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Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell Papers, 1917-1972

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Sitwell, Edith, 1887-1964.
Title
Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell Papers
Dates
1917-1972 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.5 Linear feet of shelf space, (3 Boxes)
Collection Number
Cage 531 (collection)
Summary
Papers of Edith Sitwell, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell, consisting of correspondence with friends and associates, manuscripts of poetry, articles and portions of books, miscellaneous dedicatory and inscribed materials, and non-literary materials. Significant correspondants include Roy Campbell, Graham Greene, Helen Rootham, Elizabeth Salter, and others.
Repository
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open and available for research use.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Dame Edith Sitwell was born September 7, 1887, in Scarborough, England, the eldest child of Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell, and sister of Osbert (1892-1969) and Sacheverell (1897- ) Sitwell. She was privately educated. In 1914, she moved to London with her governess Helen Rootham and lived there for the next eighteen years. She resided in London and Paris throughout her life and spent most of her summers at the family estate, Renishaw Hall. For a brief period during World War I she worked as a clerk in a goverment office, after which she diligently pursued a writing career. She was awarded honorary doctorates of literature by the universities of Oxford, Leeds, Durham, and Sheffield. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1954 and became a Companion of Literature (awarded by the Royal Society of Literature) in 1963. Dame Edith died in London December 9, 1964. Poet, critic, anthologist, and champion of Modernism, Edith Sitwell entered the English literary world during the 1920s enmeshed in controversy, remaining there for nearly fifty years. Her avant-garde approach to art and fashion, quick-witted repartees, and flamboyant appearance combined to distinguish her as a major writer and eccentric personality. Edith's appearance and highly publicized personal vendettas were largely responsible for her striking image as a high priestess of modern poetry. Nearly six feet tall, she invented her own fashions, donning flowing robes, turbans, and huge aquamarine rings to accentuate her height and large features. Her lightning-quick responses, usually witty and often venomous, invited banter from critics and the press. Her better-known adversaries included D.H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis and Noel Coward. Edith was also generous, however, in her support for new, young writers. Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Aldous Huxley greatly benefited from her encouragement and promotional schemes.

Sir (Francis) Osbert Sitwell was born December 6, 1892, in London, the son of Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell, and the brother of Edith (1887-1964) and Sacheverell (1897- ) Sitwell. He attended private preparatory schools in Scarborough and New Barnet, and Eton College. After Eton, Osbert spent two years at a military "crammer" in Camberley and in 1912 was commissioned in the Nottingham Yeomanry. He served with the Grenadier Guards during World War I and left the army in 1919. In 1943 Osbert succeeded his father as fifth baronet. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an honorary associate of the American National Institute of Arts and Letters, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He received a Commander Order of the British Empire in 1956 and was named Companion of Honour in 1958. Osbert Sitwell's writing career spanned a period of over fifty years, but it was in the first quarter of the twentieth century that he earned the reputation which would endure his lifetime. Osbert, along with his sister Edith and, to a lesser extent, his brother Sacheverell, publicly challenged what they perceived to be, a sedentary and prosaic British society. Emerging from an aristocratic background, the trio was often referred to as "enfants terribles," in their haste to usher in all that was new in art, literature, music, and fashion, and scourge all that was not. During their heyday, Osbert vociferously campaigned against the Georgian poets, pompous conventionality, and anything that smacked of philistinism. In turn, he ardently promoted Modernism and supported such writers as Eliot, Pound, and Huxley. As a controversial journalist, poet, art critic, novelist, and autobiographer, Osbert voiced his opinions in an acerbic, witty, and highly original writing style. Over the years he published numerous successful works, but his most sustained achievement was his five-volume autobiography, Left Hand, Right Hand, which was published during the years 1944-1950. In the last years of his life Osbert was increasingly incapacitated with Parkinson's disease. He died in 1969.

Sir Sacheverell Sitwell was born November 15, 1897, in Scarborough, England, the youngest child of Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell and the brother of Edith (1887-1964) and Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969). He attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and served with the Grenadier Guards in World War I. In 1925 he married Georgia Doble (d. 1980); the couple had two sons, Reresby and Francis. He became the sixth baronet upon the death of his brother in 1969. Sacheverell has resided at Weston Hall, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, since 1929. A prolific and eclectic writer, Sacheverell has authored over seventy books of poetry, biography, and architectural, art, music, travel, and natural history description. Although he did not achieve the notoriety enjoyed by Edith and Osbert, he has earned considerable distinction as a poet and art critic.

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Content Description

The papers of Edith Sitwell, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell, consist of correspondence, writings, and miscellanea.

Outgoing correspondence in the collection informally addresses some aspect of the Sitwells' literary affairs including lecture tours, work in progress, relations with the press and critics, and appraisal of other writers. Many of the letters also discuss personal concerns such as friends and relatives, illness, finances and household activity. In the case of Edith Sitwell, a major portion is comprised of Edith's letters to her two secretaries, Dorothy Marshall and Elizabeth Salter. Salter quoted from many of these in her memoir of Edith, The Last Years of a Rebel (1967). Incoming items are single letters or small groups of letters from Sitwell friends or literary representatives who, for the most part, discuss literary projects and literary figures.

Many of the untitled manuscripts are bound notebooks containing a variety of work written over a lengthy period of time, including many titled pieces. Manuscript material, often heavily revised and corrected, consists of handwritten poetry (later published) and drafts of published articles and portions of books.

The miscellanea consists of material dedicated to the Sitwells or written about them, works published by friends, and Sitwell items not of a literary nature such as bank account books

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Preferred Citation

[Item description]

Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell Papers, 1917-1972 (Cage 531)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection consists of three groups: Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell and Sacheverell Sitwell. Each group is organized in three series: Correspondence, Writings, and Miscellanea.

The Correspondence series consists of outgoing and incoming correspondence. Outgoing items are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the recipient. Incoming items are arranged alphabetically by the correspondent.

The Writings series comprises titled manuscripts, arranged alphabetically, and untitled manuscripts, arranged chronologically.

The Miscellanea series is arranged chronologically.

Acquisition Information

The papers of Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell have been purchased from various sources by the Washington State University Libraries, beginning in 1972. In 1987, several of these groups of papers were brought together to form this collection. Additions were made almost immediately after the collection was organized, and further additions can be expected to be made again in subsequent years.

Related Materials

Thomas Balston Papers of the Sitwells, 1924-1960 (Cage 9)

Siegfried Sassoon Papers of the Sitwells, 1918-1957 (Cage 165)

Nina Hamnett Papers, 1914-1953 (Cage 534)

Stephen Tennant Papers, 1929-1977 (Cage 643)

Ada Leverson Letters from the Sitwells, circa 1920-1935 (Cage 4669)

Stephen Tennant Papers, 1945-1953 (Cage 4722)

Edith Sitwell Correspondence, 1922-1964 (Cage 4793)

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Jennifer Brathovde
2021

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