MS 768 03
Reference code
MS 768 03
Title
The Sitwells collection: Invitation from Edith Sitwell
Level
Item
Administrative / Biographical history
Sitwell, Edith, 1887-1964
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was the eldest of the three Sitwell children. Edith claimed in her autobiography, Taken Care Of (1965), that her career as a poet disappointed her father, Sir George Sitwell, and described herself as an unloved child. As a teen Edith began to read and write poetry, and in 1913 she left home and moved to London to pursue a literary career. In 1916 she began editing Wheels, and her own collections of poetry soon followed. In 1923 she performed her poem Facade at the Aeolian Hall, giving a stylised performance that marked the beginning of her fame.
Edith continued to publish eccentric and sometimes controversial poetry through the 1920s. In 1930 she published a biography of Alexander Pope, and in 1936 a biography of Queen Victoria and, later that year, her first novel, I Live under a Black Sun. By the mid-1950s she had received several honorary degrees, the medal of the Royal Society of Literature and a Damehood. She died on 9th December 1964 and is buried at Weedon Lois.
[Adapted from G. A. Cevasco, 'Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)]
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was the eldest of the three Sitwell children. Edith claimed in her autobiography, Taken Care Of (1965), that her career as a poet disappointed her father, Sir George Sitwell, and described herself as an unloved child. As a teen Edith began to read and write poetry, and in 1913 she left home and moved to London to pursue a literary career. In 1916 she began editing Wheels, and her own collections of poetry soon followed. In 1923 she performed her poem Facade at the Aeolian Hall, giving a stylised performance that marked the beginning of her fame.
Edith continued to publish eccentric and sometimes controversial poetry through the 1920s. In 1930 she published a biography of Alexander Pope, and in 1936 a biography of Queen Victoria and, later that year, her first novel, I Live under a Black Sun. By the mid-1950s she had received several honorary degrees, the medal of the Royal Society of Literature and a Damehood. She died on 9th December 1964 and is buried at Weedon Lois.
[Adapted from G. A. Cevasco, 'Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)]
Date
[c.1930?]
Extent & medium
1 item
Content description
A single invitation to a Pavel Tchelitchew private view at Arthur Tooth & Sons, Bond Street. The invitation is inscribed by Edith Sitwell: "Dear Tom. Do [?bring] people. Yours ever, Edith". Tom is Tom Balston. Edith Sitwell had a close, if unrequited, relationship with Tchelitchew.
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