As she begins this diary, Virginia Woolf is almost thirty-three years old and still recuperating from an horrendous breakdown following the completion of her first novel, “The Voyage Out”, at the end of 1913; and that this is now, and belatedly, soon to be published. Both Virginia and Leonard are increasingly tormented by the war and all the ensuing repercussions upon their personal and professional lives. They are unsettled and struggling somewhat financially. Still, they continue socializing with friends and family, looking feverishly for a new abode (the nearby Hogarth House has become an option) and contemplating investing in a printing press. We also know that within weeks this diary will be abandoned as Virginia’s mental health again rapidly deteriorates.
Diary I: 1 January-15 February 1915
The Green, Richmond
Friday 1 January 1915: The first entry of what was to become the first volume of Virginia Woolf’s diary was written in the first New Year of the Great War (as it was then styled) at the lodgings overlooking The Green in Richmond; to which Virginia and Leonard had moved in 1914 to escape the hectic of London and in the interests of Virginia’s fragile constitution. Whether this personal writing endeavour was a resolution of sorts on Virginia Woolf’s own part, or a therapeutic one suggested perhaps by family, friend or doctor, is unclear.
But on this New Year’s day, and the eve before, her concerns, as they often will be, surround domestic staff and costs, and the weather, and always not far away-the war.
…Lily [says] she left because Mrs Hallett was ‘insulting’ to her…& Lily honestly meant no wrong…
…[wrote to] Mrs Waterlow about the chimney sweeping charges…tramped to the Co-ops. in rain & cold to protest against their bookkeeping…
…& found [on the way home] that the Formidable [British battleship] had been sunk in the channel…
Vol 1 [pp.3-4] The Diary of Virginia Woolf, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5 vols, Harcourt, 1977–84
Through January, Woolf makes substantial entries every day – so it seems this private enquiry into and unto herself was a serious matter to which she brought commitment. We meet for the first time some of the most important people in her life – Leonard and Vanessa and all of Vanessa’s men, and their lovers in turn (yes, it is complicated!) but also the Morrells, the Stracheys, Desmond MacCarthy, Maynard Keynes. Already, Woolf’s sharp intelligence and wit shine through in her “scribblings” (I don’t know, but I can imagine her calling them such!), but equally so her insecurities and prejudices; sometimes irrational and explained only by the fragile state of mind to which she was intermittently captive.
These early entries already suggest (more than suggest!) an ugly disposition towards, and discomfort with, ‘otherness’ – Leonard’s family is not spared Virginia Woolf’s blatantly anti-Semitic condescension, and the sight of obvious intellectual disability has her thinking out loud (or at least writing) of, what may be best described as, a drastic euthanasia solution. One can not help but wince at such vitriol, and no, I don’t believe everybody thought these things in 1915, but a look at this Wikipedia entry in respect to the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 affirms the public and governmental sentiments of the time, and that the language Woolf uses does not deviate from the norm. The most I can do then, is place her attitudes in the perspective of her time and circumstances, and exacerbated by her own illness. She is not to be let off the hook – mitigating in her favour only the fact that she after all marries and loves Leonard, a Jewish man and, in a different way granted, she is only too familiar with mental illness and its repercussions and as much as she contemplates the (un)worthiness of other lives so does she often that of her own.
There is an abundance of anecdote and gossip, trashing to the hilt, fun and games – a balm I suppose to the creeping effects of the War intruding upon every aspect of life. For instance, Sunday 17 January 1915, starting “unremarkably” Woolf tells us, evolves into something more when Marjorie Strachey comes to dine, and amidst much dithering confides of an illicit love affair with a married man – Jos Wedgwood, procured as she was by the Morrells – and all the complications of divorce and wife and seven children and the formidable Lady Strachey! [pp.20-22] A delight to read!
Monday 1 February 1915: The first day of February could have been just another day consumed with house hunting, specifically negotiating for the nearby Hogarth House, but the Woolfs went into London that day, and Virginia relates the walk she took across Green Park to Days book shop in Piccadilly, and we are reading for the first time the conscious thoughts that would inspire the opening pages of Mrs. Dalloway published ten years later. Not the geography and its inhabitants alone, but the frayed nerves of a people at war.
On the following day, in two brief sentences, VW communicates her bother again at having the Hogarth matter unresolved. The next entry is then on Saturday 13th February; and through to the Monday she talks of the weather – abysmal, walks and jaunts into London, of tea and concerts, chance meetings and visitors. Hogarth is not mentioned. And the war is casting its shadow.
Monday February 15th: The entry on this day, and the last we shall hear from Virginia Woolf for more than two years, ends thus:
…I bought a ten & eleven penny blue dress, in which I sit at this moment.
Vol 1 [p.35]
It is left to the editor to offer some information regarding the next two years. (See Vol 1 p.35 The Diary of Virginia Woolf, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5 vols, Harcourt, 1977–84) We are told that Virginia went to the dentist on the 17th February (always a traumatic affair for her) and that she and Leonard looked at a printing press on that same day. However, in the days to follow she became increasingly restless and unwell; soon to slide into this now familiar (to family and friends) state of “madness”. (I repeat the word “madness” here because that is the expression Olivier Bell uses – I am not clear on Woolf’s actual mental condition, but I do know there has been some research in this respect so I will try to investigate a little deeper. It should also be noted that these diaries were edited in the 1970s and some of Olivier Bell’s terminology should be received with that in mind.) Also it is known that Leonard signed a five-year lease on Hogarth House on 25th February, (Vol 1 p.33 footnote) and took possession on 25th March, and that Virginia joined him there shortly after. For many months she appears to have been in an incoherent, violent state and in need of constant care, and it was only towards the end of the year that she was able to return to a relatively normal life.
Through 1916, the Woolfs alternated between their new Richmond home and Asheham House in Sussex. In the absence of Virginia’s own voice, Hermione Lee’s terrific biography (Virginia Woolf, Vintage, London, 1997) is informative in respect to these years; for instance, Virginia’s gradual return to health and then to reviewing, Leonard’s (and other’s) trials and tribulations in respect to exemption from military service and a really interesting account of the Woolfs’ enthusiastic initial endeavours with printing and their growing expertise and ambitions.
In the Spring of 1917, after much vacillation, a printing press was finally purchased, and in the Summer the Woolfs produced their first publication under the Hogarth Press imprint before returning to Asheham. As Hermione Lee says in her biographical work: “Two Stories came out in July, costing 1s. 6d., with four (unsigned) woodcut illustrations commissioned from their new acquaintance, Slade art-student, Dora Carrington (who would earn 15s. from her work). The two stories were Leonard’s ‘Three Jews’, and Virginia’s ‘The Mark on the Wall’.” (Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf . Random House. Kindle Edition.)
The following entries are from the small notebook that Virginia kept during their stay at Asheham, from August through to the beginning of October, 1917.
Diary II: 3 August 1917-6 October 1918
Asheham House, Sussex.
Friday 3 August: “Came to Asheham…” begins Woolf’s modest late summer notebook which is substantially different to the subsequent ones; the entries are mostly brief, mostly not caustic, and nor does she appear to miss even a day. With Leonard often away for conferences, one may wonder whether, more than anything, this was an exercise in discipline. The subject matter mostly revolves around the weather, gardening, walks, bicycle and day excursions, and whilst (very) interesting visitors are mentioned (No fear, the dish on Katherine Mansfield is yet to come!), (very) little is exacerbated upon. There is no mention of either her reading or writing; be it by doctor’s orders or Leonard’s or of her own initiative. Here a few exemplary entries:
Friday 10 August: “L. up to Labour conference in London. Fine day again…to hills for blackberries…”
Saturday 18 August: “…Met K.M. [Katherine Mansfield] – her train very late. Bought 1 doz. Lily roots & some red leaved plants…”
Sunday 9 September: “…picnic at Firle in the afternoon. Nessa & 5 children came after we had done…Walked home over the downs. Red sky over the seas.”
Friday 28 September: ” …Bicycled to Charleston [Vanessa’s home]. Roger [Fry] there…”
Vol. 1 [pp.39-55]
On 5th October the Woolfs returned to Richmond, and Virginia begins a new book.