July 05, 2024

Virginia Woolf Biography, Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Wiki & More

Updated On : January 17, 2019

Short Biography

Virginia Woolf was born on 25-01-1882 in Kensington, London, United Kingdom. She was an English Writer, Novelist, Essayist, Publisher, Critic, Biographer, Author & Memoirist.

Other Name: Adeline Virginia Woolf, Adeline Virginia Stephen
Other Professions: Novelist Essayist Publisher Critic Biographer Author Memoirist

Virginia Woolf Complete Bio & Career

Virginia Wolf was born as Adeline Virginia Stephen. From the time of her birth until 1895, Woolf spent her summers in St. Ives, a beach town at the very southwestern tip of England. The Stephens’ summer home, Talland House, which is still standing today, looks out at the dramatic Porthminster Bay and has a view of the Godrevy Lighthouse, which inspired her writing.
 
As a young girl, Virginia was curious, light-hearted and playful. She started a family newspaper, the Hyde Park Gate News, to document her family’s humorous anecdotes. However, early traumas darkened her childhood, including being sexually abused by her half-brothers George and Gerald Duckworth, which she wrote about in her essays A Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate. In 1895, at the age of 13, she also had to cope with the sudden death of her mother from rheumatic fever, which led to her first mental breakdown, and the loss of her half-sister Stella, who had become the head of the household, two years later.
 
Several years before marrying Leonard, Virginia had begun working on her first novel. The original title was Melymbrosia. After nine years and innumerable drafts, it was released in 1915 as The Voyage Out. A year after the end of World War I, the Woolfs purchased Monk's House, a cottage in the village of Rodmell in 1919, and that same year Virginia published Night and Day, a novel set in Edwardian England. Her third novel Jacob's Room was published by Hogarth in 1922. In 1925, Woolf received rave reviews for Mrs. Dalloway, her fourth novel. The mesmerizing story interweaved interior monologues and raised issues of feminism, mental illness and homosexuality in post-World War I England. Mrs. Dalloway was adapted into a 1997 film, starring Vanessa Redgrave, and inspired The Hours, a 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham and a 2002 film adaptation. In 1929, Woolf published A Room of One's Own, a feminist essay based on lectures she had given at women's colleges, in which she examines women's role in literature.
 
Throughout her career, Woolf spoke regularly at colleges and universities, penned dramatic letters, wrote moving essays and self-published a long list of short stories. By her mid-forties, she had established herself as an intellectual, an innovative and influential writer and pioneering feminist.

Health Issues, Illness and Death Info

Virgina Woolf died on 28-03-1941 in Lewes, England, United Kingdom at the age of 59. She commited Suicide. 

DEATHDAY 28 March,1941 (Thursday)
DEATH PLACE Lewes, England
DEATH COUNTRY United Kingdom

Virginia Woolf Family, Relatives and Other Relations

She was born to Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Stephen. She had three siblings named Adrian, Vanessa, and Thoby. She also had four half-siblings named George, Stella, Gerald Duckworth, and Laura Makepeace Stephen.

Life's Important Dates Of Virginia Woolf

Body Measurements

Skin Colour White
Eye Colour Brown
Hair Colour Black

Personal Info

Home Town Middlesex
Nationality British
Address Sussex, England
School Home-Schooled
College King's College, London
Qualification N/A
Hobbies Writing
Marital Status Married
Debut First Novel - The Voyage Out (1915)
Best Works Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, The Waves

Shocking / Interesting Facts & Secrets About Virginia Woolf

  • Virginia's mother died when she was 13, and her sister two years after that, leading to the first of her nervous breakdowns.
  • When her father died in 1904 Virginia was institutionalized briefly due to her emotional state.
  • Virginia Woolf's first published novel was The Voyage Out, in 1915. Her half-brother's imprint, called Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd. published the novel.
  • On her 136th birthday, Google honoured her with a doodle.

Virginia Woolf Age, Birthday Facts and Birthday Countdown

Virginia Woolf was 59 years 2 months & 3 days old age.