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.
DR
was said (by Woolf herself) to be working on a study of Virginia Woolf
's writings: since no such study ever appeared, and Richardson did not greatly admire Woolf's texts, this was likely a...
Textual Production
Pat Barker
In the title of her novel Toby's Room, PB
signalled unmistakably its relationship to an earlier novel about the First World War and the loss of a brother, Virginia Woolf
's Jacob's Room, published in 1922.
Lee, Hermione. “The greater truths of war”. Guardian Weekly, pp. 38-9.
38
Textual Production
Christina Stead
In 1972 CS
spent three painful months over a commission to review Quentin Bell
's life of Virginia Woolf
. She found many aspects and supposed aspects of Woolf repugnant: her alleged lack of appreciation...
Textual Production
Maggie Gee
MG
made a swerve away from realism in her next novel, Virginia Woolf
in Manhattan, which is in large part set out in dialogue like a play.
Woolmer, J. Howard, and Mary E. Gaither. A Checklist of the Hogarth Press, 1917-1946. Woolmer/Brotherson.
25
Textual Production
Sir J. M. Barrie
SJMB
also wrote introductions for and reviews of the work of others. Virginia Woolf
reproved him for his high opinion of middle-brow novelist Leonard Merrick
, for whom he wrote an introduction in 1918,
Woolf, Virginia. The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Editors McNeillie, Andrew and Stuart Nelson Clarke, Hogarth Press.
2: 265ff
Textual Production
Rosamond Lehmann
RL
's Letter to a Sister was published by Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
at the Hogarth Press
as the third in their Hogarth Letters Series.
Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus.
132-3
Woolmer, J. Howard. A Checklist of the Hogarth Press, 1917-1938. Hogarth Press.
91
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Violet Trefusis
VT
published Broderie Anglaise, a roman à clef written in French and based partly on reconsideration of the web of relationships linking herself, Vita Sackville-West
, and Virginia Woolf
.
Glendinning, Victoria, and Violet Trefusis. “Introduction”. Broderie Anglaise, translated by. Barbara Bray and Barbara Bray, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
v
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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
Elizabeth Bowen
She was only beginning it on 6 January; Virginia Woolf
had her advance copy by early June.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
5: 360, 400
Textual Production
Christine Brooke-Rose
After Textermination, she felt blocked in her production of fiction, and attempted an autobiography as an exercise,
Brooke-Rose, Christine. Invisible Author: Last Essays. Ohio State University Press.
55
although she claimed to feel a deep prejudice against both autobiography and biographical criticism.
Brooke-Rose, Christine. Invisible Author: Last Essays. Ohio State University Press.
53
She...
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Mary Agnes Hamilton
Mary Agnes Hamilton
published Special Providence: A Tale of 1917; either this or Hamilton's previous novel must be the one which Virginia Woolf
read this month and stringently criticised.
Carew, Dudley. “Special Providence”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 1470, p. 294.
294
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Editors Bell, Anne Olivier and Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press.
3: 296
Textual Production
Dora Carrington
In June 1919, Virginia Woolf
wrote to Carrington about her plans for Round House, where one of the chief decorations is going to be a large showpiece by Carrington, found in an attic at...
