Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British
political theorist
A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...
, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
. As a member of the
Labour Party and the
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own work and his wife's novels. A writer himself, Woolf created nineteen individual works and wrote six autobiographies. Leonard and Virginia did not have any children.
Early life
![Virginia and Leonard Woolf, 1912](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Virginia_and_Leonard_Woolf%2C_1912.jpg)
Woolf was born in London in 1880 the third of ten children of Solomon Rees Sidney Woolf (known as Sidney Woolf), a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
and
Queen's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...
, and Marie (née de Jongh). His family was
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish. After his father died in 1892, Woolf was sent to board at Arlington House School near
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, Sussex. From 1894 to 1899, he attended
St Paul's School, and in 1899 he won a classical scholarship to
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he was elected to the
Cambridge Apostles
The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...
. Other contemporary members included
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
,
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
,
G. E. Moore
George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...
, and
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
.
Thoby Stephen
Julian Thoby Stephen (9 September 1880 – 20 November 1906), known as the Goth, was the brother of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, both prominent members of the Bloomsbury Group, and of Adrian Stephen.
Thoby Stephen was the eldest son of L ...
(his future wife's brother) was friendly with the Apostles, though not a member himself. Woolf was awarded his BA in 1902, but stayed there for another year to study for the Civil Service examinations held then.
In October 1904, Woolf moved to Ceylon (now
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
) to become a cadet in the
Ceylon Civil Service
The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the ...
, in
Jaffna
Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...
and later
Kandy
Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...
, and by August 1908 was named an
assistant government agent A Government Agent (GA) or a District Secretary is a Sri Lankan civil servant of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service appointed by the central government to govern a certain district of the country. The GA is the administrative head of public servic ...
in the
Southern Province, where he administered the District of
Hambantota
Hambantota ( si, හම්බන්තොට, ta, அம்பாந்தோட்டை) is the main town in Hambantota District, Southern Province, Sri LankaThe prominent Malays (මැලේ) most part of the population is to be partly de ...
. Woolf returned to England in May 1911 for a year's leave. Instead, however, he resigned in early 1912 and that same year married
Virginia Stephen.
![17 The Green Richmond, 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/17_The_Green_Richmond%2C_2017.jpg)
Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived at 17 The Green Richmond starting from October 1914. In early March 1915, the couple moved to nearby Hogarth House, Paradise Road.
![The Round House, Lewes, 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/The_Round_House%2C_Lewes%2C_2017.jpg)
In 1919, the Woolfs purchased the Round House in Pipe Passage, Lewes. The same year, they discovered Monk's House in nearby Rodmell, which both she and Leonard favoured because of its orchard and garden. She then bought Monk's House and sold the Round House.
Together, Leonard and Virginia Woolf became influential in the
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...
, which also included various other former Apostles.
In December 1917, Woolf became one of the co-founders of the
1917 Club
__NOTOC__
The 1917 Club was a club for socialists that met in 4 Gerrard Street, Soho, in Central London, during the early part of the 20th century. It had been founded in December 1917 by Leonard Woolf and Oliver Strachey. Although its name mark ...
, which met in
Gerrard Street,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
.
Writing
After marriage, Woolf turned to writing and published his first novel, ''
The Village in the Jungle'' (1913), which is based on his years in Ceylon. A series of books followed at roughly bi-annual intervals.
On the
introduction of conscription in 1916, during the First World War, Woolf was rejected for military service on medical grounds, and turned to politics and sociology. He joined the
Labour Party and the
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
, and became a regular contributor to the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
''. In 1916, he wrote ''International Government'', proposing an international agency to enforce world peace.
As his wife's mental health worsened, Woolf devoted much of his time to caring for her (he himself suffered from depression). In 1917, the Woolfs bought a small hand-operated printing press and with it they founded the
Hogarth Press
The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...
. Their first project was a pamphlet, hand-printed and bound by themselves. Within ten years the Press had become a full-scale publishing house, issuing Virginia's novels, Leonard's tracts and, among other works, the first edition of
T. S. Eliot's ''
The Waste Land
''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
''. Woolf continued as the main director of the Press until his death. His wife suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, until her suicide by drowning in 1941. Later, Leonard fell in love with a married artist,
Trekkie Parsons.
In 1919, Woolf became editor of the ''International Review''. He also edited the international section of the ''Contemporary Review'' from 1920 to 1922. He was literary editor of ''
The Nation and Athenaeum
''The Nation and Athenaeum'', or simply ''The Nation'', was a United Kingdom political weekly newspaper with a Liberal/Labour viewpoint. It was formed in 1921 from the merger of the ''Athenaeum'', a literary magazine published in London since 1828 ...
'', generally referred to simply as ''The Nation'', from 1923 to 1930), and joint founder and editor of ''
The Political Quarterly
''The Political Quarterly'' is an academic journal of political science that first appeared from 1914 to 1916 and was revived by Leonard Woolf, Kingsley Martin, and William A. Robson in 1930. Its editors-in-chief are Ben Jackson (University of Ox ...
'' from 1931 to 1959), and for a time he served as secretary of the Labour Party's advisory committees on international and colonial questions.
In 1960, Woolf revisited Ceylon and was surprised at the warmth of the welcome he received, and even the fact that he was still remembered. Woolf accepted an honorary doctorate from the then-new
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
in 1964 and in 1965 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
. He declined the offer of
Companion of Honour (CH) in the
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
list in 1966.
Family
Among his nine siblings,
Bella Woolf was also an author.
His brother Cecil Nathan Sidney Woolf was the author of ''Poems'' (published 1918); Cecil was killed in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1917. His dissertation ''Bartolus of Sassoferrato, his Position in the History of Medieval Political Thought'' was expanded to a book published by
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
in 1913 in collaboration with his brother Philip. Philip and Cecil also translated Stendhal's ''On Love'' (Duckworth, 1915).
Cecil Nathan Sidney Woolf
Modernist Archives Publishing Project
Death
Woolf died on 14 August 1969 from a stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
. He was cremated
Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...
and his ashes were buried alongside his wife's beneath an elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...
tree in his beloved garden at Monk's House
Monk's House is a 16th-century weatherboarded cottage in the village of Rodmell, three miles (4.8 km) south of Lewes, East Sussex, England. The writer Virginia Woolf and her husband, the political activist, journalist and editor Leonard ...
, Rodmell
Rodmell is a small village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located three miles (4.8 km) south-west of Lewes, on the Lewes to Newhaven road and six and a half miles from the City of Brighton & Hove and ...
, Sussex. The tree subsequently blew down and Woolf's remains have since been marked by a bronze bust.
His papers are held by the University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
at the Falmer campus.
Works
* '' The Village in the Jungle'' – 1913
* ''The Wise Virgins'' – 1914 (Republished in 2003 by Persephone Books
''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...
)
* ''International Government'' – 1916
* ''The Future of Constantinople'' – 1917
* ''The Framework of a Lasting Peace'' - 1917
* ''Cooperation and the Future of Industry'' – 1918
* ''Economic Imperialism'' – 1920
* ''Empire and Commerce in Africa'' – 1920
* ''Socialism and Co-operation'' – 1921
*
International co-operative trade
' – 1922
* ''Fear and Politics'' – 1925
* ''Essays on Literature, History, Politics'' – 1927
* ''Hunting the Highbrow'' – 1927
* ''Imperialism and Civilization'' – 1928
* ''After the Deluge'' (Principia Politica), 3 vols. – 1931, 1939, 1953
* ''Quack! Quack!'' – 1935
* ''Barbarians at the Gate'' – 1939
* ''The War for Peace'' – 1940
* ''A Calendar of Consolation'' – selected by Leonard Woolf, 1967
Autobiographical works
* Published in America as Also .
* Also (1977), (1967), Eland (2015).
* Also
*
*
* Published in America as
Biographical works on Woolf
*De Silva, Prabhath: ''Leonard Woolf as a Judge in Ceylon: A British Civil Servant as a Judge in the Hambantota District of Colonial Sri Lanka (1908–1911)''. Neptune Publications (Pvt) Ltd, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka (2nd edition 2016).
*
*
**Edited excerpt of book available at
** Review of book with details about Leonard Woolf available at
*
Related works and cultural references
* In 1982, a film version in Sinhala of Woolf's novel, ''Village in the Jungle'', called '' Bæddegama'' was released. It featured Arthur C. Clarke in the role of Woolf.
* A film version of Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lectur ...
's 1998 Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
winning novel, '' The Hours'', was released in 2002, starring Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
as Virginia Woolf. The part of Leonard Woolf was played by Stephen Dillane
Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film '' The Hours'', Stannis Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'', and Thomas Jefferson in the 2008 HBO miniseries ''John Ada ...
.
* In 2005, a book titled ''Woolf in Ceylon'' was published by author Christopher Ondaatje
Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, OC, CBE, FRSL (; born 22 February 1933) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Mic ...
. This is an unusual "in-the-footsteps of" book by the elder brother of novelist Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...
.
* It is possibly that Leonard Wolf, Claudia's father in the video game Silent Hill 3
''Silent Hill 3'' is a 2003 survival horror game developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, and published by Konami. The game was released from May to August, originally for the PlayStation 2. The third installmen ...
is named after Woolf.
See also
* Trekkie Parsons
*
*
References
External links
*
*
*
The Leonard Woolf fonds at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto
consists of correspondence from Woolf to Ellen Alderm, 1935, and Mrs. Easdale, 1935, 1964–1968, primarily re submissions to Hogarth Press
"Stories of the East by Leonard Woolf"
via Discovering Literature at the British Library
Frederic Spotts collection of papers on the letters of Leonard Woolf
at the Mortimer Rare Book Collection
The Mortimer Rare Book Collection (MRBC) is the rare books collection of Smith College. Along with the Sophia Smith Collection and Smith College Archives, it makes up Smith College Special Collections. The collection supports both general researc ...
, Smith College Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolf, Leonard
1880 births
1969 deaths
Bloomsbury Group
English Jews
English memoirists
Publishers (people) from London
Stephen-Bell family
British Jewish writers
People educated at St Paul's School, London
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Members of the Fabian Society
Jewish socialists
British civil servants in Ceylon
Sri Lankan Jews
Sri Lankan people of English descent
20th-century English novelists
Virginia Woolf
Jewish British politicians
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
20th-century English businesspeople