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
Wyndham Lewis
Artist and writer. Born Percy Wyndham Lewis but he didn't like the Percy and dropped it. He was born in his wealthy American father's yacht off Amherst, Nova Scotia, to a British mother who left he...
Person, Art, Literature, USA
Michael Flanders
Broadcaster, writer and performer. Born Michael Henry Flanders in Hampstead. He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, but contracted poliomyelitis and spent the rest of his life as a wheelcha...
Person, Literature, Music / songs, Theatre, TV & Radio, Wales
Samuel Augustine Courtauld
Philanthropist and editor. Associated with Halstead, Braintree. Almost certainly related to Samuel Courtauld of Institute fame but we cannot discover how.
Ruth Rendell
Crime writer. Born Ruth Barbara Grasemann in South Woodford. She started work as a feature writer for the Chigwell Times, but was forced to resign after filing a story about a local sports club din...
Sir Leslie Stephen
Scholar, writer and mountaineer. Born in Kensington Gore, (now 42 Hyde Park Gate). Father of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. He became an Anglican clergyman but later renounced his religious belie...
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Sir Ambrose Heal
Furniture designer and retailer. Born at Crouch End. Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art before joining the family firm which ran the Heal & Son department store. He designed the simple, st...
Herman Melville
WC2, Craven Street, 25
Herman Melville stayed at number 25 for two months in 1849. 2021: This house is available to rent (£19,500 a month, since you ask). Mans...
Crimean War
War between Russia and an alliance of France, Germany, Britain, Turkey and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Major battles include those at Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol, where they still occasionally find ...
L. C. Parkes
Louis Coltman Parkes. A medical doctor. Medical Officer of Health for Chelsea in 1909. Authored a good number of medical books - held by the Wellcome Collection. Obituary in the BMJ 31 October 19...