to Vote, Washington, January 2 [ sic ], 1871”. Marginal creasing, nicks, and browning, faint patch of dampstain along central fold, a few tiny perforations along folds but sheet remaining whole with almost no splitting, contents generally clean with occasional marks, small paper remnant affixed to final “L” of “Woodhull” in title. In very good condition. ¶ Joshua Brown, Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded Age America , 2002; Carol Felsenthal, “The Strange Tale of the First Woman to Run for President”, Politico , 9 April 2015. £3,500 [143015] 154 WOOLF, Virginia. Autograph letter signed to Lettice Ramsey. 28 November [1931?] “Why not simply become fluid in their lives, if my own is dim?” Unpublished autograph letter signed from Virginia Woolf to the Cambridge photographer Lettice Ramsey (1898–1985), arranging a visit to see her and her daughters: “I am much looking forward to making acquaintance with the young! Yr Sincerely Virginia Woolf”. Ramsey, together with her photographic partner Helen Muspratt (1907–2001), was one of the leading women photographers of the 20th century. Lettice Ramsey ( née Baker) married Frank Ramsey, the brilliant Cambridge philosopher and friend and translator of Wittgenstein, in 1925; he died tragically young in 1930, leaving Ramsey with their two daughters. In the autumn of 1931, Ramsey and Woolf’s nephew, Julian Bell, began a relationship with the widow. On 18 March 1932 Woolf mentions in her diary that she took “tea with Nessa, Julian, & Mrs Ramsey”. That summer, Bell invited Ramsey to Charleston, where she took a series of informal photographs of the family and photographed Woolf with Angelica Bell at Monk’s House. In a diary entry for 31 December 1932, Woolf wrote: “I am taking a morning off, & shall use it here, in my lazy way, to sum up the whole of life. By that phrase, one of my colloquialities, I only mean, I wish I could deliver myself of a picture of all my friends, thoughts, doings, projects at this moment . . . For example, with Julian & Lettice Ramsay last night – why not simply become fluid in their lives, if my own is dim?” Muspratt and Ramsey opened their first studio in Cambridge in 1932; they opened a second studio in Oxford in 1937, and ran the two studios until the late 1970s. In 2012–13 the National Portrait Gallery held an exhibition of Ramsey’s portraits of Bell and other members of the Bloomsbury group
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( The Bloomsbury Poet & The Cambridge Photographer: Julian Bell & Lettice Ramsey ), and a series of Ramsey’s photographs are held in Vanessa Bell’s “Album 7” in the Tate Gallery archives.” One sheet of headed blue paper (52 Tavistock Square, WC1). Folded twice, a little creased. In very good condition. £5,000 [155469] 155 WOOLF, Virginia. Orlando. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1929 madeleine l’engle’s copy First Tauchnitz edition, with an interesting literary provenance, from the library of the American writer Madeleine L’Engle Camp, with her ownership inscription and London address “Bird-in-Hand Court” to the front cover. L’Engle possibly bought the book during her childhood in Switzerland; she went on to publish her own modern classic of time travel, A Wrinkle in Time , in 1962. Small octavo. Original paper wrappers printed in black. With publisher’s 32-page catalogue at end. French telegraph form loosely inserted, with pencilled notes on verso: “départ de Tarascon à 20’’46. Changer à Valence 23.5”. Spine toned, light soiling to slightly rubbed and creased wrappers, inner hinges discreetly reinforced, faint foxing to upper edge, publisher’s advertisements mildly toned, contents otherwise bright and clean. A very good copy. ¶ Kirkpatrick E2. John Carter, “Tauchnitz”, in ABC for Book Collectors , 2004. £1,000 [161783]
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153 WOODHULL, Victoria, & Tennessee Claflin. Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly. Vol. V. No. 25. Whole No. 129. New York: 24 May 1873 the first female candidate for President of the United States addresses congress A notable and well-preserved issue of the radical newspaper, featuring a striking full-page engraving of Woodhull advocating for women’s suffrage before the House Judiciary Committee on 11 January 1871. Also present at the table are suffragists Lillie Devereux Blake, Paulina Wright Davis, Josephine Sophia White Griffing, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Belva Ann Lockwood, and Susan B. Anthony. Sisters Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) and Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923) established the first female-run Wall Street brokerage, Woodhull, Claflin & Co., in January 1870. Although a short-lived venture, it made headlines and brought the “Queens of Finance” national fame (and infamy). After the firm closed in 1873, the sisters turned their full attention to Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly , published from May 1870 to June 1876. When Woodhull announced her candidacy for president in April 1870, the newspaper became a vehicle for promoting her political ambitions.
On 11 January 1871 Woodhull “became the first woman to testify before a congressional committee, addressing the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of women’s suffrage . . . Susan B. Anthony was so taken with Woodhull’s argument that she asked her to repeat it at the National Woman Suffrage Association Convention” (Felsenthal). Pages 3–7 and 10–11 of this issue print a longform article headed “Woman’s Suffrage”, which includes Woodhull’s speech to the House Judiciary Committee, plus related open letters and memorials. Woodhull’s speeches and the accompanying engraving (first published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper , 4 February 1871, p. 349) are reproduced in this 1873 issue in response to “the several recent decisions of courts touching the rights of women citizens in the United States . . . In view of this newly- fledged exercise of despotic power, we feel constrained to begin anew the presentation of the arguments to support the rights of citizens, irrespective of any and all arbitrary laws” (p. 3). Woodhull’s nomination by the Equal Rights Party was ratified in June 1872, making her the first female candidate for President of the United States. Single issue, folio (page size 420 × 295 mm), 16 pp. Large sheet of newsprint, folded, unopened. Full-page wood-engraved illustration on final page captioned “Victoria C. Woodhull addressing the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives on the Right of Woman
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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