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
Dickens Fellowship
A worldwide association of people who share an interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens, based at the Charles Dickens Museum since 1925.
Percy Fitzgerald, FSA
Sculptor, painter and author. Born Ireland. The picture source website has a second picture of Fitzgerald, sadly no more flattering than this one.
Rape of the Lock
Poem by Alexander Pope. Its convoluted plot concerns a character called Belinda and a count who is determined to obtain a lock of her hair. Originally written in two cantos, it was expanded in 1714...
Nordahl Grieg
Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist. Our Norwegian consultant, Johanne Elster Hanson, says that "Grieg adored England and spent many periods of his life here. He...
Virginia Woolf
Born as Adeline Virginia Stephen in Hyde Park Gate, London. Drowned herself in the River Ouse Rodmell, Sussex by filling pockets with stones. Virginia and Leonard Woolf lived at no. 52 Tavistock S...
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