Bloomsbury Group correspondence

1898-1950

The Bloomsbury group was an informal collective of English writers, artists, critics, and intellectuals active at the beginning of the twentieth-century, most of whom lived or worked in the London district of Bloomsbury. The group is usually considered to consist of ten core members: writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and her husband, the writer and publisher Leonard Woolf (1880-1969); Virginia Woolf's sister, the artist Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and her husband, the art critic Clive Bell (1881-1964); writer E.M. Forster (1879-1970); the critic and artist Roger Fry (1866-1934); the artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978); the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946); the writer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880-1932); and the writer and critic Desmond MacCarthy (1877-1952). In addition to these, there were a number of figures who joined the group later, or despite being associated with and close to its members, were not considered a core part of the collective. Clive and Vanessa Bell's three children, Julian (1908-1937), Quentin (1910-1996), and Angelica (1918-2012), and Angelica's husband, David Garnett (1892-1981), are examples of the former, while Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), the writer and lover of Virginia Woolf, is an example of the latter.

The members of the collective were all part of the English upper middle-class. All of the male members (with the exception of Duncan Grant) were educated at Cambridge University, at either Trinity or King's College, and most were members of the secret society, The Cambridge Apostles (also known as the Conversazione Society). At Trinity College, several of the members became good friends with Thoby Stephen, the brother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, and from there the informal group began to form. The friendships and social connections between the group largely pre-dated their fame as writers and artists, as most of them, with the exception of Forster, did not find success until later in life.

The group had no formal membership requirements, and were united by an overwhelming belief in the importance of the arts, intellectual life, and liberal politics. They were noted for sharing progressive attitudes towards feminism, sexuality, and pacifism. The personal relations between the group were complex, with intermarriage, open relationships, and affairs being common.