THREE GUINEAS.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1938. Large crown octavo. Deep pink cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt. Edges trimmed, top blue-grey. Five black and white half-tone photographic illustrations. Spine slightly sunned, tiny dot on lower panel, else remarkably near fine internally.
First American edition. Written as a sequel to A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN, THREE GUINEAS is essentially a critique of patriarchy written as a belated response to an unnamed correspondent regarding two hypothetical requests for funding. Woolf makes the link between patriarchal family life and its connection to fascism and the consequent oppression of women. Woolf writes to Ethel Smyth on 1 June 1938: "I will send you 3 guineas (the book only I mean) tomorrow. I hadn't meant to, as it only repeats THE YEARS, with facts to prove it, not fiction; and is a hurried piece of work -- though it was hard work collecting the facts -- and you wont like it or agree with it. So lets say no more about it." But Ethel replied: "Your book is so splendid that it makes me hot" (3 June 1938, BERG).
KIRKPATRICK A23b. Very Good / Fair. Item #371
Price: $30.00