Virginia Woolf Editions

Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. 

Do you recognise this first sentence of Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf's classic novel? The book was first published on 14 May 1925 by Hogarth Press, which she and her husband Leonard Woolf set up. Her sister, artist Vanessa Bell, designed the dust jacket. My next blog post was supposed to be a reading journal entry but I couldn't get these six old paperback editions out of my head after spotting them on Instagram yesterday - Mrs Dalloway Day. Here we have the covers of Mrs Dalloway, Three Guineas, and Orlando, which I have added to my wish list. If only they were hardcovers.

Mrs Dalloway; Three Guineas; Orlando
By Virginia Woolf
Paperback, 224; 192; 352 pages
Mariner Books

Letters to Felice · Franz Kafka

The Schocken Kafka Library is a collection of thirteen books by Franz Kafka (b. 1883) containing his fiction, letters, and diaries. The collection consists of sizeable paperbacks, tastefully designed where the title font has been adapted from Kafka's legible handwriting. Currently, I only have one of them, the letters he wrote to friends, family, and editors, but have added many to my wish list. Letters to Felice (2016) contains over 500 letters he wrote to his girlfriend Felice, whom he got engaged to twice but never married. They met in August 1912 at the home of Kafka's best friend Max Brod and their relationship was mainly an epistolary one, given that he lived in Prague; she in Berlin. We can thank Brod for access to Kafka's writings today. Kafka asked him to burn all unpublished material after his death, but Brod refused. Kafka died of tuberculosis on 3 June 1924, a month before turning 41. Kafka is buried at the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague.

Cover design: Peter Mendelsund

Letters to Felice
By Franz Kafka
Edited by Erich Heller and Jürgen Born
Translated by James Stern and Elisabeth Duckworth
Paperback, 624 pages
ISBN 9780805208511
Schocken Books

Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection · The Met Museum

Inspired by my studies, I chose the cover of Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection (2018) for this first blog entry in weeks. On this term, I took a course called 'Museums and Society: The Circus of Death?' in which we read about indigenous peoples, about museum work in the Native American communities of Hopi and Zuni, to name a few. Apart from reading textbooks and academic articles, I viewed conservation material on various museum websites and through my search I discovered this stunning publication by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection includes objects from more than fifty cultures across North America, spanning the era from before the European settlers to the early 20th century. The book provides insights into the art, culture, and daily life of indigenous communities.

Jacket illustration: a tunic and leggings detail by a Tlingit artist.

Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection
By Gaylord Torrence with Ned Blackhawk and Sylvia Yount
Hardback, 232 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 9781588396624
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Man's coat, ca. 1820, Innu (Naskapi), Native American/The Met

In December when I shared my first book cover entry I honestly thought I could use this category to keep my blog alive during my studies. I have come to realise it's impossible to do so when dealing with endless assignment deadlines on top of getting through the reading material for each lecture. There are periods when it feels as if one hardly comes up for air.

It has been a strange term because of the coronavirus pandemic. The term is almost over and here in Austria, they have started to loosen the lockdown. Unfortunately, museums are still closed so my hopes of working as an intern this summer are gone. But the good news is that no one close to me has been infected by COVID-19 and I hope the same goes for my blog readers. Stay safe!

bottom image by me, appeared on Instagram 14/01/2020 | Tailored garment via The Met