Virginia Woolf

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Standard Name: Woolf, Virginia
Birth Name: Adeline Virginia Stephen
Nickname: Ginia
Married Name: Adeline Virginia Woolf
Thousands of readers over three or four generations have known that Virginia Woolf was—by a beadle—denied access to the library of a great university. They may have known, too, that she was a leading intellect of the twentieth century. If they are feminist readers they will know that she thought . . . back through her mothers and also sideways through her sisters and that she contributed more than any other in the twentieth century to the recovery of women's writing.
Marcus, Jane. “Introduction”. New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf, edited by Jane Marcus, Macmillan, 1981, p. i - xx.
xiv
Educated in her father's library and in a far more than usually demanding school of life, she radically altered the course not only of the English tradition but also of the several traditions of literature in English.
Froula, Christine. Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde. Columbia University Press, 2005.
2
She wrote prodigiously—nine published novels, as well as stories, essays (including two crucial books on feminism, its relation to education and to war), diaries, letters, biographies (both serious and burlesque), and criticism. As a literary journalist in a wide range of forums, she addressed the major social issues of her time in more than a million words.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction; Editorial Note”. The Essays of Virginia Woolf, edited by Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 1986–1994, pp. vols. 1 - 4: various pages.
ix
She left a richly documented life in words, inventing a modern fiction, theorising modernity, writing the woman into the picture. She built this outstandingly influential work, which has had its impact on both writing and life, on her personal experience, and her fictions emerge to a striking degree from her life, her gender, and her moment in history. In a sketch of her career written to Ethel Smyth she said that a short story called An Unwritten Novelwas the great discovery . . . . That—again in one second—showed me how I could embody all my deposit of experience in a shape that fitted it.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press, 1975–1980, 6 vols.
4: 231
Well-known black and white photograph of Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf), 1902. She is seen in profile, with her hair loosely caught back in a bun
Photograph of Virginia Woolf with hand on face wearing a fur stole. This is a picture from one of Virginia Woolf's own photo albums at Monk's House which were acquired at an auction at Sotheby's in 1982 (cf. Maggie Humm, Snapshots of Bloomsbury: The Private Lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, p. 187), gifted in 1983 by Frederick R. Koch to the Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Libray, Harvard University, and afterwards scanned and uploaded by the library.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Eleanor Rathbone
ER contributed an essay on Changes in Public Life to Our Freedom and Its Results, a feminist anthology edited by Ray Strachey and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf .
Alberti, Johanna. Eleanor Rathbone. Sage Press, 1996.
179
Pedersen, Susan. Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience. Yale University Press, 2004.
380
Anthologization William Empson
Many of the poems first saw print in Cambridge journals or in Leonard and Virginia Woolf 's Cambridge Poetry, Hogarth Press ,1929. This volume followed on a privately-printed Poems issued by the Fox and Daffodil Press
Cultural formation Ethel M. Arnold
As an Arnold, EA was born not only into the white, English, professional class, but into one of the most important literary and educational families of the nineteenth century. A woman of talent herself, she...
Cultural formation Ali Smith
In 1995 Smith spoke in Caroline Gonda 's series of interviews with gay Scottish women writers, which questioned what level of community exists among them and the extent to which they believe their sexuality to...
Cultural formation Catherine Byron
CB sees herself as having experienced various complications with regard to nation, religion, and writerly identity, as a result of her heritage and places of living. Though her mother was from the Republic of Ireland...
Cultural formation May Cannan
MC was indeed, in Virginia Woolf 's phrase, one of the daughters of educated men.
Woolf, Virginia. Three Guineas. Hogarth Press, 1986.
16
Her parents were more educated than most: highly talented members of that ancient-university world into which another poet, Frances Cornford
Cultural formation Ethel Smyth
In addition to her relationship with Henry Brewster , ES 's life was punctuated by a series of intense emotional attachments to women. In a letter to Brewster, she wondered why it is so much...
Cultural formation Hope Mirrlees
Her friend Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary this month: It is said that Hope has become a Roman Catholic on the sly.
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Editors Bell, Anne Olivier and Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 1977–1984, 5 vols.
3: 268
death George Eliot
Her younger husband wrote that he was stunned by the frightful suddenness of her death.
qtd. in
Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Hamish Hamilton, 1996.
379
She was buried in Highgate Cemetery, London; the large attendance at the funeral included her estranged brother Isaac
death Anne Thackeray Ritchie
She is buried at Hampstead. Her death was prominently covered in the press; Virginia Woolf wrote the official obituary for the Times Literary Supplement.
Shankman, Lillian F., and Anne Thackeray Ritchie. “Biographical Commentary and Notes”. Anne Thackeray Ritchie: Journals and Letters, edited by Abigail Burnham Bloom et al., Ohio State University Press, 1994, p. various pages.
xxviii
Gérin, Winifred. Anne Thackeray Ritchie: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 1981.
276
death Arnold Bennett
Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary of feeling unexpectedly moved and sorry at the death of this lovable genuine man with whom she had crossed swords.
Drabble, Margaret. Arnold Bennett: A Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.
350
death Lady Ottoline Morrell
Before her death LOM named three literary executors, including her friend Hope Mirrlees . Her literary estate consisted primarily of letters, journals, and her drafted memoirs.
Seymour, Miranda. Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.
7
Obituaries by Virginia Woolf and Margot Asquith were...
Dedications Ling Shuhua
The Hogarth Press published Ling Shuhua 's memoir Ancient Melodies, with an introduction by Vita Sackville-West . Ling Shuhua dedicated the book to Virginia Woolf and Sackville-West, with whom she conferred at different stages...
Dedications Vita Sackville-West
VSW published Sissinghurst, a poem dedicated to Virginia Woolf .
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press, 1975–1980, 6 vols.
4: 256
Dedications Ethel Smyth
ES continued her autobiography in As Time Went On; she dedicated it to Virginia Woolf , who helped her choose its title.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press, 1975–1980, 6 vols.
6: 21, 37; 5: 351
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
1787 (2 May 1936): 377

Timeline

1441-78: Margaret Paston, née Mautby, wrote—that is,...

Women writers item

1441-78

Margaret Paston , née Mautby, wrote—that is, dictated—to her husband and sons (in Virginia Woolf 's words) long long letters . . . . explaining, asking advice, giving news, rendering accounts
Woolf, Virginia. The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Editors McNeillie, Andrew and Stuart Nelson Clarke, Hogarth Press, 1986–2011, 6 vols.
4: 23
about the...

Early August 1591: Sir John Harington's translation of Ariosto's...

Writing climate item

Early August 1591

Sir John Harington 's translation of Ariosto 's heroic romance Orlando Furioso (which means something like Roland Run Mad) was published.
Sidney, Sir Philip. “Critical Materials”. The Poems of Sir Philip Sidney, edited by William A., Jr Ringler, Clarendon Press, 1962, p. various pages.
563
Munby, Alan Noel Latimer. “Jane Austen’s Ariosto”. The Private Library, Vol.
4
, No. 3, July 1962, p. 46.
46

20 October 1595: Michel de Montaigne's Essays were entered...

Writing climate item

20 October 1595

Michel de Montaigne 's Essays were entered in the Stationers' Register , three years after the author's death.
Arber, Edward, editor. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London 1554-1660, A. D. Privately Printed, 1875–1894, 5 vols.

1752: Francis Coventry anonymously published The...

Writing climate item

1752

Francis Coventry anonymously published The History of Pompey the Little; or, the life and adventures of a lap-dog, a novel à clef which satirizes Pompey's successive owners.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

By 9 July 1822: The ladies of England subscribed for a gigantic...

Building item

By 9 July 1822

The ladies of England subscribed for a gigantic statue of the Greek hero Achilles cast in metal from captured foreign guns, for Hyde Park in London, to honour the Duke of Wellington .
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(9 July 1822): 3

1825: Alexander Dyce, then a twenty-seven-year-old...

Women writers item

1825

Alexander Dyce , then a twenty-seven-year-old reluctant clergyman, published his Specimens of British Poetesses, a project in rediscovering women's literary history.
Eger, Elizabeth. “Fashioning a Female Canon: Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and the Politics of the Anthology”. Women’s Poetry in the Enlightenment, The Making of a Canon 1730-1820, edited by Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain, St Martin’s Press, 1998, pp. 201-15.
210-11
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers, 1870, 2 vols.
2: 81
Salzman, Paul. “How Alexander Dyce Assembled Specimens of British Poetesses: A Key Moment in the Transmission of Early Modern Women’s Writing”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
26
, No. 1, Feb. 2019, pp. 88-105.
88-9, 91, 95-6, 97, 98, 101

28 November 1832: Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf,...

Writing climate item

28 November 1832

Leslie Stephen , father of Virginia Woolf , first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, editor of Cornhill Magazine, biographer, and agnostic, was born.
Annan, Noel. Leslie Stephen: The Godless Victorian. Random House, 1984.
5, 10, 52, 66, 83-8, 301
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

28 November 1832: Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf,...

Writing climate item

28 November 1832

Leslie Stephen , father of Virginia Woolf , first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, editor of Cornhill Magazine, biographer, and agnostic, was born.
Annan, Noel. Leslie Stephen: The Godless Victorian. Random House, 1984.
5, 10, 52, 66, 83-8, 301
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.

9 November 1857: The first issue appeared of the US magazine...

Writing climate item

9 November 1857

The first issue appeared of the US magazine Atlantic Monthly. It set out to provide articles of an abstract and permanent value, while not ignoring the healthy appetite of the mind for entertainment in...

24 April 1869: Leslie Stephen (later Virginia Woolf's father)...

Writing climate item

24 April 1869

Leslie Stephen (later Virginia Woolf 's father) published in the Saturday Review an unsigned response to W. R. Greg , entitled The Redundancy of Women.
Saturday Review. Chawton.
(1869): 544-6
Annan, Noel. Leslie Stephen: The Godless Victorian. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984.
295

April 1880: Virginia Woolf chose this month to introduce...

Women writers item

April 1880

Virginia Woolf chose this month to introduce the Pargiter family in her novel The Years: the Victorian mother is on her deathbed, leaving some of her children still young.
Woolf, Virginia. The Years. Hogarth Press, 1979.
1, 21

1885: Regular classes began at Morley College in...

Building item

1885

Regular classes began at Morley College in London, a few years after Emma Cons leased the Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo Road, as a venue not just for clean variety shows and concerts but...

June 1889: Nineteenth Century published An Appeal against...

Building item

June 1889

Nineteenth Century published An Appeal against Female Suffrage by Mary Augusta Ward , signed by 103 other women.
Ward, Mary Augusta. “An Appeal Against Female Suffrage”. Nineteenth Century, Vol.
25
, June 1889, pp. 781-8.
Appeal
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
328

6 October 1891: Charles Parnell, Irish patriot, died at Brighton...

National or international item

6 October 1891

Charles Parnell , Irish patriot, died at Brighton in Sussex; Virginia Woolf used his death to date the second section in her novel The Years, 1937.
Woolf, Virginia. The Years. Hogarth Press, 1979.
94, 100, 103, 120-1, 123

1898: Gerald Duckworth (half-brother of Virginia...

Writing climate item

1898

Gerald Duckworth (half-brother of Virginia Woolf ) founded his own publishing house at Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
112: 103
Mumby, Frank Arthur, and Ian Norrie. Mumby’s Publishing and Bookselling in the Twentieth Century. 6th ed., Bell and Hyman, 1982.
56

Texts

Woolf, Virginia. “’Anon.’ and ’The Reader’”. Twentieth Century Literature, edited by Brenda Silver and Brenda Silver, Vol.
25
, No. 3/4, pp. 356-41.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Hogarth Press, 1929.
Woolf, Virginia, and Hermione Lee. A Room of One’s Own; and, Three Guineas. Chatto and Windus; Hogarth Press, 1984.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own; and, Three Guineas. Editor Shiach, Morag, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Woolf, Virginia. A Writer’s Diary. Editor Woolf, Leonard, Hogarth Press, 1953.
Woolf, Virginia. Between the Acts. Hogarth Press, 1941.
Woolf, Virginia. Between the Acts. Hogarth Press, 1981.
Woolf, Virginia. Carlyle’s House and Other Sketches. Editor Bradshaw, David, Hesperus, 2003.
Woolf, Virginia. “Dickens by a Disciple”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 897, p. 163.
Woolf, Virginia. Flush. Hogarth Press, 1933.
Lee, Hermione et al. “Foreword”. Hyde Park Gate News. The Stephen Family Newspaper, edited by Gill Lowe and Gill Lowe, Hesperus Press, 2005, p. vii - x.
Woolf, Virginia. “Frances Willard”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 568, p. 544.
Woolf, Virginia. Freshwater. Editor Ruotolo, Lucio, Hogarth Press, 1976.
Woolf, Virginia, and Virginia Woolf. “Geraldine and Jane”. The Second Common Reader, Hogarth Press, 1932, pp. 186-01.
Woolf, Virginia. Granite and Rainbow. Hogarth Press, 1958.
Woolf, Virginia et al. Hyde Park Gate News. The Stephen Family Newspaper. Editor Lowe, Gill, Hesperus, 2005.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction”. A Change of Perspective: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, 1923-1928, edited by Nigel Nicolson, Chatto and Windus, 1977, p. 3: xv - xxii.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction”. A Reflection of the Other Person: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, 1929-1931, edited by Nigel Nicolson, Chatto and Windus, 1978, p. 4: xiii - xxi.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction”. To the Lighthouse. The original holograph draft, edited by Susan Dick, University of Toronto Press, 1982, pp. 11-35.
McNeillie, Andrew, and Virginia Woolf. “Introduction”. The Common Reader, Annotated Edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984, p. ix - xv.
Woolf, Virginia et al. “Introduction”. Hyde Park Gate News. The Stephen Family Newspaper, edited by Gill Lowe, Hesperus Press, 2005, p. xi - xviii.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction; Editorial Note”. The Essays of Virginia Woolf, edited by Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 1994, pp. vols. 1 - 4: various pages.
Woolf, Virginia et al. “Introductory Letter”. Life as We Have Known It, by Co-operative Working Women, edited by Margaret Llewelyn Davies, Reprint ed., Virago, 1977, p. xvii - xxxxi.
Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Hogarth Press, 1922.
Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Hogarth Press, 1980.