The Diary of Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Edited by Anne Olivier Bell

Thursday 3 January 1918: The diary habit has come to life at Charleston. Bunny [Garnett] sat up late on the Old Year’s night writing, and Duncan [Grant] came back with a ledger, bought in Lambs Conduit Street. The sad thing is that we daren’t trust each other to read our books; they lie, like vast consciences, in our most secret drawers.

Volume 1:

1915–1919, with a foreword by Virginia Nicholson

978 1 78378 866 8

virginia nicholson

is the author of six books of social history and President of the Charleston Trust.

Volume 2:

1920–1924, with a foreword by Adam Phillips

978 1 78378 869 9

adam phillips is a psychoanalyst and essayist. His most recent book is The Cure for Psychoanalysis.

Volume 3:

1925–1930, with a foreword by Olivia Laing

978 1 78378 872 9

olivia laing is a writer and critic, whose most recent book is Everybody: A Book About Freedom. ‘As an account of the intellectual and cultural life of [the 20th century] Woolf’s diaries are invaluable; as the record of one bruised and unquiet mind, they are unique’ Peter Ackroyd, Sunday Times

‘More alive than most living voices… On every page, the sharp twin edges of intelligence and abnormally acute senses make their impress’ Claire Tomalin

Volume 4:

1931–1935, with a foreword by Margo Jefferson

978 1 78378 875 0

margo jefferson

is an American cultural critic, writer and author of two memoirs: Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System.

Volume 5:

1936–1941, with a foreword by Siri Hustvedt

978 1 78378 878 1

siri hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist, whose most recent essay collection is Mothers, Fathers and Others.

DIARIES, LETTERS & JOURNALS / AUTOBIOGRAPHY

£25.00 June Royal 234 × 153mm 496pp (TBC) Serial and audio rights

New editions of the complete diaries of Virginia Woolf, introduced by a stellar line-up of contemporary writers: Virginia Nicholson, Adam Phillips, Olivia Laing, Margo Jefferson and Siri Hustvedt.

Between 1915 (when she was 33) to the end of her life in 1941, Woolf kept a fairly regular journal, recording both the activities of her daily life, the weather and the world around her, as well as her observations on art, literature, politics and people. At times, these entries read like initial sketches for her published works; at others, they have the intimacy and candour of a letter to a friend; and always, they offer a dash of quicksilver impressions that capture the texture of her existence in that particular moment.

Since they were first published over 40 years ago, these volumes have attained the status of classics. These new Granta editions are published unexpurgated for the first time, and each one features a specially commissioned foreword.

virginia woolf (1882–1941) is recognised as one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century, best known for her novels Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.

anne olivier bell (1916–2018) edited the diaries of Virginia Woolf, publishing them in five volumes starting in 1977.