Leonard Woolf: A Biography

The first ever biography of the publisher, writer, activist, and husband at the heart of the Bloomsbury Group.

Many people today know Leonard Woolf through the surname of his wife, Virginia, or his role in supporting her through her mental illness, depicted in films like The Hours. Some critics see him as his wife’s oppressor. In Victoria Glendinning’s biography, for the first time we see the whole man.

As well as being a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Leonard was a formidable figure in his own right, first as an innovative civil administrator in Ceylon, then as a writer, leading light of the Fabian society, and publisher of T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Robert Graves, Katherine Mansfield, and of course Virginia Woolf.

Victoria Glendinning brings careful research and new material to bear on every aspect of Woolf’s life, painting an engrossing portrait of a man who was ahead of his time, an unapologetic socialist and passionate anti-racist. Her engaging biography brings new perspective to our understanding of the man, his work, and the Bloomsbury circle and its achievements.


From the Hardcover edition.