Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell (September 7 1887 – December 9 1964) was a British poet and critic.

Later works

During World War II, Sitwell retired to Renshaw with her brother Osbert and wrote under the light of oil lamps. She knitted clothes for their friends who served in the army. One of the beneficiaries was young Alec Guinness, who received a pair of seaboot stockings.

Related Topics:
World War II - Alec Guinness

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The poems she wrote during the war brought her back before a public which had been taught to ignore her; Street Songs (1942), The Song of the Cold (1945) and The Shadow of Cain (1947) were much praised; Still Falls the Rain, about the London blitz, remains perhaps her best-known poem (it was set to music by Benjamin Britten).

Related Topics:
Street Songs - The Song of the Cold - The Shadow of Cain - Still Falls the Rain - Benjamin Britten

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In 1948 Sitwell toured USA with her brothers, reciting her poetry and, notoriously, giving a reading of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene. Her poetry recitals were always occasions; she made recordings of her poems, and two recordings of Façade, the first with Constant Lambert as co-narrator, and the second with Peter Pears.

Related Topics:
Façade - Constant Lambert - Peter Pears

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She became a DBE - Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire - DBE in 1954. In 1955 she converted to Roman Catholicism. She wrote two books about Queen Elizabeth I, Fanfare for Elizabeth (1946) and The Queens and the Hive (1962). Though she always claimed that she wrote prose simply for money, both these books were extremely successful, as were her English Eccentrics (1933) and Victoria of England (1963). Her only novel, I Live under a Black Sun, based on the life of Jonathan Swift, was published in 1937.

Related Topics:
DBE - Roman Catholicism - Queen Elizabeth I - Fanfare for Elizabeth - The Queens and the Hive - English Eccentrics - Victoria of England - I Live under a Black Sun - Jonathan Swift

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In her 70s she was confined to a wheelchair. Her last poetry reading was in 1962.

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Edith Sitwell died in 1964 at the age of 77.

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In 1991, another British eccentric, Morrissey, appropriated Sitwell's image for use as a stage backdrop and t-shirt design during his his "Kill Uncle" tour.

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