The Virginia Poems

Here is the life of Virginia Woolf, from her late Victorian childhood writing to her soft toys in the nursery at 22 Hyde Park Gate, through her fame as a novelist, to her last despairing days at Monk's House as World War II raged, set in poems, as in her voice. It is as if Virginia were talking to us from a stage, in a one woman play, playing her remarkable self. The poems chronicle her colorful life-her relationships with her exacting father and beautiful mother, her sister, the painter, Vanessa Bell, her ever-supportive husband, Leonard Woolf, her love of Vita Sackville-West and friendships with Lytton Strachey and Katherine Mansfield, her passion for her beloved Cornwall seacoast, and for the great city of London, the sheer hard grind of writing, the birth of her modernist novels, the glow and pitfalls of fame, aging, the war years, her final gallant fight against depression.

Dip into any poem or read straight through to experience episodes from an exceptional life. Each poem vibrantly captures Woolf's personal reflections, yet each has a universal resonance-the void left after a mother's death, the loneliness of a love extinguished, the deep satisfaction of a day well lived-and each poem is enriched with a quotation from Woolf's diaries, letters or novels that inspired it. From cover to cover this is a narrative of the fascinating life of a literary giant. A splendid collection for newcomers to Woolf to discover her rich life, and past admirers to reacquaint, remember and savor.

-Brett Warren, author, The Map of Unseen Things

-Bill Walker, former manager, McGraw-Hill Book Clubs

-Alice van Buren Kelley, author, The Novels of Virginia Woolf: Fact and Vision

-Alice Kociemba, author, Bourne Bridge