View source for Leonard Woolf

{{Short description|British author and publisher (1880–1969)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| image              = Virginia Woolf (3)-2.jpg
| caption            = Bust of Leonard Woolf at [[Monk's House]]
| name               = Leonard Woolf
| birth_name         = Leonard Sidney Woolf
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1880|11|25}}
| birth_place        = [[London]], England
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1969|8|14|1880|11|25}}
| death_place        = [[Rodmell]], England
| nationality        = British
| education          = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
| occupation         = Political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Virginia Woolf]]|10 August 1912|28 March 1941|end=died}}
| partner            = [[Trekkie Parsons]]
| relatives          = [[Bella Sidney Woolf]] (sister)
}}

'''Leonard Sidney Woolf''' {{birth date|df=yes|1880|11|25}} – {{death date|df=yes|1969|8|14|1880|11|25}}) was a British [[List of political theorists|political theorist]], author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author [[Virginia Woolf]]. As a member of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and the [[Fabian Society]], Woolf was an avid publisher of his own work and his wife's novels.{{sfn|Glendinning|2006|pp=204-205}} A writer himself, Woolf created nineteen individual works and wrote six autobiographies. Leonard and Virginia did not have any children.

==Early life==
[[File:Virginia and Leonard Woolf, 1912.jpg|thumb|left|Leonard Woolf and his wife [[Virginia Woolf]] in 1912]]
[[File:Nissanka Wijeyeratne with Leonard Woolf in 1960 at Abhayagiri vihāra, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.jpg|thumb|right|Government Agent of Anuradhapura District [[Nissanka Wijeyeratne]] with Leonard Woolf  at [[Abhayagiri vihāra]] in 1960]]

Woolf was born in London in 1880 the third of ten children of Solomon Rees Sidney Woolf (known as Sidney Woolf), a [[barrister]] and [[Queen's Counsel]], and Marie (née de Jongh). His family was [[Jew]]ish. After his father died in 1892, Woolf was sent to board at Arlington House School near [[Brighton]], Sussex. From 1894 to 1899, he attended [[St Paul's School (London)|St Paul's School]], and in 1899 he won a classical scholarship to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]],<ref>{{acad | id =WLF899LS| name=Woolf, Leonard Sidney}}</ref> where he was elected to the [[Cambridge Apostles]]. Other contemporary members included [[Lytton Strachey]], [[John Maynard Keynes]], [[G. E. Moore]], and [[E. M. Forster]]. [[Thoby Stephen]] (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 <!-- NOT Sri Lanka in Woolf's lifetime, only from 1972. -->Ceylon (now [[Sri Lanka]]) to become a cadet in the [[Ceylon Civil Service]], in [[Jaffna]] and later [[Kandy]],<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/10/02/letters.html |title=Letter |newspaper=Daily News |place=[[Sri Lanka|LK]] |date=2 October 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114085346/http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/10/02/letters.html |archive-date=14 January 2011 }}</ref> and by August 1908 was named an [[Government Agent (Sri Lanka)|assistant government agent]] in the [[Southern Province, Sri Lanka|Southern Province]], where he administered the District of [[Hambantota]]. 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 Woolf|Virginia Stephen]].

[[File:17 The Green Richmond, 2017.jpg|thumb|17 The Green, Richmond, 2017]]

Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived at 17 The Green, [[Richmond upon Thames]], starting from October 1914. In early March 1915, the couple moved to nearby Hogarth House, Paradise Road.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/libraries/branch_libraries/local_studies_collection/local_history_notes/virginia_woolf_and_hogarth_house|title=Virginia Woolf and Hogarth House|website=London Borough of Richmond upon Thames}}</ref>

In 1919, the Woolfs purchased the Round House in Pipe Passage, [[Lewes]], East Sussex. 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bloggingwoolf.org/2009/05/03/virginias-round-house-in-lewes-up-for-sale/|title=Virginia's Round House in Lewes up for sale|date=4 May 2009|website=Blogging Woolf}}</ref>

Together, Leonard and Virginia Woolf became influential in the [[Bloomsbury Group]], which also included various other former Apostles.

In December 1917, Woolf became one of the co-founders of the [[1917 Club]], which met in [[Gerrard Street, London|Gerrard Street]], [[Soho]].

==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 [[Military Service Act 1916|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 (UK)|Labour Party]] and the [[Fabian Society]], and became a regular contributor to the ''[[New Statesman]]''. In 1916, he wrote ''International Government'', proposing an international agency to enforce world peace. He stood as the Labour candidate for the [[Combined English Universities (UK Parliament constituency)|Combined English Universities]] in 1922.

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]]. 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]]''. 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]]'' (generally referred to simply as ''The Nation'') from 1923 to 1930, and joint founder and editor of ''[[The Political Quarterly]]'' from 1931 to 1959, and for a time he served as secretary of the Labour Party's advisory committees on international and colonial questions.

{{STV Election box begin2
 |title      = [[1922 United Kingdom general election|General Election 1922]]: [[Combined English Universities (UK Parliament constituency)|Combined English Universities]] (2 seats)
 |numcounts  = 5
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = [[Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington|Martin Conway]]
 |party      = Unionist Party (UK)
 |percentage = 32.8
 |count1     = 968
 |count2     = 982
 |count3     = '''1,093'''
 |count4     = &nbsp;
 |count5     = &nbsp;
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = [[H. A. L. Fisher]]
 |party      = National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)
 |percentage = 27.7
 |count1     = 819
 |count2     = 821
 |count3     = 849
 |count4     = 883
 |count5     = '''1,009'''
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = [[John Strong (educationalist)|John Strong]]
 |party      = Independent (politician)
 |percentage = 19.4
 |count1     = 571
 |count2     = 575
 |count3     = 595
 |count4     = 611
 |count5     = 813
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = Leonard Woolf
 |party      = Labour Party (UK)
 |percentage = 12.2
 |count1     = 361
 |count2     = 361
 |count3     = 365
 |count4     = 366
 |count5     = eliminated
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = Wilfred Faraday
 |party      = Independent Unionist
 |percentage = 4.8
 |count1     = 141
 |count2     = 206
 |count3     = eliminated
 |count4     = &nbsp;
 |count5     = &nbsp;
}}
{{STV Election box candidate2
 |candidate  = Sidney C. Lawrence
 |party      = Independent Unionist
 |percentage = 3.1
 |count1     = 90
 |count2     = eliminated
 |count3     = &nbsp;
 |count4     = &nbsp;
 |count5     = &nbsp;
}}
{{STV Election box end2
 |numcounts  = 5
 |electorate = 3,967
 |valid      = 2,946
 |spoilt     = 
 |quota      = 983
 |turnout    = 74.3
}}

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.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://sundaytimes.lk/020929/plus/1.html | first = Kumudini | last = Hettiarachchi | title = Still a village in the jungle | newspaper = Sunday Times | date = 9 September 2002 | place = LK}}</ref> Woolf accepted an honorary doctorate from the then-new [[University of Sussex]] in 1964 and in 1965 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]. He declined the offer of [[Companion of Honour]] (CH) in the [[1966 Birthday Honours|Queen's Birthday Honours]] list in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |title=List of Honours Refused |url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120202145535/http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/document2012-01-24-075439.pdf |website=National Archives}}</ref>

==Family==
Among his nine siblings, [[Bella Sidney Woolf|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]] 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]] in 1913 in collaboration with his brother Philip. Philip and Cecil also translated Stendhal's ''On Love'' (Duckworth, 1915).<ref>[http://www.modernistarchives.com/person/cecil-nathan-sidney-woolf Cecil Nathan Sidney Woolf]; Modernist Archives Publishing Project</ref>

==Death==
Woolf died on 14 August 1969 from a [[Cerebrovascular accident|stroke]]. He was [[cremation|cremated]] and his ashes were buried alongside his wife's beneath an [[elm]] tree in his beloved garden at [[Monk's House]], [[Rodmell]], 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]] at the Falmer campus.

==Works==
* ''[[The Village in the Jungle]]'' – 1913
* ''The Wise Virgins'' – 1914 (Republished in 2003 by [[Persephone Books]])
* ''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
* ''[https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/international-co-operative-trade-1922/98525 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===
* {{cite book |title= Sowing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880–1904|url= https://archive.org/details/sowingautobiogra0000wool|url-access= registration|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1960|publisher=[[Hogarth Press]]|location= London|oclc= 185524636}} Published in America as {{cite book |title= Sowing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880–1904|url= https://archive.org/details/sowingautobiogra00wool|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1960|edition= 1st American|publisher=[[Harcourt Trade Publishers|Harcourt, Brace]]|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-15-683945-7|oclc= 1346957}} Also {{OCLC| 1339821}}.
* {{cite book |title= Growing: An Autobiography of the Years 1904–1911|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1961|edition= 1st American|publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World|location= New York|oclc= 494500}} Also {{OCLC| 21246847}} (1977), {{OCLC|67527334}} (1967), [[Eland Books|Eland]] (2015).
* {{cite book |title= Diaries in Ceylon, 1908–1911, and Stories from the East: Records of a Colonial Administrator|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1963|publisher=Hogarth Press|location= London|oclc= 30240642}} Also {{OCLC| 4194108}}
* {{cite book|last=Woolf|first=Leonard|author-link=Leonard Woolf|title=Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911 to 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNsPAQAAMAAJ|year=1975|orig-year=1964|publisher=[[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]]|isbn=978-0-15-611680-0|ref={{harvid|Woolf|1964}}}}
* {{cite book |title= Downhill All the Way: An Autobiography of the Years 1919–1939|url= https://archive.org/details/downhillallway00wool|url-access= registration|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1967|edition= 1st American|publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World|location= New York|oclc= 1065888}}
* {{cite book |title= The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: An Autobiography of the Years 1939–1969|url= https://archive.org/details/journeynotarriva0000wool_n4v5|url-access= registration|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1969|publisher=Hogarth Press|location= London|isbn= 978-0-7012-0326-9|oclc= 186031338}} Published in America as {{cite book |title= The Journey Not the Arrival Matters: An Autobiography of the Years 1939–1969|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|year= 1969|edition= 1st American|publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World|location= New York|oclc= 58615}}

== Portrayals ==
* In 1982, a film version in [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] of Woolf's novel, ''Village in the Jungle'', called ''[[Baddegama (film)|Bæddegama]]'' was released. It featured [[Arthur C. Clarke]] in the role of Woolf.
* A film version of [[Michael Cunningham]]'s 1998 [[Pulitzer Prize]] winning novel, ''[[The Hours (novel)|The Hours]]'', was released in 2002, starring [[Nicole Kidman]] as Virginia Woolf. The part of Leonard Woolf was played by [[Stephen Dillane]].
* [[Al Weaver]] and [[Guy Henry (actor)|Guy Henry]] played the younger and older Leonard Woolf in the 2015 [[BBC Two]] miniseries ''[[Life in Squares]]''.

==See also==
* [[Virginia Woolf]]
* [[Trekkie Parsons]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |title= Love letters|last= Woolf|first= Leonard|author2=Ritchie, Trekkie |editor= Adamson, Judith|year= 2002|publisher=[[Random House|Pimlico]]|location= London|isbn= 978-0-7126-6473-8|oclc= 49551724}}
* {{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950729/ai_n13997803 |title=Obituary: Trekkie Parsons |access-date=8 December 2008 |last=Adam Smith |first=Janet |date=29 July 1995 |work=The Independent |location=UK |publisher=[[BNET]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080427021037/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950729/ai_n13997803 |archive-date=27 April 2008 }}
* Edited excerpt of {{harvnb|Glendinning|2006}} available at {{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/aug/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview27|title= A fresh spirit|access-date=9 December 2008|last= Glendinning|first= Victoria|date= 26 August 2006|work=[[The Guardian]] |location=UK |ref=glendinning-review}}
* Review of {{harvnb|Glendinning|2006}} with details about Leonard Woolf available at {{cite web|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/-mr--virginia-woolf--10801 |title=Mr. Virginia Woolf |access-date=9 December 2008 |last=Gross |first=John |date=December 2006 |publisher=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223224505/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/-mr--virginia-woolf--10801 |archive-date=23 December 2008 |df=dmy }}

=== Biographies ===
* 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). {{ISBN|978-955-0028-69-6}}
* {{cite book |title= Who's Afraid of Leonard Woolf? A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf|last= Coates|first= Irene|author-link= Irene Coates|year= 2002|publisher=[[Soho Press (publisher)|Soho Press]]|location= New York|isbn=1-56947-294-7 }}
* {{cite book|title= Leonard Woolf: A biography|last= Glendinning|first= Victoria|author-link= Victoria Glendinning|year= 2006|publisher= [[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]]|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-7432-4653-8|oclc= 71779088|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/leonardwoolfbiog00glen}}
* {{cite book | author1-last=Leventhal |author1-first=Fred |author2-last=Stansky |author2-first=Peter | title=Leonard Woolf: Bloomsbury Socialist | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2019 | isbn=978-0-19-881414-6 | doi=10.1093/oso/9780198814146.001.0001 }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Leonard Woolf}}{{Archival records|title=Leonard Woolf fonds}}

{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4565| name=Leonard Woolf}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Leonard Sidney Woolf}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10450}}
* [http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/special/F66lwoolffonds.htm 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
* [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/stories-of-the-east-by-leonard-woolf-with-design-by-dora-carrington "Stories of the East by Leonard Woolf"] via Discovering Literature at the British Library
* [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/3/resources/1601 Frederic Spotts collection of papers on the letters of Leonard Woolf] at the [[Mortimer Rare Book Collection]], Smith College Special Collections

{{Bloomsbury Group}}
{{Virginia Woolf|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolf, Leonard}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century British Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century English businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century English memoirists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Bloomsbury Group]]
[[Category:British book publishing company founders]]
[[Category:British political scientists]]
[[Category:Publishers (people) from London]]
[[Category:Stephen–Bell family]]
[[Category:Jewish British writers]]
[[Category:People educated at St Paul's School, London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:British civil servants in British Ceylon]]
[[Category:Jewish British politicians]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]