Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf, 1915-1986
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Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
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collection
Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf
Creation of Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf
Time of Creation of Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf
Hooper, Frances M. (Frances Milliken), 1892-1986, collector
Biographical History for: Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf
Biographical Note The journalist and advertising executive Frances Milliken Hooper was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 18, 1892 to James K. and Mary E. Milliken Hooper. Her father was a grain merchant. The family resided on Greenwood Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. After studying American literature at the University of Chicago for a year, Hooper attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1914 with a bachelor's degree in English. Mary Augusta Jordan, one of her most influential English professors, instilled in Hooper a lifelong appreciation of good writing. Hooper published six prose pieces and two poems in the Smith College Monthly between October 1912 and June 1914. Another mentor was Smith College librarian Josephine A. Clark who inspired Hooper to collect books. Book collecting remained a lifelong passion. An illustrated edition of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (New York, 1910), which was given to Hooper by Clark, is in the rare book collection at Smith College. Hooper's correspondence with her parents from 1912 to 1919 and her college photograph album are in the Smith College Archives. After graduating from Smith College, Hooper pursued a career in journalism. She became a feature writer for the Sunday supplement of the Chicago Herald. In 1920, she was invited by Marshall Field and Company to join their advertising staff. Hooper became head of their promotion department. In the mid-1920s, Hooper founded the Frances Hooper Advertising Agency and was its president until 1961. She was one of the first women in the country to manage her own national advertising agency. Located in the Wrigley Building of Chicago, her agency handled many major accounts, including Smyth Furniture Company and the magazine advertising of the William Wrigley Jr. Company. As an idea person in the world of advertising, Hooper was attracted to the creative genius of British book illustrator George Cruikshank. Under the tutelage of the great bookseller Walter M. Hill, Hooper began collecting Cruikshank and later built an important collection of work by another British illustrator Kate Greenaway. The author collections of note that she assembled included the work of Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, and Selma Lagerlöf. Hooper also collected manuscripts, including the diaries of Emily and Anne Brontë. In 1990, the Grolier Club featured Hooper in an exhibition of fifteen important women book collectors from the past five centuries. Hooper began donating her collections to various institutions in 1979, including a few works by Carl Linnaeus to Wellesley College. The following year, Hooper donated her extensive Kate Greenaway collection to the Hunt Institute and wrote an essay about her collection for their exhibition catalogue Kate Greenaway (Pittsburgh: Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1980). She gave the rest of her collection of works in English by and about Linnaeus to the Chicago Horticultural Society in 1982. Hooper presented Smith College with the correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey in 1985. The rest of Hooper's extensive Virginia Woolf collection came to Smith College after her death. Hooper was primarily interested in Woolf's style as an essayist. As a result, her collection contains manuscript drafts and proof copies of a few of Woolf's essays in addition to British and American editions of most of Woolf's publications. Hooper also collected the books that Virginia Woolf reviewed or discussed in her essays and letters; however, these books were not part of the Frances Hooper Collection of Virginia Woolf Books and Manuscripts received by Smith College. First editions by other authors in Hooper's collection were donated to the University of Chicago after her death. In addition to being an avid book collector, Hooper owned The Chihuahua Press of Kenilworth, Illinois. A number of books written by Hooper were published under her imprint in the 1970s, including Penny Candy (1970); The Bonnet (1972); A Collector in Being (1973); A Pilgrimage to Gösta Berling's Värmland (1976); Wanted-Housekeeper; Cookie, Cookie, Who Made the Cookie; The Botanist Linnaeus; and Helen Hayes: First Lady of the Theater (1977). Many of the books were illustrated by Eleanor Tobin and composed in Caledonia and Optima types by Bertsch and Cooper and printed by Collins, Miller & Hutchings of Chicago. Hooper favored small formats for her publications which she often gave as gifts to her family and friends. In addition to books, Hooper was interested in education, women's rights, botany, animals, and music, particularly the opera. Hooper was a major benefactor of Northwestern University in Chicago. She was a fellow of the Pierpont Morgan Library, a member of the Hroswitha Club (an exclusive group of American women book collectors), and a member of the Limited Editions Club. The Linnaeus Society of London, an international organization named after the Swedish botanist, elected Hooper as their first female member. At home, she served on the board of directors of the Woman's Athletic Club of Chicago and organized many of their programs over the years. She was also on the executive board and a founding member of the women's board of the Field Museum of Natural History and a member of the Fortnightly Club of Chicago, a literary discussion group for women. In addition, she was co-founder of Kay's Animal Shelter and the founder and director of the Good Teeth Council for Children. Frances Hooper died on April 30, 1986, survived by many nieces and nephews. She was a longtime resident of Kenilworth, Illinois. Sources: Obituary by Kenan Heise in the Chicago Tribune, 3 May 1986 and A Smith Spectrum (Northampton: Smith College, 1986.)
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Frances Hooper Papers on Virginia Woolf contain correspondence, notes, scholarly articles, reviews, and background material that Frances Hooper used to acquire her important collection of books and manuscripts by Virginia Woolf from 1943 to 1986. The papers span the dates 1915-1986. Early material includes printed articles by Virginia Woolf, catalog cards from the Library of Congress, and artifacts removed from the books in the collection. The papers were bequeathed to Smith College by Frances Hooper with the Frances Hooper Collection of Virginia Woolf Books and Manuscripts and received by the Rare Book Room in July 1986.
Novelists, English--20th century--Biography--Sources.
lcsh
Hooper, Frances.
lcnaf
Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941.
series
Series I. Correspondence, 1930-1986
Contains correspondence from rare book and manuscript dealers offering Frances Hooper material for her Virginia Woolf Collection. Box 1, folder 1 includes a copy of a letter from the Argus Book Shop to Leonard Woolf soliciting manuscript material. In his responses, Woolf offers the first draft of "The Searchlight" and "similar first drafts of short stories, essays published in The Common Reader and reviews of books." The correspondence from Margery Barker (Box 1, folder 12) also mentions Leonard Woolf, who sold her a number of manuscript essays from The Common Reader and a few original Virginia Woolf letters. There is also a copy of a letter from Leonard Woolf to Frances Hamill in the Hamill & Barker correspondence about Virginia Woolf's diaries. The diaries eventually went to the New York Public Library, as is stated in a newspaper article preserved in Box 1, folder 25a. An incomplete run of the Bulletin of the New York Public Library followed by the Bulletin of Research in the Humanities is filed in folders 25b-25e, including three copies of the winter 1977 Virginia Woolf issue (Box 1, folder 25c). Walter M. Hill apparently purchased another manuscript essay -- "The Patron and the Crocus" -- from Sotheby's for Hooper, according to the original packing envelopes preserved in Box 1, folder 14. Hooper purchased other original Virginia Woolf letters from J. Stephan Lawrence (Box 1, folder 17) and Laurence Gomme (Box 1, folder 11), who also offered her some Lewis Carroll and Kate Greenaway material. A 1930 letter from Frederick C. Joiner of William Jackson Books Limited to Mr. Holiday mentions an original Virginia Woolf letter in which The Voyage Out was discussed (Box 2, folder 37). Bennett Cerf, the president of Random House, discusses the green paper edition of Orlando (Box 1, folder 4a). In addition to letters, the series includes invoices, receipts and dealer catalogues describing specific items, such as Virginia Woolf's 1916 Italian notebook (Box 1, folder 9). Advertisements, invoices, and enclosures from publishers are also represented in the series. Many of these items were removed from books and manuscripts in Hooper's collection, including a 1935 playbill from The Group Theater (Box 1, folder 11b). There are also a few letters from academic institutions. Lilly librarian William R. Cagle's 29 January 1981 letter (Box 1, folder 20) expresses interest in acquiring Hooper's Virginia Woolf Collection for Indiana University. Special collection's curator R. Russell Maylone sent Hooper a poster of Northwestern University's 1982 centenary exhibition on Virginia Woolf (Box 4, folder 106). A formal invitation to Joan Bennett's 15 May 1952 lecture on Virginia Woolf at the University of Chicago is preserved in Box 2, folder 35. Hooper was a founding member of the Virginia Woolf Society, according to the official correspondence filed in Box 2, folder 36, along with an incomplete run of the Virginia Woolf Miscellany. The rest of the letters in this series are from family and friends about Virginia Woolf. An extract from Cecilia MacMinn's 12 July 1951 letter (Box 1, folder 21) describes a visit to the Hogarth Press during which Leonard Woolf's secretary confided that Mr. Woolf would never understand all this interest in Virginia Woolf's personality, "it's her books that are the important things he would say."
Series II. Personal Papers, 1943-1983
Contains Frances Hooper's handwritten notes about Virginia Woolf. A series of note cards in Box 2, folder 38, describe some of Hooper's purchases from Walter M. Hill and the Argus Book Shop in 1943. Prices are included as well as a description of the bindings and contents of the books. In 1957, Hooper went to the Library of Congress to research Virginia Woolf. Library call slips and Hooper's reading notes about Virginia Woolf's writing style are preserved in Box 2, folder 39. Woolf's discussion of gender roles in A Room of One's Own was also of interest to Hooper, according to her notes filed in Box 2, folder 40. In addition, ten pages of notes on Woolf's essays focus on Lady Augusta Stanley, Emily Davies, Edward Gibbon, Madame de Sevigné, and Horace Walpole; there is also a side note about visiting Wilmarth S. Lewis's Horace Walpole Collection in Farmington, Connecticut, with the Hroswitha Club (Box 2, folder 42). Hooper was also interested in Sweden. In preparation for her book A Pilgrimage to Gösta Berling's Värmland, Hooper wrote a series of notes (on the back of paper from The Chihuahua Publishing Company) about an opera owned by Boris Goldovsky. The opera was based upon Selma Lagerlöf's writing (Box 2, folder 41). Notes about collecting egg cups (Box 2, folder 43), nomadic art (Box 2, folder 44), and She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (Box 2, folder 45) complete the series. Finally there is a folder of miscellaneous personal items, such as Hooper's letterhead and addresses (Box 2, folder 46).
Series III. Library Papers, 1915-1982
Library papers related to Hooper's Virginia Woolf Collection are contained in Series III. Catalog cards describing each book in the collection begin the series. Bindings are described and condition is often noted by Hooper's librarian Wilma M. Wierwill (Box 2, folders 47-49). In addition, there are dust jackets from The Common Reader (1925), A Writer's Diary (1953) and Much Entertainment by Virginia Maclean (1973) as well as a leather spine label from an edition of the Letters To and From the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (Box 2, folders 50-51).
Series IV. Writings Of Others, 1927-1985
Contains articles, essays, illustrations, and short stories by and about Virginia Woolf. Most are tear sheets from magazines and newspapers; a few are photostats of obituaries of Virginia Woolf written by David Garnett (Box 3, folder 52b) and Hugh Walpole (Box 3, folder 66) for The New Statesman and Nation. Hooper's friend Elizabeth Nielsen sent many of the articles, including a piece by V. S. Pritchett about the lost art of conversation (Box 3, folder 62). Virginia Woolf's essay "A Conversation About Art" is mentioned. Tear sheets of this essay from The Yale Review (September 1934) are preserved in Box 3, folder 68, along with two other printed essays by Virginia Woolf -- "Aurora Leigh" and "Letter To a Young Poet." In 1951, Netta Cooper of Main Street Books in Chicago gave these essays to Frances Hooper along with tear sheets of Woolf's short story "The New Dress," which appeared in a 1927 issue of Forum. An illustration of Woolf by Johan Bull is bound with the story (Box 3, folder 71). The only other illustration in the series is a reproduction of Vicky's cartoon of Woolf with the reviewers of Three Guineas (Box 3, folder 64). A few photostats of Virginia Woolf's articles on Ellen Terry and Mrs. Thrale from The New Statesman and Nation (Box 3, folders 69-70) complete the series.
Series V. Reviews, 1930-1985
Contains reviews of books by and about Virginia Woolf represented in Frances Hooper's collection. Most of the reviews were removed from the books under consideration. These printed reviews are from Book World, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Sunday Tribune, The Listener, London Times, National Observer, New York Herald Tribune, New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and Saturday Review. Reviewers of note include Elizabeth Bowen and Eudora Welty.
Series VI. Subject Files, 1925-1980
Contains newspaper clippings and other printed material on a variety of subjects, including art, literature, music, travel, and collecting. Hooper annotated some pieces, such as a 1964 playbill for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee, which she thought was "a very offensive piece of writing" (Box 3, folder 86). She also circled comments, such as Woolf's assessment of Horace Walpole as "the strangest mixture of ape and cupid" in a 22 September 1951 article from the Saturday Review of Literature (Box 3, folder 103). In addition she annotated her 1914 yearbook with the names and addresses of her married classmates (Box 3, folder 100).
Series VII. Photographs, 1927-1985
Contains three photographs of Frances Hooper and Virginia Woolf. A reproduction of the 1927 studio photograph of Virginia Woolf is filed in Box 3, folder 105. An engaging picture of Frances Hooper was taken by the Smith College photographer Gabriel Cooney in 1985 at her home in Kenilworth, Illinois (Box 4, folder 110). In this photograph, Hooper is seated in front of her Virginia Woolf Collection holding one of her cats.
Argus Book Shop 1943-1950
Barker, Margery
See: Box 1, folder 12
Bond, Judith 1954 Jul 30
The Book Stall 1975-1980
Brentano's
See: Box 1, folder 11
British Broadcasting Company 1971 Jan 11
Cerf, Bennett A. 1943 Mar 12
Colophon Book Shop 1981
Cooper, Netta
See: Box 1, folder 23
Eleanor [?Tobin] [1978]
Fischer, Anne Clark [1979]
Gene Frankel Theatre & Media Center 1977 Apr 12
George S. MacManus Co. n.d.
Georgia Lingafelt Books n.d.
Gomme, Laurence 1944-1955
See also: Box 4, folder 106
The Group Theater: playbill 1935
Hamill, Frances
Hamill & Barker (Firm) 1944-1972
Harcourt, Brace and Company [1957]
Hill, Walter M. 1943 May 29
Houghton Mifflin Company 1976 Apr 29
J. & S. Graphics, Inc. 1971-1978
J. Stephan Lawrence, Rare Books 1980-1981
John Jay Press 1978 Jun 4
Joiner, Frederick C.
See: Box 2, folder 37
Joseph the Provider [1980]
Kunetka, Lawrence
See: Box 1, folder 16
Lilly Library (University of Indiana, Bloomington) 1981 Jan 29
See also: Box 1, folder 9
MacMinn, Cecilia 1951-1962
McWilliams, Mary 1955
Main Street Book Store 1954-1957
Monroe, H. L. 1944 Dec 10
New York Public Library, including the Bulletin of the New York Public Library and the Bulletin of Research in the Humanities. 1977
Nielsen, Elizabeth 1972-1977
Northwestern University 1982 Feb 24
See also: Box 4, folder 107
Oberly, Portia M. n.d.
Oxford University Press 1984
Peter Wolff 1972 Nov 7
Random House
See: Box 1, folder 4a
The Rendells, Inc. 1977-1981
Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. 1957 Nov 29
The Scribner Book Store 1957, n.d.
Sessler's Bookshop n.d.
Sotheby & Co.
See: Box 1, folder 14
Tobin, Eleanor
See: Box 1, folder 6
University of Chicago 1952 May 15
Virginia Woolf Society 1973-1986
William Jackson (Books) Limited 1930 Apr 30
Woolf, Leonard
See: Box 1, folder 1; Box 1, folder 12
Woolf, Virginia
Notes on the Virginia Woolf Collection 1943
Notes compiled at the Library of Congress on Virginia Woolf 1957 Mar 6
Notes on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own 1969
Notes on Sweden 1976-1983
Notes on Virginia Woolf's essays 1980
Notes on collecting egg cups n.d.
Notes for a slide show on nomadic art n.d.
Notes on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer n.d.
Miscellaneous n.d.
Catalog cards: printed 1915-1942
Catalog cards: typed 1981-1982
Catalog cards: handwritten n.d.
Dust jackets 1925-1973
Label n.d.
Slipcase for Flush 1933
Notes on the Virginia Woolf Collection, 1943-1980
See: Box 2, folders 38, 40, 42
Eliot, T.S. (Thomas Stearne). "Reminiscences of Virginia Woolf" by T. S. Eliot, Rose Macaulay, V. Sackville-West, and William Plomer In Horizon. 1941 May
Garnett, David. "Virginia Woolf": photostat. From The New Statesman and Nation. 1941 Apr 12
Gissing, A.C.
See: Box 3, folder 69a
Holloway, John. "Modernity." From The Listener. 1971 Oct 28
Johnson, Alexandra. "Bloomsbury-By-The-Sea: Virginia Woolf's Sussex Home: Delight in Daily Life." From The Christian Science Monitor. 1983 Feb 25
Macaulay, Rose
See: Box 3, folder 52a
Maison, Margaret. "Insignificant Objects of Desire." From The Listener. 1971 Jul 22
Mrs. Virginia Woolf: Novelist, Essayist, and Critic 1941 Apr 3
Myers, Sylvia H. "The Ironies of Education": tear sheets. From Aphra. 1973 spring
The New Statesman and Nation: photostat of page 476 including "A London Diary" which mentions Virginia Woolf. 1941 May 10
Noble, Joan Russell. "Novels Written In the Night": photocopy of an excerpt from Recollections of Virginia Woolf. 1972
O'Brien, Edna. "Virginia." From The New York Times. 1985 Mar 3
Ocampo, Victoria. "Memories of Virginia Woolf." From Vogue. 1946
Petersen, Clarence. "Rebellion in Writing: 100 Great Books." From Chicago Tribune. 1966 Mar 13
Plomer, William.
See: Box 3, folder 52a.
Pritchett, V. S. "The Lost Art of Conversation." From Travel & Leisure Magazine. 1974 Aug
Sackville-West, Vita
Thackeray, C.B. "God and Mrs. Woolf": photostat. From Notes and Discussions. n.d.
Troy, William. "Virginia Woolf and the Novel of Sensibility." In Perspectives. 1954 winter
Vicky. Cartoon of Virginia Woolf surrounded by reviewers of Three Guineas. n.d.
Vincent, Sally. "Don't Be Afraid of Virginia Woolf." From an unidentified magazine. n.d.
Walpole, Hugh. "Virginia Woolf": photostat. From The New Statesman and Nation. 1941 Jun 14
Woodruff, E.H. "Geraldine and Jane." From Times Literary Supplement. 1929 Apr 4
Woolf, Virginia. "Aurora Leigh," "Letter To a Young Poet," and "A Conversation About Art" From The Yale Review. 1931 Jun
Woolf, Virginia. "A Conversation About Art."
See: Box 3, folder 68.
Woolf, Virginia. "Ellen Terry": photostat. From The New Statesman and Nation. 1941 Feb 8
Woolf, Virginia. "Gissing's 'By the Ionian Sea'."
Woolf, Virginia. "Letter To a Young Poet."
See: Box 3, folder 68
Woolf, Virginia. "Mrs. Thrale": photostat. From The New Statesman and Nation. 1941 Mar 8
Woolf, Virginia. "The New Dress." From Forum. 1927 May
Woolf, Virginia. "On Not Knowing Greek": photocopy. From The Common Reader. n.d.
Annan, Noel
See: Box 4, folder 108
Bates, Ralph
See: Box 3, folder 73
Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf.
Bennett, Arnold
See: Box 3, folder 84a
Bennett, Joan. Virginia Woolf: Her Art As a Novelist. 1945 Feb-Sep
Blackwood, Caroline
See: Box 3, folder 84
Bowen, Elizabeth
See: Box 4, folder 109
Brown, John Mason
See: Box 3, folder 103
Butscher, Fanny
See: Box 3, folder 75
Constable, Rosalind
See: Box 3, folder 101
Cruttwell, Patrick
See: Box 3, folder 80
Edel, Leon. Bloomsbury: A House of Lions. 1979 Jun 19
Four Americans in Paris.
Freedman, Richard
See: Box 3, folder 78
Gathorne-Hardy, Robert. Ottoline at Garsington.
See: Box 3, folder 98
Gordon, Caroline. The Woman on the Porch. 1944 May 7
Gordon, Lyndall. Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life. 1985 Mar 17
Gray, James
Gregory, Horace
See: Box 3, folder 85
Kronenberger, Louis
See: Box 3, folder 77
Krutch, Joseph Wood
Lewis, Wilmarth S. Collector's Progress.
Mansfield, Katherine. Novels and Novelists. 1930
Maxwell, William
Murray, Michele
Prescott, Peter S.
See: Box 3, folder 74
Rilla, W. P.
Ruskamp, Judith Sara
See: Box 3, folder 76
Sayre, Nora
Smith, Harrison
Stein, Gertrude. Gertrude Stein on Picasso.
Tennant, Emma
The Virginia Woolf Reader
Wagenknecht, Edward
See: Box 3, folder 79
Welty, Eudora
See: Box 3, folder 82
Woolf, Leonard. The Journey Not the Arrival Matters. 1970 Mar 29
Woolf, Leonard. Downhill All the Way.
Woolf, Virginia. The Captain's Death Bed. 1950 May
Woolf, Virginia. Collected Essays. 1967 Nov 19
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf.
Woolf, Virginia. Flush. 1933
Woolf, Virginia. A Haunted House, And Other Short Stories. 1944 Apr 16
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. n.d.
Woolf, Virginia. Moments of Being. 1976 Jul 22
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. 1928 Nov 8
Woolf, Virginia. The Second Common Reader. 1932 Oct 30
Woolf, Virginia. A Writer's Diary.
Albee, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: playbill and article. 1962-1964
Art n.d.
Austria n.d.
Bedford, Mary du Caurroy Russell, Duchess of, 1865-1937 1968
Beecham, Thomas, Sir, 1878-1961 1974 Oct 3
Bowen, Elizabeth, 1899-1973 1968 Nov 10
Cameron, Julia Margaret Prattle, 1815-1879 1946
Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850: engraved portrait by H. B. Hall, Jr. n.d.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 n.d.
Hogarth Press 1947 Nov
Horan, Kenneth O'Donnell, Mrs., born 1890 1942 Dec 20
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 n.d.
Morrell, Ottoline Violet Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, Lady, 1873-1938 1974 Sep 26
Music 1980 Nov 17
Smith College 1914-1925
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946 1971 Jan 31
Trollope, Frances Milton, 1780-1863 n.d.
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 1951 Sep 22
Hooper, Frances 1954 Apr 19
See also: Box 4, folder 110
Woolf, Virginia 1927
Series Oversize, 1947-1985
Correspondence
Gomme, Laurence 1947-1951
Northwestern University Library 1982
Reviews
Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf. 1972-1973
Woolf, Virginia. A Writer's Diary. 1954
Photographs
Hooper, Frances 1985 Jun