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
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Poet and writer. Born Anna Letitia Aikin at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire. She had a successful career at a time when women rarely were professional writers. Her writing includes essays, poems ...
Dr Jose Rizal
Writer and national hero of the Philippines during the Spanish colonial times. Born Laguna. Executed by firing squad in Manila. He was in London, working at the British Library, May 1888 to January...
Person, Execution, Jack the Ripper suspects, Literature, Nationalism, Philippines
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...
John Thelwall
Orator, writer and elocutionist. Born in Covent Garden. It was as a political activist that he became well known. He was tried for treason and spent some time in the Tower of London and Newgate. He...
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