Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was an English modernist writer born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London to historian Sir Leslie Stephen and philanthropist Julia Jackson. She grew up in a literary household, with siblings including artist Vanessa Bell, and began writing early despite limited formal education as a woman.
Woolf pioneered stream-of-consciousness narrative in novels like Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), exploring themes of time, identity, and perception. She co-founded the Hogarth Press with husband Leonard in 1917, which published her works and others like T.S. Eliot's. A key essayist and feminist, her A Room of One's Own (1929) argued for women's intellectual freedom.
Struggling with mental illness, Woolf died by suicide in 1941 amid WWII. Her innovative style influenced modern literature profoundly.