Why Virginia Woolf’s century-old essay still redefines how we see illness today

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by The Conversation, click this post to read the original article.

In 1926, a significant year in cultural and political history, Virginia Woolf published her influential essay “On Being Ill” while recovering from an illness. At the time, societies were undergoing major shifts—Germany joined the League of Nations, the British coal miners’ strike led to a general worker strike, and A.A. Milne introduced the world to Winnie-the-Pooh. Woolf’s essay, initially published in T.S. Eliot’s The New Criterion, explored how sickness was largely ignored in literature. She argued illness should be treated as a powerful and confessional human experience. Despite Eliot’s lukewarm reception, Woolf and her husband Leonard valued the piece highly.

You see how Woolf used her own press, The Hogarth Press, to bring new life to the essay later that year, renaming it “Illness: An Unexploited Mine” for its American release. She eventually hand-printed a limited edition in 1930, with an emotional investment that showed in her diary entries. Her writing not only challenged literary norms but also reflected her lifelong struggle with health and creativity, giving the topic of illness a place in the human experience and arts.

Fast-forward nearly a century, and Woolf’s essay found new relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The podcast “Pandemic Pages,” co-hosted by a University of Hull academic, explores this connection, talking to creatives and healthcare professionals about how illness reshapes literature and life. In one episode, you meet Ane Thon Knutsen, a Norwegian graphic designer who revisited Woolf’s essay during lockdown. Her decision to print one sentence from the essay each day became an act of deep reflection and resonated with the stillness and uncertainty of pandemic times.

Knutsen’s project is a slow, tactile tribute that brings new dimensions to Woolf’s words. It reminds you to pause, absorb, and reflect on language, much needed in a world that moved too fast before the pandemic forced it to slow down. As the UK approaches its National Year of Reading in 2026, the continued relevance of Woolf’s work encourages you to reconnect with literature as a space for healing, empathy, and contemplation.