[A loose association of writers, artists and critics formed in 1905. They shared tastes
and interests in the arts, politics, and sociology. They documented
(diaries, memoirs, biographies & letters) everything]

Books by or about the main members of the Group
Clive Bell (1881-1964) - art critic, husband of Vanessa
"Old Friends - Personal Recollections" (1956)
Vanessa Bell (nee Stephen) (1879-1961) - painter
Frances Spalding : Vanessa Bell (1983)
Roger Fry (1866-1934) - painter and critic
(Ed) Denyss Sutton : Letters of Roger fry (1972)
Virginia Woolf : Roger Fry - A Biography (1940)
Duncan Grant (1885-1978) - painter and critic
Roger Fry : Duncan Grant (1930)
Raymond Mortimer : Duncan Grant (1948)
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) - economist
R F Harrod : The Life of John Maynard Keynes (1951)
F A Keynes : Gathering Up the Threads - a Study in Family Biography (1951)
Robert Skidelsky : John Maynard Keynes (1983)
Desmond MacCarthy (1878-1952) - literary critic
Desmond MacCarthy : Memoirs (1953)
Hugh and Mirabel Cecil : Clever hearts (1990) - joint biography of Desmond and Molly MacCarthy
Mary MacCarthy (Molly) (1882-1953) - writer. Founder of the Memoir Club, supposed to be a
diversion for the Group
Mary MacCarthy : A Nineteenth Century Childhood (1924)
Lytton Strachey (1880-1932)
Leonard Woolf (1880-1969)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

BLOOMSBURY ASSOCIATES
E M Forster (1879-1970) - novelist
David Garnett (1892-1981) - novelist
Angelica Garnett (nee Bell) (1918- ) - daughter of Duncan Grant & Vanessa Bell.
Married David Garnett
Lydia Keynes (nee Lopokova) - ballerina. Wife of J M Keynes
Others include :
Dorothy Brett
Lady Ottoline Morrell - wife of Philip Morell, Liberal MP
Frances Partridge
Alison Whaley
Dora Carrington (1893-1932) - devoted herself to Lytton Strachey.
Committed suicide after his death

READING
J K Johnstone : The Bloomsbury Group (1954 Secker & Warburg 30/-)
Paul Blomfield : Uncommon People (1955)
F R Leavis : The Common Pursuit (1964)
Quentin Bell : Bloomsbury (1968)
Isabelle Anscombe : Omega and After - Bloomsbury & the Decorative Arts
(1971 Thames & Hudson)
David Gadd : The Loving Friends (1974)
(Ed) S P Rosenbaum : The Bloomsbury Book - An Anthology (1975)
Richard Shone : Bloomsbury Portraits (1976)
Elizabeth French Boyd : Bloomsbury Heritage - Their Mothers and Their Aunts
(1976 Hamish Hamilton)
George Spater & Ian Parsons : A Marriage of True Minds (1977)
Leon Edel : Bloomsbury - A House of Lions (1979 Hogarth Press)
S P Rosenbaum : Victorian Bloomsbury - The Early Literary History of the
Bloomsbury Group : Vol 1 (1987 Macmillan)

A Chronology of the Bloomsbury Group 1885-1920
1885 : Roger Fry at King's College, Cambridge

1894 : Desmond MacCarthy at Trinity

1895 : Death in Kensington of Julia Jackson Stephen, wife of Leslie Stephen,
mother of Vaness and Virginia, who are educated at home

1899 : Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolk & Thorby Stephen enter Trinity,
meet and found Midnight Society

1900 : Vaness and Virginia in Cambridge for May Week encounter their brother
Thoby's friends, Clive, Lytton & Leonard

1901 : Roger Fry writes art criticism for "Atheneum", has been painting since 1892;
Vanessa Stephen at Royal ACademy Schools

1902 : Duncan Grant at Westminster Art School; Leonard Woolf and Lytton Strachey
elected "Apostles" in Cambridge secret society, Desmond & Roger being earlier members;
Maynard Keynes arrives at King's

1903 : Keynes elected Apostle; Desmond critic for "Speaker"

1904 : Virginia Stephen writes book reviews; Leslie Stephen dies; daughters move with
brothers Thoby & Adrian from Kensington to Bloomsbury, 46 Gordon Square;
Clive Bell in Paris learning about art; Leonard goes to Ceylon as colonial civil servant;
Lytton lingers in Cambridge in hope of a Fellowship

1905 : BLOOMSBURY - The first phase: Thoby Stephen invites to Gordon Square his Cambridge
friends for Thursday "at homes" where they also find Vanessa and Virginia;
Vanessa organises Friday Club, an arts club; Strachey leaves Cambridge without becoming a don

1906 : Desmond marries Mary (Molly) Warre-Cornish; Duncan Grant studies art in Paris; Keynes
in India Office as civil servant; Thoby dies of typhoid after trip to Greece

1907 : BLOOMSBURY - second pahse : Clive and Vanessa marry; Virginia and Adrian move to
29 Fitzroy Square; Thursday evening "at homes" now alternate between Gordon Square
and Fitzroy Square; Lytton writes for "Spectator"

1908 : Julian Bell born; Leonard Woolf attains post in Ceylon of Assitant Government
Agent at Hambantota

1909 : Keynes elected Fellow of King's; Duncan paints at 21 Fitzroy Square

1910 : Roger Fry meets Clive and Vanessa and is introduced to Bloomsbury; stages first
Post-Impressionist show at Grafton Galleries with Desmond as secretary;
birth of Quentin Bell

1911 : BLOOMSBURY - Third Phase : Virginia, Adrian, Maynard, Duncan and shortly after,
Leonard (returning from Ceylon on leave) move into 38 Brunswick Square;
Roger & Vanessa fall in love

1912 : Leonard Woolf resigns from Ceylon Civil Service, woos and marries Virginia Stephen;
second Post-Impressionist show with Bloomsbury participating and leonard as
secretary, staged by Roger; Keynes editor of "Economic Review"

1913 : Leonard reviews for the "New Statesman", writes "The Village in the Jungle";
Keynes publishes "Indian Currency & Finance"; Roger founds Omega Workshops; Virginia has
a breakdown and long illness; Desmond becomes drama critic of "New Statesman"

1914 : Clive Bell publishes "Art"; Leonard Woolf publishes "The Wise Virgins", a novel about
Bloomsbury; with advent of war, Desmond goes to France as ambulance driver;
Keynes accepts post at the Treasury

1915 : Clive Bell's "Peace at Once" publicly burned; Virginia attempts suicide;
her first novel 'The Voyage Out' is published

1916 : Leonard's two reports on "International Government"; Lytton & leonard exempted from
service for health reasons; Clive, Duncan and young David Garnett farm in lieu of service;
Vanessa moves with Duncan to Charleston Farm, where they henceforth reside

1917 : Woolfs buy printing press and establish Hogarth Press at Hogarth House, Richmond,
where they live; Leonard becomes adviser to Labour Party on imperial and
international questions; Virginia begins to keep a diary; Lytton Strachey sets up house
with Dora Carrington at Tidmarsh, Berkshire

1918 : Angelia Bell born at Charleston; Lytton brings out "Eminent Victorians"

1919 : Keynes at Paris Peace Conference as principal representative of the Treasury, criticizes
Treaty and resigns; writes the "Economic Consequences of the Peace" at Charleston

1920 : With peace, Bloomsbury individuals, publishing, writing, painting, active in economics
and politics, exercise wide influence but are unaware of collective power, which is
considerable Bloomsbury establishes a Memoir Club and meets regularly to reminisce.
The friends, now middle-aged, will go on the large achievements during the next
20 years "between the wars."