The University of Sydney’s Fisher Library has digitised Virginia Woolf’s personal copy of the first edition of her debut novel, The Voyage Out, featuring inscriptions and edits by her hand that now anyone can enjoy.
This first edition and Woolf’s personal copy is the only one of its kind publicly available in the world.
First acquired by the Library’s Rare Books team in the 1970s through a bookseller in England, the book was rediscovered in 2021 by Metadata Services Officer Simon Cooper from the Fisher Library with science books in the Rare Books and Special Collections.
A digitised copy of this rare literary artifact – with its fascinating and unique inscriptions clearly visible – can now be enjoyed by the general public, students, staff and anyone with a Woolf or rare book bug.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
