Poet and biographer. Born at Scarborough into the aristocracy. 6-foot tall, with elongated features she added to the effect with her exuberant flowing and ornate clothing. Her poetry was avant garde and concerned with musicality. Her performance of Façade in 1923 has been described as early white rap or like a "happening" from the 60s, and attracted the same response - bemusement. Noel Coward's review caused her to refuse to speak to him for 40 years. But she gradually gained respect and, when she and her brother Osbert toured America they were a great success, especially with the stars in Hollywood. She was early to promote the work of Dylan Thomas. In WW2 she contributed to the war effort by knitting clothes for friends in the forces, including Alec Guinness.
Died, unmarried at St Thomas's Hospital. Her nephew, Francis, was her literary executor.
There is a wonderful 1943 portrait of her by Wyndham Lewis.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dame Edith Sitwell
Commemorated ati
Edith Sitwell
English Heritage Dame Edith Sitwell, 1887 - 1964, poet lived here in Flat 42.
Virtues - Sixth Sense
Edith Sitwell reads a book while blithely crossing a chasm on a bridge made o...
Other Subjects
William Henry Hudson
Author, naturalist and ornithologist. Born on a small ranch, Los Viente-cinco Ombúes, near Quilmes in Buenos Aires province. Came to Britain in 1874 and produced a series of ornithological studies...
George Orwell
George Orwell was born in Bengal as Eric Arthur Blair, his father was a British colonial civil servant. Joined the Indian imperial police in Burma but left in 1927 and decided to become a writer. ...
Person, Journalism / Publishing, Literature, Seriously Famous, TV & Radio, Bengal, Burma, France, India, Spain
Hayes Literary Society
We can find little about this group but they were very active in 1992 re. Orwell.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Born in Edinburgh where he trained as a doctor. Extremely successful writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories. A sportsman: a boxer, a cricketer who once dismissed W. G. Grace. The first Englishman to...
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