Virginia Woolf on Anonymity

The above quote is pulled from Virginia Woolf’s (1882-1941) long-form narrative essay A Room of One’s Own, which was first published in 1929. Room is one of the English writer’s many feminist works and probably her most renowned piece of non-fiction. You may also be familiar with Woolf’s novels Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando, as well as her appearance in the title of Edward Albee’s Tony-winning play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The above painting from 1917 was the work of Woolf’s friend (and fellow Bloomsbury Group member) Roger Fry.

“I would venture to guess than Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”

-Virginia Woolf, from A Room of One’s Own (1929), chapter 3