1882

Adeline Virginia Stephen born in London on January 25 to Leslie Stephen, statesman and man of letters, and Julia Duckworth Stephen. Her father had one (insane) daughter* from a previous marriage, her mother three children from an earlier marriage; together they had four more children: Vanessa, Julian Thoby, Virginia and Adrian. Virginia educated at home by her parents.

Julia Stephen dies; Leslie Stephen goes into deep mourning; Virginia has a severe mental breakdown. Household run by Julia's daughter Stella Duckworth, who postpones her marriage until Vanessa is old enough to take over.

Stella Duckworth marries, becomes pregnant, and dies.

Leslie Stephen knighted.

Death of Sir Leslie Stephen in 1904. Virginia has a second mental breakdown, and tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. Vanessa, Thoby, Virginia and Adrian move to Bloomsbury. Virginia publishes first essays; soon becomes a regular book reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. She also teaches at an evening college for working men and women.

The four Stephens travel to Greece, where Vanessa and Thoby become ill; Thoby dies of typhoid fever at age of 26.

Vanessa Stephen marries critic Clive Bell; Virginia and Adrian room together near the Bells.

First post-Impressionist Exhibition, engineered by Virginia's friend, critic and art historian Roger Fry. She later wrote that "in or about December, 1910, human character changed." Gradual gathering of "Bloomsbury Group," comprising such people as Lytton Strachey, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Desmond MacCarthy, John Maynard Keynes and E.M. Forster *.

Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf on August 10, 1912. she has third mental breakdown, which lasts for three years. During this time she completes novel, The Voyage Out (originally titled Melymbrosia), but its publication is delayed by breakdown, and the war which is declared on August 4, 1914. Finally published in 1915 by her half-brother, Gerald Duckworth. Woolf begins diary.

The Woolfs buy a secondhand printing press, and set up the Hogarth Press in the basement. Later, the press will publish T.S.Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, Freud, Gorky and all of Woolf's novels and writings.

The war ends, November 11.

Publishes novel, Night and Day, with Gerald Duckworth; and collections of shortstories with Hogarth Press.

Publishes Monday or Tuesday, short fiction, with Hogarth Press. From this time, all her books will be published by the press.

Publishes Jacob's Room.

Publishes Mrs Dalloway and The Common Reader, a collection of essays. The Hogarth Press moves from the Woolf's basement in Richmond to London.

Publishes To the Lighthouse.

Publishes Orlando, a fictional "biography" of Woolf's friend, and possibly, lover, Vita Sackville-West.

Publishes book-length feminist essay, A Room of One's Own.

Publishes The Waves.

Publishes The Common Reader: Second Series.

Publishes Flush, a "biography" of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel.

Produces Freshwater, A Comedy in Three Acts for her friends.

Publishes The Years. Nephew Julian Bell killed in the Spanish Civil War.

Publishes pacifist, feminist essay, Three Guineas.

War declared on September 3; the Woolfs prepare to commit suicide if England invaded.

Publishes Roger Fry: A Biography. Completes draft of Between the Acts. During Battle of Britain, London home destroyed by bombs.

At the onset of another mental breakdown, which she fears will be permanent, Virginia Woolf fills her pockets with stones and drowns herself in the River Ouse on March 28, leaving suicide notes for her husband and sister. Her husband Leonard publishes various essays, short stories, letters and diaries of hers, as well as several autobiographies which detail their life together.

Leonard Woolf dies.

(from Virginia Woolf ed. by Harold Bloom , Chelsea House Publishers, 1986)

Cf.

• Thackeray Genealogy
  
• Virginia Woolf's Psychiatric History by Malcolm Ingram
  
• Bipolar Disorder & Manic Depression Information
  
• A Ward of One's Own: The Madness of Virginia Woolf
  

• Women History Calendar
  
• January 25 & January 25 (Literary Hyper-Calendar)
  
• March 28 & On 28 March [IMDb]
  
• Multimedia Yearbook for 1941
  

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Vanessa Stephen (1876-1961): painter, m. Clive Bell

Julian Bell (1908-37)
Quentin Bell (1910-1996): writer, artist, art historian
Angelica Bell (b.1918): m. David Garnett

Hogarth Press

begun in March 1917 by Leonard Woolf to provide his wife with a therapeutic interest. The name was taken from the Woolf's home at that time in Richmond. The first printing was done on a small hand-press*, the Woolfs buying a mechanical press before they undertook the production of works by Katherine Mansfield and T.S. Eliot. The press was moved to 52 Tavistock Square in 1924, to 37 Mecklenburgh Square in 1939 and, after the bombing of 1940, to Letchworth. R. Partiridge (1920-3), G. Rylands (1924), A. Davidson (1924-7), J.Lehmann (1931-2 and 1938-46) all sought to work with Woolf, but found him a difficult colleague. Chatto and Windus absorbed Hogarth in 1946. ( from Who' who in Bloomsbury, by Alan & Veronica Palmer)
* You can see this commemorable machine at the Tower of Sissinghurst Castle now.

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