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Updated July 31, 1998
Created July 31, 1998 from material supplied by Denise Brown Taylor.
What is the publication history of To the Lighthouse?
TTL was published by the Hogarth Press in England on May 5, 1927, the 32nd anniversary of Julia Stephen's death. The beige dust jacket was designed by Vanessa Bell. Vanessa also designed the dust jacket for the first U.S. edition, which was published on the same day (Hussey 307). The Modern Library of the World's Best Books published an edition with an introduction by Terence Halliday. VW states in a letter on February 19, 1928, to Harold Nicolson, Vita's husband, that she sent a copy of TTL "to the Embassy in case your editor still wants it" (Nicholson & Trautman 460). Nothing more is mentioned concerning this other than in a letter to Vita, March 20,1928, when she complains about the translators. "Time Passes" was translated into French and published in 1926 as an essay.
On March 31, 1928, VW writes to Vita that she read in a newspaper that she had been awarded the Femina-Vie Heureuse by the French. She refers to it as a "ridiculous prize". Hussey notes that this award was one of France's oldest and most famous prizes" (85). VW had refused many awards during her life; however she accepted this one. Vita had received an award before this which makes you wonder if her competitive nature was coming forth in accepting this.