Virginia Woolf friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group. In 1912, Woolf married Leonard Woolf and in 1917 they founded the Hogarth Press, which published much of her work. The couple rented second homes in Sussex and moved there permanently in 1940. Throughout her life, Woolf was troubled by bouts of mental illness, which included being institutionalised and attempting suicide. Her illness is considered to have been bipolar disorder, for which there was no effective intervention at the time. Eventually in 1941 she committed suicide by putting rocks in her pockets and drowning herself in a river, at the age
Virginia Woolf turn allowed Woolf to engage in more experimental work, such as "The Waves", as Woolf had to be cautious when she depended upon Hogarth entirely for her income. In 1928, Woolf presented Sackville-West with "", a fantastical biography in which the eponymous hero's life spans three centuries and both sexes. It was published in October, shortly after the two women spent a week travelling together in France, that September. Nigel Nicolson, Vita Sackville-West's son, wrote, "The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in "Orlando", the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita,