And in more MAPP related publications, we're happy to announce the publication of Virginia Woolf and the World of Books, edited by Nicola Wilson and Claire Battershill. A curated selection of papers inspired by last year's Virginia Woolf Conference at the University of Reading, this volume showcases vibrant new scholarship on the interventions of book history and material culture into Woolf studies. Topics include archives, craftmanship, artwork, libraries, collecting, reading, publishing, translation, reception, re-visions, editing and teaching.
MAPP co-founders and team members Claire Battershill and Helen Southworth have both recently published well-received books focusing on the concept of biography as it relates to Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press. Here is a brief introduction to both works, which epitomize the kind of rigorous historical research made possible through deep engagement with archival materials such as the ones MAPP curates on its continually-expanding site.
Surprisingly, I think I have only recently understood the full power of the bookshop. As a literature graduate and book lover it is perhaps no shock that bookshops are among my favourite places to spend time (and usually a small fortune!). I have loved many a bookshop, often in a quiet, personal way. Perhaps now more than ever, in a fast-paced and frequently impersonal society of online shopping, the almost sacred quality that bookshops can possess is particularly striking. What they offer, for me at least, is a haven of knowledge and creativity, going beyond that of a retail exploit. There is increasing academic interest in the role of the modernist bookshop at present, as shown by Huw Osborne's recent edited collection and Andrew Thacker's article in Modernist Cultures (11.3, 2016).