Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf was born in London, England on January 25, 1882. She was the daughter of the prominent literary critic Leslie Stephen. Her early education was obtained at home through her parents and governesses. After death of her father in 1904, her family moved to Bloomsbury, where they formed the nucleus of the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of philosophers, writers, and artists. During her lifetime, she wrote both fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels included Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and Between the Acts. Her non-fiction books included The Common Reader, A Room of One's Own, Three Guineas, The Captain's Death Bed and Other Essays, and The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. Having had periods of depression throughout her life and fearing a final mental breakdown from which she might not recover, Woolf drowned herself on March 28, 1941 at the age of 59. Her husband published part of her farewell letter to deny that she had taken her life because she could not face the terrible times of war. Maureen Howard was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on June 28, 1930. She graduated from Smith College in 1952 and immediately went to work in the publishing industry. She later taught at several universities including Columbia, Princeton, Amherst, and Yale. She is the author of several novels including Not a Word about Nightingales, Grace Abounding, Natural History, A Lover's Almanac, Bridgeport Bus, Expensive Habits, and The Rags of Time. Her autobiography, Facts of Life, received the National Book Critics Award for general nonfiction in 1980. She received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.