Vita Sackville-West, 1928 diary entry

Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962)

Diary entry

September 29, 1928

As with all her books, Woolf had misgivings about Orlando. Following the arduous task of correcting the proofs for it (the last opportunity to make changes before publication), Woolf and Sackville-West took a weeklong holiday to France. The two spent their time going on day trips, buying books, writing letters, and further revealing themselves to each other. “V. told me the history of her early loves—Madge Symonds, who is Sally in Mrs. Dalloway,” Sackville- West records in the last line of her diary for September 29th.

Having known each other since 1922, Woolf and Sackville-West (who were both in open marriages, of a sort) formed an intimate physical relationship in December 1925. Their nearly twenty-year bond was one of shifting intensity and many forms, long after they ceased to be romantically involved.