Virginia Woolf: A Modern Mind

Through March 5, 2023. Free Admission.

Until further notice, tickets will not be required for the exhibition, please check below for any upcoming closures

Explore the life and creative process of Virginia Woolf, one of the 20th century's most important authors, in this landmark exhibition at The New York Public Library. The Library holds one of the world's most important collections of Woolf's writings. Virginia Woolf: A Modern Mind offers new insights through the personal notebooks and diaries, family photographs, and unpublished letters on display.

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) spent her creative life pushing the boundaries of literature. Her techniques were new, experimental, modern. One of the most important figures of English literary modernism, Woolf rejected the conventional forms of her Victorian predecessors to experiment with shifting perspectives and, eventually, to work entirely within the consciousness of her characters. She set out to crystallize reality, to capture moments of being, to expose the innermost thoughts of her characters in the barest way.

Best known for her novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), as well as for A Room of One's Own (1929) and other writings critical of patriarchy, she engaged with questions of gender, class, consciousness, and privilege, albeit from a perspective of great privilege herself.

Ideas often came to her in a rush. She could write fluidly and swiftly, revising as she went, but she also struggled to finish books and faced periods of doubt, anxiety, and as she described it, apprehension. She suffered from mental and physical illness throughout her life, and died by suicide at the age of 59.

This exhibition is organized by The New York Public Library and curated by Carolyn Vega, Curator of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Learn more.

Download Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, to explore the exhibition anytime, anywhere, hear readings of Woolf‘s work, and listen to authors Francesca Wade (Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars) and Brandon Taylor (Real Life; Filthy Animals) discussing her life, loves, and legacy.

Please Note:

Masks encouraged, not required, in NYPL locations.

UPCOMING CLOSURES:

• Feb 8th-Opens at 11:30am


• Feb 15th-Closes at 5:00pm


• Feb 20th-Closed for Presidents Day Holiday


• Mar 1st-Closes at 6pm

Explore Virginia Woolf: A Modern Mind.

Discover more of the most extraordinary items from the 56 million in our collections at the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures.

Virginia Woolf in the Library Shop