Books: Suicide Note

When British Novelist Virginia Woolf disappeared five weeks ago on the banks of the River Ouse (TIME, April 14), Husband Leonard Woolf did not make public the note she left him. Last fortnight it was read at the coroner’s inquest which pronounced her death a suicide “while the balance of her mind was disturbed.” Her letter said:

“I have the feeling that I shall go mad and cannot go on any longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it, but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness in life to you. You have been so perfectly good. I cannot go on and spoil your life.”