It was 69 years ago today, March 28, 1941, that Virginia Woolf left behind Leonard, Monk’s House, and two suicide notes and walked across the Sussex Downs.
With stones weighing down her coat pockets, she waded into the River Ouse and drowned.
In memoriam, we repeat the last line of the memorial poem Vita Sackville-West wrote in tribute to Woolf, which was published in The Observer in April of 1941. It contains more truth than Sackville-West could have imagined.
“She now has gone/Into the prouder world of immortality,” Sackville-West wrote.
For a touching video that pays homage to what Woolf accomplished during her life — and what she could have accomplished if she had lived on — watch “The Adventures of Virginia Woolf” on You Tube.
For an earlier memoriam to Woolf, click here. You can also read the Associated Press “Today in History,” which mentions Woolf.
Or read more about the response of her contemporaries to her untimely death in the 2005 book, Afterwords: Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf, edited by Sybil Oldfield, and in the post below, ” Bloomsbury archives newly open to public.”
Editor’s Note: This was originally posted on March 28, 2008. I have included new information and am reposting it today in Woolf’s honor.
Alice Lowe
Catherine
Kaylee Baucom
Paula Maggio
Stefano Rozzoni
seanmcphail
suzannebellamy1
veronikakra
Vara Neverow
William Patrick Wend
Zoe Wolstenholme
[…] In memoriam to Virginia Woolf, 2010 […]
[…] about what might have happened if a psychologist had prevented writer Virginia Woolf from committing suicide in […]
[…] Help Me I’ll…, Bookslut Despite the circumstances of her death and her penchant for the ladies, should we base our judgments on the writing of Virginia Woolf only […]
[…] In memoriam to Virginia Woolf on the 70th anniversary of her death, I share two things. […]
[…] producer” will curate the project, which will run from March 1-28, the 70th anniversary of Woolf’s death. It is conceived of as a commemoration of her death as well as a celebration of her unique way of […]
Sorry, 69 years today, the 28th of March 2010. Am I wrong?
You are right. Thanks for the correction. I forgot to change the year when I copied this post from two years ago.
i love ms. stephen so much and i love her suicide idea,
just drown
for ur blown
life
and bliss
in this blues
I read the Afterwords a while ago, and, though a great resource, found it a little samey. Which I suppose it was bound to be. I was mostly interested to see something from one of my favourite authors, EM Delafield.
That’s a lovely sentiment (VSW) and one that has prooved quite true!