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Beginning Again: An Autobiography Of The Years 1911 To 1918

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This is the middle volume of a five volume autobiography of Leonard Woolf. He is probably better known as the husband of Virginia, but Leonard himself was very active in several spheres: British civil service in Ceylon at the beginning of the twentieth century, publishing (he established the Hogarth press which published many well known authors), writing (novels and political books) and a great deal of committee work for the British labour party and local councils.

Leonard Woolf was a socialist who learned very early to despair of Soviet Russia. He was a pacifist who was prepared to wage war against Hitler's Germany. He was devoted to his wife and her difficult-to-read books (declaring her the most intelligent woman in England) and he also took great pride in his accounting skills. He prided himself on his civility and ability to get along with people, yet cannot resist settling scores in his autobiography with some of his old enemies. He presents himself as a rather prudish and proper gentleman; yet he was part of the Bloomsbury group which is well known for their sexual freedom.

In this volume, covering the years 1911-1918 he gives a remarkably clear account of his wife's psychiatric illness and creativity. He describes the dangers of journalism, his work with the Labour party, and the beginnings of the Hogarth Press. Highly recommended.

Description from the book back cover:

Beginning Again covers the years from 1911, when the "fog of Victorianism" was receding, through the First World War. It is highlighted by accounts of the Bloomsburg group, the marriage between Leonard Woolf and Virginia Stephen in 1912, and the founding of the Hogarth Press, and it provides profiles of many well-known figures - Lytton Strachey, Bernard Shaw, Katherine Mansfield, Rupert Brooke, Arnold Bennett, H.G. Wells, T.S. Eliot, and others. But it is of particular interest for its open discussion of Virginia Woolf's tragic struggle with mental illness, dating from adolescence, that haunted her marriage and writing career until her suicide in 1941. Here is an extraordinarily moving portrait of the brilliant writer, drawn with compassion, love, and courage. The book's primary charm is the unfailing tenderness with which Mr. Woolf writes of the wife he adored ...