3-057-385 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Letter from Leonard Woolf to John Lehmann, his wife Virginia Woolf's publisher, telling him of her nervous breakdown, 1941. 'The Hogarth Press, 37, Mecklenburgh Square, London, w.c.1...28/3/41. Dear John, I enclose a letter from Virginia. The fact is that she is on the verge of a complete nervous break down and is seriously ill. The [Second World] war, food &c have been telling on her and I have seen it coming on for some time. It is out of the question for her to touch the book ["Between the Acts"] now and so we must put it off indefinitely. Send it back to me and dont answer this letter. I will come up to town and discuss the whole thing with you when I can. I am sorry for your and the Press sake; there seems some fate against you in the publishing world. The whole thing is a nightmare. Would you mind writing a note to V saying that you're very sorry that we shant be able to publish in the spring, but that we will hope for the autumn? Yours, Leonard Woolf'. That same day, 28 March 1941, Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself. She walked into the fast-flowing River Ouse near their Sussex home, after placing a large stone in her pocket.