Virginia Woolf is one of the most admired authors of the twentieth century. She was born on January 25, 1882, to Julie and Leslie Stephens in London, England. Sir Leslie Stephens was a very influential writer and critic who sternly and methodically published volume after volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, of which he was the first editor. Growing up, Woolf met many famous writers including George Meredith and Henry James.

Woolf's parents had each been married before; her mother Julia brought three children with her and Leslie two children to their marriage. Woolf's family was large and she later lamented growing up with a lack of privacy and of time to spend with her mother. The Stephens family was financially well situated and employed servants who helped keep the family running in their London home. Woolf remembered her mother working nonstop to raise her three children...