As a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group – a cohort of artists, writers, and intellectuals – and the author of novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf was one of the most significant creative minds of the early 20th century.
Woolf also struggled with her mental health for much of her life. Consequently, she spent time in a hospital and attempted to take her own life two times. The third attempt was successful.
On March 28, 1941, Woolf stuffed stones in her pockets and drowned herself in the River, Ouse, in Sussex. She was 59 years old.
Before leaving the house to take her life, Woolf left a note for her husband Leonard, offering a glimpse into what she was feeling:
Dearest,
I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer.
I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.
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