Virginia Woolf author page

Virginia Woolf biography

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was an English novelist, essayist and critic. She was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on 25 January 1882 in London, the daughter of Leslie Stephen, a historian and editor, and Julia Stephen. She was educated at home and had access to her father’s extensive library, which shaped her literary development.

Woolf was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, an influential circle of writers, artists and thinkers. She is considered one of the most important modernist authors of the twentieth century, noted for her innovative use of stream-of-consciousness narrative and psychological depth.

Her major works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and The Waves (1931). She also wrote influential essays such as A Room of One’s Own (1929), which argued for women’s access to education, financial independence and creative opportunity.

Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf founded the Hogarth Press in 1917, which published works by leading modernist writers including T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster and Sigmund Freud.

Virginia Woolf died on 28 March 1941 in Sussex. Her works continue to be studied widely and remain central to discussions of literature, feminism and modernism.