The fourth and final installment in our Women in Printing History.
To round out our discussion of Women in Printing History, let’s take a look at a woman better known for her writing than for her printing. What started for her and her husband as
The fourth and final installment in our Women in Printing History.
To round out our discussion of Women in Printing History, let’s take a look at a woman better known for her writing than for her printing. What started for her and her husband as a hobby turned into a fulltime publishing business. This Saturday, March 28, marks the 79th anniversary of her death.
Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882. After the death of her mother, Virginia experienced her first mental breakdown. She was only 13 years old. Two years later, her half-sister and a mother figure to her, passed. Ten years later, Virginia’s father, who encouraged her to begin writing professionally, passed away, and she once again suffered a mental breakdown.
Woolf was troubled by her mental illness throughout her life. These mental challenges, incidentally, were instrumental in her becoming a typesetter and printer.
The Founding of Hogarth Press
Virginia married Leonard Woolf in 1912. Leonard was a journalist, publicist, and writer on political topics. Early in March 1915, the couple moved to Hogarth House in Paradise Road.
In 1913, Virginia completed her first novel, The Voyage Out. The writing of this book, as with each book she wrote, left her in a state of extreme physical, mental, and nervous exhaustion. In September 1913, she attempted to take her own life. By the summer of 1914, she appeared to have fully recovered from her depression. In February 1915, however, there was another, more violent recurrence of the illness.