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.
When ST
's parents and Leslie Stephen
tried to nurture a childhood friendship between Susan, Vanessa
(later Bell), and Virginia
(later Woolf), the relationship never took root. As an adult, however (having admired Woolf's early...
Friends, Associates
Aldous Huxley
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...
Friends, Associates
Ling Shuhua
Other authors with connections to Bloomsbury were drawn to Wuhan: W. H. Auden
and Christopher Isherwood
visited the campus on 22 April 1938 during their longer trip on which they wrote about the Sino-Japanese...
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
Violet Trefusis
VT
had tea in London with Virginia Woolf
(whom she was hoping to persuade to publish her first novel written in English, Tandem). It appeared next year from Heinemann
.
Souhami, Diana. Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter. Flamingo.
256
Friends, Associates
Ling Shuhua
Like her exchanges with Vanessa Bell
, LS's letters to and from Woolf
included reflections about their personal lives and their larger literary and political worlds. She sought Woolf's guidance: Will you allow me to...
Grant, Joy. Stella Benson: A Biography. Macmillan.
254, 255
Friends, Associates
Enid Bagnold
Bagnold's biographer Anne Sebba
writes that try as [EB
] might to belong to the artists' milieu, she could not release her other foot from the smart set.
Sebba, Anne. Enid Bagnold: The Authorized Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
148
Bagnold's friends included socialist...
Friends, Associates
Ray Strachey
After her return from Bryn Mawr in 1909, Ray Costelloe (later RS
) stayed with her friend Ellie Rendel
(whose mother was an elder sister of Lytton Strachey
) at the Stracheys' home in Hampstead...
Friends, Associates
Dorothy Brett
Brett moved in various distinct social circles. Augustus John
was an admired acquaintance. Virginia Woolf
, a friend, nevertheless commented in 1921 on Brett being one of the entourage of Lady Ottoline Morrell
, and...
Friends, Associates
Violet Trefusis
VT
was gathering material for her upcoming roman à clef, Broderie Anglaise, about herself, Vita Sackville-West
, and Woolf
(with whom Vita had been intimately involved for several years). Woolf wrote about the meeting...
Friends, Associates
Ling Shuhua
Through her first Bloomsbury connections, LS developed working friendships with Leonard Woolf
and Vita Sackville-West
: Woolf extended his late wife
's encouragement of LS's writing and ultimately published her memoir, Ancient Melodies, with...