Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 in London, England. She was not given a formal education and benefited from observing her father’s writing abilities. Virginia’s mother died when she was thirteen. This caused the first of several mental breakdowns Virginia would have throughout her life.

Virginia Woolf started to work as a tutor at Morley College in 1904 and wrote reviews for some books. Her reviews were published in the “Times Literary Supplement”. In 1095 she started meeting with friends to discuss literary and artistic topics. This group of people would later become knows as the Bloomsbury Group. Virginia Woolf also became a member of the People’s Suffrage Federation and of the Women’s Co-operative Guild. In 1912, Virginia married Leonard Woolf who was a writer. One year later, Virginia suffered a severe mental break down. Her husband helped her to live through it.

In 1915, her first novel “The Voyage Out” was published. Both Virginia and her husband were very interested in literature. Together they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917. The novel “Night and Day” appeared in 1919 and in 1922 “Jakob’s Room” was published. In 1925 followed “Mrs. Dalloway “, “To the Lighthouse” (1927) and in “The Waves“(1931). Virginia Woolf also published a series of non-fiction books. “A Room of One’s Own”, appeared in 1929. This book would become an important book in the history of feminism. In her book “Three Guineas”, Virginia Woolf once again covered the theme of women’s liberation.

In 1941, Virginia completed her novel “Between the Acts”. This would become her last novel. Throughout her life, Virginia Woolf battled depression. On March 28, 1941 she committed suicide by drowning herself. In her life she had published over 500 essays and about ten novels. Virginia Woolf did not use the traditional writing styles of her time. During her lifetime, Virginia had become a leader in the modernist literary movement.