Virginia Woolf's suicide note written to Leonard Woolf is in the
Manuscript Collections of the British Library.
Here are some online references which verify this information:
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"Archives also have surprising curves and can produce moments as
intense as any highway. Sometimes it feels more like a crash than a
ride. Fifteen years ago I had been working in the British Library's
Manuscript Room, reading the papers of Virginia Woolf... I opened up
the next manila envelope and slid out a single sheet. It was
handwritten and my eyes winced after the sojourn in typescript. Still
it was only a single page and it was well spaced. I'd be out of here
soon. I found myself reading a letter I'd read in print dozens of
times before. Anybody who works on Woolf practically knows it by
heart, it's reprinted so often. It begins,
Dearest, I want to tell you that you have given me complete happiness.
No one could have done more than you have done. Please believe that.
But I know that I shall never get over this: and I am wasting your
life. It is this madness.
I was holding Virginia Woolf's suicide note."
En Route
http://www.enroutemag.com/english/APRIL03/CBC_eng.htm
=============================================
"The British Library Manuscript Collections
Diaries 1930-1931 (microfilm); Mrs. Dalloway and other writings
(1923-1925) three volumes; letter from Leonard Woolf to H. G. Wells
(1941); two letters from Virginia Woolf and three letters from Leonard
Woolf to John Lehmann (1941); letter written on behalf of Leonard
Woolf to S. S. Koteliansky (1946); notebook in Italian kept by
Virginia Woolf; notebook of Virginia Stephen (1906-1909); A sketch of
the past revised ts (1940); letters from Virginia Woolf in the
correspondence files of Lytton and James Strachey; letter from
Virginia Woolf to Mildred Massingberd; letter from Virginia Woolf to
Harriet Shaw Weaver (1918); letters from Virginia Woolf to S. S.
Koteliansky (1923-27); letter from Virginia Woolf to Frances Cornford
(1929); letter from Virginia Woolf to Ernest Rhys (1930);
correspondence of Virginia Woolf in the Society of Authors archive
(1934-37); letter and postcard from Virginia Woolf to Bernard Shaw
(1940); three letters (suicide notes) from Virginia Woolf (1941); two
letters from Virginia Woolf and three from Leonard Woolf to John
Lehmann (1941). Collection of RPs (-reserved photo copies-–copies of
manuscrips exported, some subject to restrictions). -Hyde Park Gate
News- 1891-92, 1895 (add. MSS 70725, 70726). Letters of Virginia and
Leonard Woolf to Lady Aberconway, 1927-1941. Letter from Virginia
Woolf to Frances Cornford.
Pace University
http://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=3153
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Here is the full text of Virginia's last letter to Leonard:
"Dearest,
I feel certain that I am going mad again: I feel we cant go through
mother of those terrible times. And I shant recover this time. I begin
to hear voices, and cant concentrate. So I am doing what seems the
best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness.
You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I dont think two
people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I cant
fight it any longer, I know that I am spoiling your life, that without
me you could work. And you will I know. You see I cant even write this
properly. I cant read. What I want to say is that I owe all the
happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me
and incredibly good. I want to say that - everybody knows it. If
anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has
gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I cant go on spoiling
your life any longer.
I dont think two people could have been happier than we have been.
V.
Virginia Woolf Web Archives
http://orlando.jp.org/VWWARC/DAT/lastnote.html
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Search terms used:
"virginia woolf"
"leonard woolf"
"suicide letter"
"suicide note"
"archives"
"library"
=============================================
I hope this information is useful. If anything is unclear or
incomplete, or if a link does not function, please request
clarification before rating my answer; I'll gladly offer further
assistance as needed.
Best wishes,
pinkfreud |
Clarification of Answer by
pinkfreud-ga
on
07 Apr 2003 19:12 PDT
Forgive me for having made an error in my answer. The suicide note
which I posted was one of two such letters sent to Leonard Woolf, both
of which are in the Manuscript Collections of the British Library,
along with a suicide note which Virginia wrote to her sister, Vanessa.
Below is the text of the actual final letter to Leonard.
"On 28 March 1941 she wrote letters of farewell to Leonard and
Vanessa. To Leonard:
Dearest,
I want to tell you that you have given me complete happiness. No one
could have done more than you have done. Please believe that.
But I know that I shall never get over this: and I am wasting your
life. It is this madness. Nothing anyone says can persuade me. You can
work, and you will be much better without me. You see I cant write
this even, which shows I am right. All I want to say is that until
this disease came on we were perfectly happy. It was all due to you.
No one could have been so good as you have been, from the very first
day till now. Everyone knows that.
V
Then, taking her stick, she walked down to the river, selected a large
stone and pushed it into her pocket before drowning herself in the
River Ouse. Her body was not recovered for three weeks when it was
found by some boys floating upstream. 'Her life', wrote William
Plomer, 'was rich in experience of people and places.'
Leonard, who lived on at Monk's House for 28 years after Virginia's
death, scattered her ashes beneath one of the two great elm trees in
the garden which they had always called Leonard and Virginia. A few
years later it was blown down in a storm."
The text of this note has been excerpted from "Bloomsbury at Home," a
book by Pamela Todd, published by H.N. Abrams in 1999, accessed
through the online reference source Questia.com.
http://www.questia.com/
I apologize if my original answer created any confusion. I
misassembled my references while compiling the answer.
~pinkfreud
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