf's papers shortly after his death in 1969. Set at an artists' colony on the Isle of Wight, the play is a three-act farce based on the famous Victorian photographer and Virginia Woolf's great-aunt, Julia Margaret Cameron.

It was first performed on 18 January 1935 at Vanessa Bell's London studio on Fitzroy Street, at one of the Bloomsbury Group's theatrical evenings. Directed by Woolf herself, the cast included her husband Leonard, her sister Vanessa, her nephew and niece Julian and Angelica Bell, and the latter's father, Duncan Grant. Nearly fifty years later, in 1983 Freshwater became international news when it was presented in a star-studded French production in New York. The cast featured the playwright Eugène Ionesco, filmmaker Alain-Robbe Grillet, and novelist Nathalie Sarraute.

[Kirkpatrick A46b]