Virginia Woolf was born in 1882. She endured a traumatic adolescence after the deaths of her mother, father and step-sister and suffered from breakdowns for the rest of her life. She and her husband Leonard were central figures in the Bloomsbury Group and together founded the Hogarth Press in 1917. In 1941, fearing another attack of mental illness, she drowned herself. Her major novels include To The Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and The Waves (1931).