Virginia Woolf

Legacy: the Artists Behind the Legends

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, critic, and publisher active during the first half of the 20th century best known for her impact on the Modernist Movement, turning her into a pioneer for both feminist literary works and female rights altogether. In a time of dramatic changes, Woolf’s nonlinear approach to her narratives made her a household name amongst her contemporaries, and she consistently experimented with the written word throughout the entirety of her career. However, underneath her more public persona with friends and acquaintances, one often described as lively and witty, Virginia battled with waves of deep onset depression that many now consider to have been the result of bipolar disorder, and until her death knowledge of her condition was known only amongst those closest to her. Still, for the majority of her life, Woolf was able to persevere and work through these highs and lows and produce a substantial amount of work, novels such as Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One’s Own. She fiercely advocated to tear down the various male institutions meant to oppress and deny women their right to have an education and become professionals themselves, pushing for an egalitarian mindset that she firmly believed would better society as a whole. Though she never had children, Virginia was happily married to her husband Leonard, and together they ran their own successful publishing house called Hogarth Press out of the basement of their home, and in times of darkness for Virginia, the couple would spend their time in the countryside, where Woolf would devote hours writing in recovery. It wasn’t until I started researching Virginia Woolf that I realized the immense impact she had not just on her generation, but on generations of women and men alike to come. She was a bright spark of inspiring feminism, a dynamic and gifted writer, and a woman who stood firmly in defiance of the binding, patriarchal constructs around her. Are we ready to meet Virginia?