T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf, 1924; photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell (University of St. Andrew)
Please Note: This program's date has changed. It was originally scheduled for July 27, 2017.
“The world broke in two in 1922 or thereabouts.” Willa Cather
In the opening days of 1922, several leading writers of the time found themselves struggling to find their voice. As portrayed in author Bill Goldstein’s new book, The World Broke in Two, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, and E.M. Forster were caught off-balance as the emergence of modernism caused the literary ground to shift. A new kind of expression burst through with the publication in February of James Joyce’s groundbreaking novel Ulysses, followed by such books as Marcel Proust’s shimmering In Search of Lost Time.
Luckily, Woolf and the others wasted little time catching the trend. By the end of the year, Woolf had started Mrs. Dalloway, Forster returned to work on the novel that became A Passage to India; Lawrence had written Kangaroo, his unjustly neglected and most autobiographical novel; and Eliot finished his masterpiece, “The Waste Land."
Goldstein highlights the literary breakthroughs and intense personal dramas of writers caught in the wave of cultural change. The World Broke in Two (Henry Holt) is available for sale and signing after the program.
