Virginia Woolfs Essay A Room of Ones Own. Ein Zimmer für sich allein entstand aus zwei 1928 vor Studentinnen in Cambridge gehaltenen Vorträgen und gehört seit Erscheinen zu einem der wichtigsten feminstischen Texte.

I had spent so much of my life peering into the windows of estate agents, searching for my very own domain, my face pressed against the window, along with the ghosts of other dreamers looking for h…

What The Home Means To Contemporary Women Artists

Given that her complete catalogue is composed almost entirely of work she produced as a student, the posthumous critical esteem for American photographer Francesca Woodman is astonishing. Unlike music or math, where precocious displays of talent are not uncommon, photography tends not to have prodigies. Woodman, who committed suicide in 1981 at age 22, is considered a rare exception. That she has achieved such status is all the more remarkable considering only a quarter of the approximately 800 images she produced—many of them self-portraits—have ever been seen by the public.

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As bell hooks once wrote, feminism is for everybody. Coming to embrace feminism can be relief, but a challenge, too. Once you've identified as feminist, you might have questions about the history or what's happening within the movement. What does…

Is a room of one's own overrated? Are closets unnecessary space hogs? Is clutter the enemy? Architect Takaaki Kawabata, a senior associate at Janson Goldst

Good Books Every Woman Should Read

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf has stood the test of time as a feminist classic. Here are two 1929 reviews plus a selection of quotes.

Woolf's long essay about society and art and sexism is thoroughly of its time and timeless. She argues that a woman must have money and a room of her own (literally and figuratively) in order to write well. It's a little slow to get into but keep at it: this is one of Woolf's most accessible and rew

“The chief obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife.” Anna Lea Merritt (19th Century Artist), Lipincott’s Magazine. Virginia Woolf may have nailed the formula to becoming an independent, creative woman in her 1929 essay A Room of One’s Own, but groups of artistic women had been testing this formula…

A Room of One's Own study guide contains a biography of Virginia Woolf, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Name: Mary Sprague Profession: Artist and Art/Art History professor (retired) Location: St. Louis, Missouri Size: 4500 square feet Years lived in: 27 years; owned Mary’s home and studio is an aggregation of 50 years of art. An active and longtime member of the St. Louis artistic community, she’s also one of those women you want to be when you’re in your 70s — whip smart, creative and kind.

Meet the witty writer who gives us unfettered access to characters from our favorite childhood classics. April 24, 2019 Don’t even get the witch from Hansel and Gretel started about her cottage’s original sugar windows: “I put my whole heart and soul into that house. It was my forever house,” she says. “Then those little brats came along and started eating the siding right off.” But William from Swiss Family Robinson is thrilled to talk about his proudest DIY. “No one does DIYs like we do. And

Vita Sackville-West’s oak desk in her workroom at Sissinghurst. The World of Interiors, September 2008. Photo - Antony Crolla

The memoirist Terese Marie Mailhot on how Maggie Nelson’s "Bluets" taught her to explode the parameters of what a book is supposed to be

Virginia Woolf, 1929.

“I will not be ‘famous,’ ‘great.’ I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped.”

Author Aimee Bender tells us that sometimes the most creative thing you can do is buckle down and play by the rules.

Twenty years after the death of Roald Dahl, his work is translated into almost 50 languages and more popular than ever. Celebrate Roald Dahl day with images of the man, his life and his work

Through the use of numerous constraints on the writing process, this group of French writers utilizes the method of Oulipo to determine what literature might be, as opposed to what it is.

Virginia Woolf wrote Between the Acts shortly before she died and against a backdrop of turmoil and war. Today, her final novel is one of her least-known – and most striking.

A few years ago, I traveled to East Sussex, England--a short train trip from London-- to visit Monk’s house, Virginia and Leonard Woolf's country place and, specifically, to see her writing shack. Called "The Lodge", the weather-boarded building (shown above) was built in 1934 to replace her previous writing room: “There will be open doors in front; & a view right over to Caburn. I think I shall sleep there on summer nights’. It was here that Virginia Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway and other books and essays. It was here, too, she labored over The Years. She had given Leonard Woolf the manuscript to look over as was their custom. When Leonard finished reviewing the work, he walked down the path from Monk’s House to The Lodge to congratulate his wife on her "masterpiece". Gazing through the double doors, he could see her writing desk (a drop-leaf table, really), her pencils neatly aligned on an ironstone platter, and stacks of the blue writing paper she favored—but no Virginia. I presume you know the end to this particular story. When I bought "The Beck", as I sometimes call my country place, I was more enamored with the little shack hidden away in the wild English garden than the house itself. Visions of a writing room danced in my head. All I had to do was clean out the gardening tools and detritus, paint the floor, knock out some windows--and the muse would land. I was lucky the place already was electrified, and the river's shore was too far away to walk to. That shack--it might once have been be a pre-fab tool shed-- has become my secret hideaway, a sanctuary within a sanctuary, a literal room of my own. It’s where I go to think and read, to daydream and plot, and to muse and be amused (for example, by the muskrat—I thought was a cat—that ate my 18th century rag runners over the winter). I think I shall sleep there some future summer night . . . My writing shack is still a work in progress, furnished with hand-me-downs (my daughter's desk, and an old boyfriend's lamp, which you can see above); yard sale treasures including a pair of French park chairs that in summer sit belong the covered pergola (which you can't see), and souvenirs from my travels and my life (which you will soon see). It is my own personal museum, the secret parts of myself I sometimes shield from the world are on permanent exhibit here. Nearly every inch of the walls and shelves is occupied with things that delight or inspire or remind me of past lives: a poster from a photography exhibition in the southwest of France, the cover illustration for my daughter's poetry book, a picture of me with President Clinton at a state dinner, another of a chapel where JFK Jr. was married on Cumblerland Island, Ga. that ran in Real Simple when I was editor, some framed broadsheets of favorite poems (gifts from the same ex again), paintings by my children--one of me in younger days (see at right), and an old snapshot of my parents on their wedding day. There is an altar of sorts too, with carved and bronze Hindu deities I've acquired from my travels to India including a baby Krishna dressed in a wildly-colored, spangled frocks. Poised on the narrowest of shelves are gifts from friends and that ex again. Among them are Arabic nesting dolls, each with its own head scarf, and a set of German farm animals--mothers with their babies--that only get to come indoors to the big house on Christmas eve to join the Nativity set my grandfather made. There is also a pottery charger I brought back from a trip to Guanajuata, Mexico shortly after my mother had died. I had gone there to grieve, staying in a hotel that had its own private chapel. The building had been a monastery, where once the mistress of a very rich man had lived as a nun. Later, she left the order to become his Marqueza. (I should write that story when I am sitting at my desk blocked instead of pondering the second lives of women.) And, of course, there is a picture of the author who inspired this place. I bought a copy of this print on that very same trip to London when I visited Monk House. The original, at the time, did not hang in the National Portrait Gallery (which owns it as well as many other famous writer portraits) but was in the museum's storage. (And, can you believe they wouldn't bring it out for me? Ha!) My 'lodge' is in the Hudson Valley, not the English countryside of course. It's hard to find, especially now in fall when the garden is overgrown and the brick pathways littered with leaves. Soon, even with my space heater and my down vest, it will be too cold for me to go there. The first frost came last Friday, and next month I will put the garden to bed--and maybe close the writing shack as well. If by chance, you should happen upon the shed--(bet you can't find it in the photo above)-- in another season, I must warn you: if you see this sign sitting on the rifle case by the door, it means "do not disturb". The muse doesn't land that often and when she does, she doesn't like to be interrupted.

The living quarters for most eighties babies today is simple, compact and modern. Swedish photographer Sannah Kvist wanted to create a portrait of her

As JK Rowling gets planning permission to construct a summer house inspired by Hagrid’s hut, we round up five of the best writer’s sheds. Take a look inside the hideouts which have inspired writers from Virginia Woolf to Henry David Thoreau

Author Aimee Bender tells us that sometimes the most creative thing you can do is buckle down and play by the rules.

On April 19, 1912, Gertrude STrine received this letter from Arthur C Fifield, Publisher...

“Elena Ferrante: An Answer?” reads the headline of the latest attempt to reveal her identity. To which one might ask: an answer to what?

When I hear the phrase “writing hut” or “backyard shed” my imagination practically squeals with delight. A small, intimate space furnished with the essentials. Low impact, high inspiration. This is probably why I love going to North Dakota and why I want to pull a Pollan and build my own little house.

waataa architects transform three rooms into non-conventional, space-saving apartments in portugal, while solving the issue of spatial organization.

As JK Rowling gets planning permission to construct a summer house inspired by Hagrid’s hut, we round up five of the best writer’s sheds. Take a look inside the hideouts which have inspired writers from Virginia Woolf to Henry David Thoreau

Hello! Thanks for dropping by today. Here is a nice and simple rural style home that would suit a lot of families who are lucky enough to own a bit of space. It’s not full of extras and fancy inclusions, but rather it’s a practical plan with good use of…

They were the controversial literary and artistic set whose members were said to have 'lived in squares and loved in triangles'. In a rare interview, Olivier Bell talks about the discovery that throws new light on life at Charleston.

The kind of book that reads you as you read it.

It's the end of the year! One of the perks for my students at the end of the year is getting to finally pick their own game choice. Last week a few little guys chose

For a decade Sarah Raven lived at Sissinghurst with her family, surrounded by the work of Vita Sackville-West. In a new book, she celebrates the designer’s vision and enduring prose