Virginia Woolf – Monday or Tuesday

Hogarth Press first edition book jacket designs

Monday or Tuesday - first edition

Virginia Woolf, Monday or Tuesday (March, 1921) Cover design and woodcut illustrations by Vanessa Bell

This was a collection of seven short stories. It contains: ‘A Haunted House’, ‘A Society’, ‘Monday or Tuesday’, ‘An Unwritten Novel’, ‘The String Quartet’, ‘Blue and Green’, and ‘Solid Objects’.

“At the end of the first year, April 1922, the book had sold a total of 503 copies, showing a deficit to the press of £8 3s. 9d. During the next two years, the book averaged 70 copies per year. When Leonard Woolf closed out the account at the end of March 1924, Monday or Tuesday in three years had sold only 643 copies and made a slim profit of £18 17s. 10d. Virginia, as author, was awarded approximately one fifth of the third year’s profit, amounting to £2 16s. 5d. With such modest returns, the press and its authors just managed to stay afloat during the first five years of existence.”

J.H. Willis Jr, Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers: The Hogarth Press 1917-1941