Julia and Leslie Stephen reading, Virginia Stephen seated behind them

Photographer unknown

Julia and Leslie Stephen reading, Virginia Stephen seated behind them

St. Ives, ca. 1892

Woolf, seen here peeking over the shoulders of her parents, was the second daughter of Julia and Leslie Stephen. Both, having been previously widowed, had children from earlier marriages. “Ginia,” or “the Goat,” as Virginia was affectionately known, was one of eight children in this complex, blended family. Although Woolf’s novels are not autobiographical, her parents figure prominently in much of her writing: “I was obsessed by them both, unhealthily; & writing of them was a necessary act,” she later recorded in her diary in 1928.