Virginia Woolf (1882– 1941)

Fragile, at 24, already an orphan, her brother dies suddenly. He was her connection with the outside world and had introduced her and her sister to their future husbands. They belonged to the intellectual group “Bloomsbury”, whose core had been formed in Cambridge and which she would become an important player for.  A series of conferences in Cambridge, addressed to young women, will inspire “A Room of One’s Own”, published in 1929. Throughout her life, close relationships with friends and family will bring her support and exchange of ideas, despite her chronic depression. 

As Virginia Woolf puts it, “Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers.”