''Moments of Being'' is a collection of posthumously-published autobiographical essays by

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 ...

. The collection was first found in the papers of her husband, used by

Quentin Bell Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (19 August 1910 – 16 December 1996) was an English art historian and author. Early life Bell was born in London, the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell (née Stephen), and the nephew of Virginia Woolf (née Ste ...

in his biography of Virginia Woolf, published in 1972. In 1976, the essays were edited for publication by Jeanne Schulkind. The second edition was published in 1985. The original texts are now housed at

Sussex University , 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 , ...

and in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Title

The title for the collection was chosen by its original editor, Jeanne Schulkind, based on a passage from "A Sketch of the Past". As described by Woolf, 'moments of being' are moments in which an individual experiences a sense of reality, in contrast to the states of 'non-being' that dominate most of an individual's conscious life, in which they are separated from reality by a protective covering. Moments of being could be a result of instances of shock, discovery, or revelation.

''Moments of Being'' consists of five autobiographical essays: #"Reminiscences" (1907) #"

A Sketch of the Past "A Sketch of the Past" is an autobiographical essay written by Virginia Woolf in 1939. It was written as a break from writing her biography of Roger Fry, English artist and critic, and fellow member of the Bloomsbury Group. It was later edite ...

" (1939–40) #"22 Hyde Park Gate" (1920–1) #"Old Bloomsbury" (1921–2) #"Am I a Snob?" (1936) "22 Hyde Park Gate", "Old Bloomsbury" and "Am I a Snob?" were written for the Memoir Club, a group formed in 1920 by Molly MacCarthy which met to present honest autobiographical papers.

Sources

Literary Encyclopaedia: ''Moments of Being''
{{Virginia Woolf 1985 books Works by Virginia Woolf British memoirs Books published posthumously

Title

Contents

Sources