callmemadam | Connections

Who's this? It's Virginia Woolf, sketched by Richard Kennedy. I'm reading Hermione Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf (much easier going than Woolf's novels) and spotted the distinctive style of this illustration, which connects Virginia Woolf with Pippi Longstocking. Kennedy left school at sixteen and went to work for the Woolfs as a dogsbody. The Woolfs didn't notice him much but he was watching them all right and wrote up his experiences in A Boy at the Hogarth Press. I should think this is a fascinating book and there are plenty of second hand copies available on Amazon & ABE. Kennedy became well known as an illustrator of children's books, most famously Pippi Longstocking. More illustrations .