Bloomsbury at Home

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2000. 192 pages, illustrations (some colour); 28 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. Profusely illustrated. "The Bloomsbury Group is synonymous with artistry and acerbic wit, liberal ideas and outrageous sexual frankness. But what was life like behind the scenes? Their fame - or notoriety - spread far beyond the gracious squares of Bloomsbury where Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Maynard Keynes, Clive Bell and others had London homes and which gave the group its name. Virginia and Leonard founded the Hogarth Press in Richmond (where it took over the house, even the larder). Vanessa, with her lover Duncan Grant and his lover David Garnett, rusticated in the wilder reaches of Suffolk during the First World War, then moved to Charleston, a rundown Sussex farmhouse that metamorphosed into an enchanted domain. At Lady Ottoline Morrell's Garsington, at Lytton Strachey's and Dora Carrington's lovenest beside the Thames at Tidmarsh, or wintering in St. Tropez - wherever these unorthodox friends congregated, there was Bloomsbury. Pamela Todd recreates life among the Bloomsbury set - their complicated and interlocking lives, their surprising successes and hilarious failures at keeping house - through diaries and letters, family photos and memorabilia, precious archive material and affectionate recollections from staff and friends, to give a perspective on Bloomsbury at home." - Publisher. CONTENTS: London: Bloomsbury begins: before the war; Asheham, Wissett & Garsington Manor: rural retreats: at home in the country; Paradise: the Hogarth Press in Richmond: Leonard & Virginia; London: squares & studios: omega & the party season; Charleston: "an enchanted place": Vanessa & Duncan; Tidmarsh & Ham Spray: from Z to A: Carrington & Lytton; London: the Hogarth Press in Bloomsbury: literary life; Europe: "the dream of living sunbaked": Bloomsbury travels; Monk's house: a house of many doors: Leonard & Virginia.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 4to. Collectible.