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
Mervyn Peake
Artist and writer. Born Mervyn Laurence Peake at Kuling in the province of Kiang-Hsi, China. His missionary parents returned to England in 1922. He attended Eltham College and then completed his e...
Caroline DeCamp Benn
Educationalist and writer. Born Cincinnati, Ohio. She came to Britain in 1948 to study at Oxford. There she met Tony Benn, who became her husband. An advocate of comprehensive education, she co-fou...
Person, Education, Literature, Politics & Administration, USA
Frances (Fanny) Burney
Born King's Lynn, Norfolk, father was Dr Charles Burney. Diarist, novelist: Evelina (1778), Cecelia (1782), Camilla (1796) and playwright. Her first novel, Evelina, was a big success and she ent...
Cecil Day Lewis
Poet and novelist. Born Ireland but brought up in London. His mystery novels were written under his pseudonym, Nicholas Blake. During the 1940s, while still married to his first wife, he had a long...
Pamela Colman Smith
A British-American occultist, artist, illustrator, writer and storyteller. Most famous for the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, first published 1910, she created the standard classic deck of the English-sp...
Person, Art, Craft / Design, Gender Issues, Literature, Paranormal, Jamaica, USA
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