Becoming Virginia Woolf is the first extensive treatment of Woolf’s early diaries. Her first 12 diary books are explored in depth and her development as a diarist traced. The book offers close readings of each of the 12 diaries: (1) as a work of art in itself; (2) as it relates to Woolf’s other early diaries; and (3) as it intersects with her public works (letters and published essays, reviews, fiction, and nonfiction.) This method lays bare, not only Woolf’s development as a diarist, but also—an extra dividend—as a public writer. It shows how she becomes the writer so widely revered today. Be ... More

Becoming Virginia Woolf is the first extensive treatment of Woolf’s early diaries. Her first 12 diary books are explored in depth and her development as a diarist traced. The book offers close readings of each of the 12 diaries: (1) as a work of art in itself; (2) as it relates to Woolf’s other early diaries; and (3) as it intersects with her public works (letters and published essays, reviews, fiction, and nonfiction.) This method lays bare, not only Woolf’s development as a diarist, but also—an extra dividend—as a public writer. It shows how she becomes the writer so widely revered today. Becoming Virginia Woolf offers a new approach to Woolf biography as well: her life as she marked it in her diary from age 14 to 36. New, too, is the importance of other diaries to Woolf’s creative life. As Woolf’s first two decades as a diarist unfold, interwoven as she read them are 15 key diaries that helped shape both her semi-private diary and her public prose.