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.
The authors whom EB
wrote of for the British Council in English Novelists are (as the commission required) canonical and mostly male. She was deeply influenced by Virginia Woolf
, and wrote after Woolf's death...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Lavin
While working on her PhD dissertation on Virginia Woolf
, ML
heard someone speak of a recent visit with Woolf: it struck her forcibly that literature was after all not written by the dead.
Peterson, Richard F. Mary Lavin. Twayne.
20
Health
Frances Cornford
She claimed that although she felt healthy while pregnant, breast-feeding inclined her towards depression.
Cornford, Hugh et al. “Frances Cornford 1886-1960”. Selected Poems, edited by Jane Dowson and Jane Dowson, Enitharmon Press, p. xxvii - xxxvii.
xxxii
Her children later recalled her as invalidish and suffering from a lack of energy and robustness.
Cornford, Hugh et al. “Frances Cornford 1886-1960”. Selected Poems, edited by Jane Dowson and Jane Dowson, Enitharmon Press, p. xxvii - xxxvii.
xxxii
She required nurses...
Health
Jane Ellen Harrison
JEH
had been diagnosed with leukaemia by the summer of 1927. Mirrlees nursed her through this last illness.
Robinson, Annabel. The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison. Oxford University Press.
303-4
In February 1928 Virginia Woolf
met with Harrison for the last time. She described her in...
Friends, Associates
Violet Hunt
Among those who frequented VH
's house there were some to whom she became especially close. Her long friendship with Henry James
dated back to July 1882. Apart from an estrangement during the scandal over...
Friends, Associates
Gertrude Bell
Vita Sackville-West
stayed with GB
in Baghdad; during the visit she discussed Bell by letter with her friend Virginia Woolf
.
Howell, Georgina. Daughter of the Desert: the Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell. Macmillan.
502
Winstone, Harry Victor Frederick. Gertrude Bell. J. Cape.
In 1933 Vita Sackville-West
formally introduced CSJ
and Edith Craig
to Virginia Woolf
.Woolf was not as fascinated by St John as she was by Craig and Terry, and saw her as a burden on...
Friends, Associates
Hope Mirrlees
While living in Paris, Mirrlees and Harrison entertained visitors who included HM
's mother
(widowed in 1924), and Virginia
and Leonard Woolf
.
Robinson, Annabel. The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison. Oxford University Press.
This biography's four epigraphs include words from Dennis Gabor
, hoping that AH
will be remembered less for literary achievement than for his heritage to those who really care about the future of the human...
Cornford, Hugh et al. “Frances Cornford 1886-1960”. Selected Poems, edited by Jane Dowson and Jane Dowson, Enitharmon Press, p. xxvii - xxxvii.
xxxv
Friends, Associates
Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda
MHVR
corresponded with Virginia Woolf
about Three Guineas and the idea that the exclusion of women from decision-making positions had been the mainstay of sex-antagonism.
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press.