cover image Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell

Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell. Pantheon Books, $35 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-41939-6

Painter Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) conducted an intimate correspondence with fellow members of the circle of English artists and writers known as the Bloomsbury group. Published here for the first time in this collection edited by Marler, literary editor of the journal Aleh-zon , are more than 300 of Bell's letters, written between 1885 and 1961, accompanied by biographical essays and a foreword by Bell's son, Quentin. Included are her letters written to husband Clive Bell, to friends Lytton Strachey and Maynard Keynes, and to her lovers, art critic Roger Fry and painter Duncan Grant. The letters testify to Bell's passion for painting and to her commitment to an unconventional life. Those written to her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, express both love and concern for Woolf's precarious mental health. Bell also wrote about the devastation she experienced over the death of her son, Duncan, during World War II, and Virginia's suicide in 1941. This is a valuable addition to Bloomsbury studies. Illustrations. (Sept.)