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.
JS
married sculptor Stephen Tomlin
at St Pancras Church
in London. Virginia Woolf
and other Bloomsbury friends were among the guests.
Strachey, Julia, and Frances Partridge. Julia: A Portrait of Julia Strachey. Little, Brown.
108
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
Sarah Trimmer
Their second daughter, Sarah known as Selina
, taught the younger ones and also some neighbour children.
Yarde, Doris M. Sarah Trimmer of Brentford and her Children, with Some of her Early Writings 1780-1786. Hounslow and District History Society.
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...
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
Dora Carrington
Woolf
recalled their first conversation to Garnett
: It flatters us a good deal to see what a reputation for a temper we've got. I telephoned to Miss Carrington, and heard her quake at the...
Family and Intimate relationships
Dorothy Bussy
Dorothy's immediate family was large and vibrant: she had nine surviving siblings, most of whom distinguished themselves in the public realm. Her sister Philippa (Pippa) Strachey
(1872-1968) was a longtime suffragist who organized the first...
Family and Intimate relationships
Dora Carrington
As part of a suicide watch around Carrington organized by her friends, Virginia
and Leonard Woolf
visited her at Ham Spray on 10 March. Virginia
later wrote in her diary: She burst into tears &...
(Joan) Pernel Strachey
(1876-1951) was Tutor, Lecturer in Modern Languages, Vice-Principal, and then from 1923 to 1941 Principal of Newnham College
. She hosted Virginia Woolf
in October 1928 when Woolf addressed the Newnham Arts Society
Family and Intimate relationships
Sybille Bedford
Since the first attempt had been prevented by Home Office
suspicion that SB
was an undesirable foreign prostitute taking this means to begin plying her trade in Britain, the best man on the second occasion...
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
Marghanita Laski
The political theorist Harold Laski
was ML
's uncle. Laski, a professor at the London School of Economics, was the best-known socialist intellectual of his era. His books on the Second World War, the...