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(WOOLF, Virginia.) SANDS, Ethel.

Autograph letter signed ("Your devoted Ethel") to Vanessa Bell, commiserating with her on the death of her sister Virginia Woolf.

A letter of condolence to Vanessa Bell ("My dearest Vanessa") written shortly after Virginia's suicide: "...I can hardly believe this terrible news, that Virginia has chosen to leave us. In all my long life, I think of her as the rarest, the most exquisite creature I have known. And what the loss of her will mean to you, I hardly dare imagine. You had such a beautiful relationship with her. She turned to you & depended on your strength as if you had both been children, still. Had she been ill, were you anxious about her? Poor Leonard, what will he do? I think of you all the time, darling Vanessa. They tell me that Angelica is engaged to David Garnett. I hope the child's happiness is bringing you some comfort, now..." On the same day Sands wrote to Leonard Woolf a condolence letter reprinted in Afterwords: Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf (Sybil Oldfield, ed., 2005); the present letter is not in that collection. Ethel Sands, a protégé of Walter Sickert, and her lifelong companion the American painter Anna Hope (Nan) Hudson were long-standing friends and patrons of the Bloomsbury group.

Single sheet pale grey notepaper, letterhead printed in red "Garsington Manor, near Oxford." Central crease where folded once.