The Diary

The Diary of Virginia Woolf, encompassing the years 1915 until her death in 1941 and edited by Anne Olivier Bell, was published by Harcourt in five volumes between 1979 and 1985; the bibliographic details are as follows.

  • Anne Olivier Bell, ed. (1979). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 1: 1915–1919. ISBN 978-0156260367.
  • Anne Olivier Bell, ed.(1980). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 2: 1920–1924. ISBN 978-0140052831.
  • Anne Olivier Bell, ed. (1981). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 3: 1925–1930. ISBN 978-0156260381.
  • Anne Olivier Bell, ed. (1983). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 4: 1931–1935. ISBN 978-0156260398.
  • Anne Olivier Bell, ed. (1985). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 5: 1936–1941. ISBN 978-0156260404.

As I write, with the exception of Volume 5, the diary may be borrowed and/or read at the Internet Archive (see direct links below). When, and if, a copy of the last volume becomes available I’ll add the link; bringing to an end as it does the living and breathing Virginia Woolf, it is essential reading – to read her own writing down and winding up of those final years was one of the most moving reading experiences of my life, but I return gladly again and again because, even as a life fades, it teems still with life. I can only think that, whatever Woolf’s state of mind, the answer to that contradiction lay in her rare gift to transform observation and reflection into words so real and vibrant that they transcend mortal time. In the NYT archive are excerpts from the time of publication in 1984.

For a quicker read, A Writer’s Diary – being extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf, edited by Leonard Woolf and published in 1953, is also available at the Archive (and also includes entries from those final years). I have only browsed this collection but, Elizabeth Bowen, who became a friend of Woolf’s during the 1930s, reviewed it for the NYT upon the US publication in 1954. (A rather messy review it is, or has it been abbreviated?) Interesting, is that Bowen echoes the oft stated criticism; that Leonard’s selection was far from satisfactory and perhaps too tainted by his own sensibilities. To this end, one must be forever grateful again to Anne Olivier Bell and her fine editorial work a quarter of a century later.

The Editor

Invited by the copyright holders to edit the diary, Anne Olivier Bell brought unique qualifications to the task. Married to Virginia Woolf’s nephew (and biographer), Quentin Bell, she lived in that part of Sussex identifiable with Virginia and her sister and friends, and assisted her husband with the documentation and research necessary for his 1972 biography. And, it should be said, she was born into and grew up in a London milieu not dissimilar to that of the extended Stephens, Woolfs, and friends.

Olivier Bell died last year at 102 years of age; the very last person having, though indirectly, a connection with “Bloomsbury”. Her own life was, of course, much more; exceptional in its own right, and this Guardian obituary describes some of its facets: studying opera in Germany, drama in London, then art history (she was a so-called Monument “Man” after the war!).

Beware of, and then embrace, the footnotes! Rather than distract, Anne Olivier Bell’s copious annotations enhance the adventure of sharing just a little in this most legendary of inner lives – that of a woman called Virginia Woolf, and the world in which she lived and worked.

My Reading and reflection

I take now the opportunity to return – intermittently, and as time allows – to these volumes and contemplate them again, and put together some personal reflections and make all the connections I certainly didn’t the first time round. But just as much as the endless parade of fabulous people, the extraordinary times, all the drama and gossip; for anyone who has read Woolf’s literary work, the diary is also an invaluable insight into her writing process (and thought processes), and to be appreciated as the private space in which she continued to hone her skills as a writer and sharpen the tools of her craft, even after her success and fame were assured.

Anne Olivier Bell explains in her preface to the first volume, that Virginia Stephen, to become Virginia Woolf with her marriage to Leonard Woolf in 1912, kept journals and records in various forms from as earlier as 1897 as a fifteen year old. Published in 1990 in a collection called A Passionate Apprentice – The Early Journals 1897-1909, these are interesting and peculiarly inadequate. And we are denied VW’s immediate reflections of the interim years – which would have included the absolute heyday of “Bloomsbury” and all those people and happenings in its midst – Clive and Vanessa, Roger Fry and Post-Impressionism, the Omega Workshops, amongst other things. For much of the pre-World War I years we are dependent on Woolf’s (abundant) correspondence.

As mentioned above, Leonard Woolf published selected extracts in A Writer’s Diary in 1953, but it was not until after his death in 1969 that Virginia’s diaries, belatedly and so tentatively started but to then accompany her a life long, entered into the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.

The actual manuscripts held in the Berg Collection total thirty and, collated in various forms of notebook or loose-leaf, are enumerated in roman numerals accordingly. I will follow this convention as described by the editor in Appendix 1 of Vol. 1 (p.321 The Diary of Virginia Woolf, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5 vols, Harcourt, 1977–84p321), including also the location where they were written. For instance, the notebooks numbered I -VIII are included in Vol. 1 and were written in Richmond and Sussex. Further, my page references are taken from the trade (paper back) Harcourt copies that I own, and may vary dependent upon editions.

Sometimes I do get muddled in the midst of my rambling through this extraordinary life as it is being lived; as being told by she, the subject. It is then that I must flee elsewhere for reconciliation or clarification on some point of interest, and that is often to be found in Hermione Lee’s excellent biography [Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf, Knopf, 1997]. And, this a work I highly recommend. Fortunately, I also have a digital version; a terrific resource for a quick dive and cross referencing [Kindle Edition, Vintage Digital pub.].

The following page links – also accessible over the menu – will be updated over time; perhaps considerable time! This, after all, is an anything but ordinary internal life that we have been gifted, and I am one just trying to muddle through a very ordinary one indeed!

2nd July 2023: A review by Hermione Lee has alerted me to a new publication of the diary by Granta – see my embedded post below.

The Diary of Virginia Woolf – a book for the ages …