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.
BW
sent to Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
something which was probably a draft version of her second volume of autobiography, published after her death as Our Partnership.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
4: 305
Textual Production
Gertrude Stein
Edith Sitwell
had hosted a tea for GS
when she came to lecture at Cambridge
and Oxford
earlier that year; in attendance were Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and Her Family. Rutgers University Press.
184
They had written on 11 June...
Textual Production
Willa Cather
In the 1920s WC
was working for a maximum of three hours a day, banishing her work from her mind during the rest of day, but keeping herself fresh for it. She said her only...
Textual Production
Edith Craig
Edith Craig appears in Clemence Dane
's play Eighty in the Shade as the dominant but dependent Blanche Carroll.
Theatre historian Julie Holledge
has suggested that Craig was the model for Virginia Woolf
Textual Production
Vernon Lee
Virginia
and Leonard Woolf
's Hogarth Press
published VL
's The Poet's Eye, Notes on Some Differences Between Verse and Prose.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
3: 283n2
Textual Production
Stella Benson
SB
's letter-writing kept her in touch with communities of writers and was a personal lifeline during her isolated years in China. Among her correspondents were Virginia Woolf
and Sydney Schiff
(Stephen Hudson). Some letters...
Textual Production
E. B. C. Jones
EBCJ
wrote the review for the Cambridge Magazine of Virginia Woolf
's Night and Day, 1919. According to Woolf, EBCJ
did not like the novel's characters, but found Woolf to be in the forefront...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Taylor
ET
published her fourth novel, A Wreath of Roses, with an epigraph from Woolf
's The Waves. It took her fifteen months to write, half as long again as her previous novels.
Leclercq, Florence. Elizabeth Taylor. Twayne.
41n10, 34
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books.
211
Textual Production
Flora Macdonald Mayor
FMM
's second major novel, The Rector's Daughter, appeared from the Hogarth Presson a commission basis, with the help of Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
43695 (4 July 1924): 10
Williams, Merryn. Six Women Novelists, Macmillan.
45
Textual Production
Doris Lessing
DL
also wrote such brief works of literary comment as a foreword for The Fox by D. H. Lawrence
, published by Hesperus
in 2002, and an article for the Guardian in June 2003 on...
Textual Production
Ethel Smyth
ES
broadcast Scrapbook for 1912: Scenes, Melodies and Personalities of 25 Years Ago; Virginia Woolf
listened in and enjoyed the programme.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
6: 113n2
Textual Production
Muriel Jaeger
MJ
's first novel, The Man with Six Senses, was published by Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
at the Hogarth Press
. It deals with human evolution towards abilities currently seen as paranormal.
Virginia Woolf's...
Textual Production
Rose Macaulay
Over the years, RM
published several dozen literary articles in a wide range of magazines, newspapers, and commemorative volumes. She wrote on past and contemporary literary figures, including Leslie Stephen
, Stella Benson
, Rebecca West