Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Virginia Woolf
-
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, 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.
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, 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.
Strachey, Julia, and Frances Partridge. Julia: A Portrait of Julia Strachey. Little, Brown.
43
Rendel, who had diverse skills and interests, was Virginia Woolf
's chief physician during...
Family and Intimate relationships
E. B. C. Jones
Lucas, at first a classicist, became both a scholar and critic of English and a creative writer. He was a member of the Apostles
society; his fellow-members were, according to Virginia Woolf
, amazed at...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Butts
Mary's brother, Anthony Bacon Drury Butts
(Tony) was eleven years her junior. He became a painter and also an author under the pen name William d'Arfey. Although MB
spoke affectionately of her brother, he...
Family and Intimate relationships
E. B. C. Jones
In 1926 Virginia Woolf
(perhaps in fun) had represented Topsy as murderously angry with anyone who failed to recognise the genius of that stiff little prig (but adorable man, I quite agree) her husband.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
6: 513
Family and Intimate relationships
Julia Frankau
Her daughter Joan (by marriage Joan Bennett
) became a university teacher and published books in the 1940s on George Eliot
and Virginia Woolf
.
Frankau, Reuben. Emails to Orlando about Julia Frankau, with attached bibliography.
Family and Intimate relationships
Vita Sackville-West
VSW
's growing romance with Virginia Woolf
, which had lasted for three years, produced a significant moment of intimacy
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
149
during a visit by Woolf to Long Barn.
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
149
Family and Intimate relationships
Lady Anne Clifford
LAC
was married, at midnight, to Richard Sackville
. Two days later, on his father's death, he became Earl of Dorset and she became mistress of Knole House.
This is the great house which...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ray Strachey
RS
's sister, Karin
, was one of the first Freudian psychoanalysts.
Strachey, Barbara. Remarkable Relations: The Story of the Pearsall Smith Women. Universe Books.
13
She became the first woman at Cambridge
to receive a Star, or Distinction, in Philosophy.
Strachey, Barbara. Remarkable Relations: The Story of the Pearsall Smith Women. Universe Books.
264
She married Adrian Stephen
, Virginia Woolf
's younger brother.
Strachey, Barbara. Remarkable Relations: The Story of the Pearsall Smith Women. Universe Books.
270
Family and Intimate relationships
Lady Anne Clifford
LAC
's father, George Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland
, was not only a land-owner but also a merchant-adventurer. From his most successful voyages he returned with cargoes of exotic produce and artefacts (as mentioned...
Family and Intimate relationships
Walter Pater
WP
was particularly close to his unmarried sisters. Both women were accomplished in their own right. The elder sister, Hester
, became known as a talented embroiderer and friend to Mary Augusta Ward
and Virginia Woolf
Family and Intimate relationships
Ethel Smyth
ES
met Virginia Woolf
; their friendship continued until Woolf's death in 1941.
Collis, Louise. Impetuous Heart: The Story of Ethel Smyth. William Kimber.
175
Family and Intimate relationships
Dora Carrington
DC
began a long friendship with Virginia Woolf
when she was summoned to Woolf's country home, Asheham, after breaking into the house with Barbara Hiles
and David Garnett
.
Gerzina, Gretchen. Carrington: A Life of Dora Carrington, 1893-1932. John Murray.
95-6
Family and Intimate relationships
Dora Carrington
DC
met her greatest love, the writer Lytton Strachey
, during a three-day stay at Asheham, the Sussex home of Virginia
(and Leonard) Woolf
.
This was a year which in Virginia Woolf's life was...
Family and Intimate relationships
Constance Garnett
David married twice and had four children by the time of his mother's death. His first wife, Ray Garnett
, was an artist and illustrator. His second wife, Angelica Bell
, was the daughter of...
Fictionalization
Violet Trefusis
In addition to her role in Challenge, VT
appeared in several creative pieces by others. The most famous example is Virginia Woolf
's Orlando, which reimagines VT
as the seductive Princess Sasha, who...
Timeline
1964: When Julia Ballam (an undergraduate at St...
Building item
1964
When Julia Ballam
(an undergraduate at St Hilda's College, Oxford
, who later became the scholar Julia Briggs) got pregnant, the college stripped her of her scholarship, but more remarkably for this date they did...
December 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize...
Writing climate item
December 1964
Jean-Paul Sartre
was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature but declined to accept it for personal and ideological reasons: the only person ever to do so.
1968: V. S. Pritchett, whose career as a prolific...
Writing climate item
1968
V. S. Pritchett
, whose career as a prolific man of letters ran from the early 1920s into the twenty-first century, issued his most successful book, A Cab at the Door, the earlier volume...
September 1998: Literary historian Nicola Beauman founded...
Women writers item
September 1998
Literary historian Nicola Beauman
founded Persephone Books
, aimed at reprinting in beautiful format forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers.
13 July 2006: A rare book sale at Sotheby's brought under...
Writing climate item
13 July 2006
A rare book sale at Sotheby's
brought under the hammer both a First Folio of the works of Shakespeare
and a copy of the first edition of Woolf
's Orlando inscribed to Vita Sackville-West
.
April 2016: A bot, or Twitter account programmed to issue...
Writing climate item
April 2016
A bot, or Twitter
account programmed to issue a piece of writing divided into fragments of 140 characters or less, entitled Sappho
@sapphobot, was launched this month and became Twitter's most popular poetry bot (apart from...
Texts
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Hogarth Press, 1982.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. The original holograph draft. Editor Dick, Susan, University of Toronto Press, 1982.
Woolf, Virginia, and Leonard Woolf. Two Stories. Hogarth Press, 1917.
Woolf, Virginia, and Michèle Barrett. Women and Writing. Women’s Press, 1979.