Holly Henry investigates how advances in astronomy in the early twentieth century influenced Woolf's literature and aesthetics and the work of such modernist British writers as Vita Sackville-West, H.G. Wells, and T.S. Eliot. In re-evaluating the cultural context out of which Modernism emerged, Henry contends that Woolf formulated a global vision that helped shape her fiction and her pacifist politics through her fascination with astronomy. Henry's study includes revealing examinations of unpublished scientific and literary archival material.