Virginia Stephen was born January 25, 1882 in London to Leslie and Julia Prinsep Jackson Stephen. She was the third child of four children, plus there were three other children from Julia StephenÕs first marriage living in the house too. The large family resided in Hyde Park Gate where they enjoyed the comforts of Victorian life. Virginia was educated at home by her father, and, after his death in 1904, lived in Gordon Square, London which became the centre of the Bloomsbury group. At this time Virginia Stephen was teaching adult education classes in English literature and history at Morley College and in her spare time she wrote letters and became a freelance writer. In 1912 she met and married politician and journalist, Leonard Woolf. After marriage, Leonard, too, became a freelance man of letters and found himself accepting onerous tasks to make ends meet. In 1917, both Virginia and Leonard founded the Hogarth Press, which published most of her books. As a result, Virginia Woolf was quite prolific during her time and exulted in her diary in 1925, "I am the only woman in England free to write what I like." It also seems that Virginia Woolf was free to travel, having visited many countries throughout Europe.
1882. Born (25 Jan) Adeline Virginia Stephen, third child of Leslie Stephen (Victorian man of letters - first editor of the
Dictionary of national Biography) and Julia Duckworth. Comfortable upper middle class family. Brothers Thoby and Adrian, sister Vanessa. Virginia educated by private tutors and by extensive reading in her father's library.
1895. Death of her mother. Virginia has the first of many nervous breakdowns. Father later remarries.
1897. Death of half-sister, Stella. Virginia also starts to learn Greek.
1899. Brother Thoby enters Trinity College, Cambridge and subsequently meets Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, and Clive Bell. These Cambridge friends subsequently become known as the Bloomsbury Group, of which Virginia was an important and influential member.
1902. VirginiaÕs father receives knighthood.
1904. VirginiaÕs father, Leslie Stephen, dies. Beginning of second serious breakdown. VirginiaÕs first publication is an unsigned review in The Guardian. Travels in France and Italy. Then Virginia moves to Gordon Square.
1905. Travels in Spain and Portugal.
1906. Virginia does her writing, reviewing, and teaching at Morley College evening institute for working men and women. Travels in Greece. Death of brother Thoby Stephen.
1907. Marriage of sister Vanessa to Clive Bell. Virginia moves with brother Adrian to live in Fitzroy Square. Working on her first novel (to become The Voyage Out).
1908. Visits Italy with the Bells.
1909. Lytton Strachey proposes marriage to Virginia. She meets Ottiline Morell, visits Bayreuth and Florence.
1910. First exhibition of Post-Impressionist painters arranged by Roger Fry.
1911. Virginia moves to Brunswick Square, sharing house with brother Adrian, Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant, and Leonard Woolf. Travels to Turkey.
1912. Marries Leonard Woolf. Travels to Provence, Spain, and Italy. Moves to Clifford's Inn.
1913. Virginia is mentally ill and attempts suicide.
1915. Purchase of Hogarth House, Richmond. The Voyage Out published and well received. Bout of violent madness.
1917. Leonard and Virginia buy hand-printing machine and establish the Hogarth Press. First publication The Mark on the Wall. Later goes on to publish T.S. Eliot, Freud, and VirginiaÕs own books.
1920. Works on journalism and Jacob's Room.
1922. Jacob's Room published. Meets Vita-Sackville West with whom she has a brief love affair. Writing encouraged by E.M. Forster, Strachey, and Leonard Woolf.
1923. Visits Spain. Works on early version of Mrs Dalloway.
1924. Purchase of lease on house in Tavistock Square. Gives lecture that becomes 'Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown'.
1925. The Common Reader [essays] and Mrs Dalloway published. Major break with the traditional novel, its form and techniques.
1927. To the Lighthouse published. Travels to Sicily.
1928. Orlando published - a fantasy dedicated to and based upon the life of Vita Sackville-West and her love of her ancestral home at Knole, Sussex.
1929. A Room of One's Own published - essays on women's exclusion from literary history which have become of seminal importance in feminist studies. Travels to Berlin.
1931. The Waves - a novel composed of the thoughts of six characters which takes VirginiaÕs literary experimentation to its natural limits.
1932. Death of Lytton Strachey. Begins The Years.
1934. Death of Roger Fry. Rewrites The Years.
1936. Begins Three Guineas - a 'sequel' to A Room of One's Own.
1938. Three Guineas extends the feminist critique of patriarchy, militarism, and privilege started in A Room of One's Own.
1939. Moves to Mecklenburgh Square, but lives mainly at Monk's House.
1940. Biography Roger Fry published. London homes damaged/destroyed in blitz.
1941. Virginia completes Between the Acts, her last novel, then fearing the madness which she felt engulfing her again, filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse. [Her dates of 1882- 1941 are exactly those of James Joyce.]
