Sitwell Family, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell

(1887-1988)

   The Sitwells were probably the most famous literary family of their time. They were the children of Sir George Reresby Sitwell 4th Baronet, and his wife, Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison, daughter of the Earl of Londesborough. They were born and brought up in Renishaw Hall, on the Derbyshire heights not far from Chesterfield.

   • Dame Edith Louisa, 1887-1964

   Her earliest known verses were published in the Daily Mirror in 1913, and from 1916 to 1921 she ran Wheels, an annual anthology of new poems, which, in 1919, published seven of Wilfred Owen's war poems (see entry). In 1923 she performed her long poem Façade at London's Aeolian Hall to music composed by William Walton. She was awarded honorary doctorates of letters by the universities of Oxford, Leeds, Durham, and Sheffield and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1954. She died in London. During World War II, she wrote poems about the blitz and other war issues. Still Falls the Rain describes a London air raid. Some of her other publications: The Mother and Other Poems, 1915. The Sleeping Beauty, 1924. Gold Coast Customs, 1929. Gardeners and Astronomers, 1953. Music and Ceremonies, 1963. Some of her poems: "Elegy on Dead Fashion," "The King of China's Daughter," "The Madness of Saul," "Three Poems of the Atomic Bomb."

   • Sir Francis Osbert, 1892-1969

   Born in London and educated at Eton College, he served as a Grenadier Guards officer in World War I. His first poem, Babel, was published in The Times on 11 May 1916. He succeeded as 5th baronet in 1943 and was appointed Commander of the British Empire (1956), Companion of Honor (1958), honorary doctor of laws of St. Andrews (1946), and honorary doctor of literature of Sheffield University (1951). He suffered from Parkinson's disease and died in London. He wrote short stories and several novels; his best is Before the Bombardment (1926), a satirical portrayal of the last phase of Victorian society in Scarborough, Yorkshire, just before World War I. His reputation rests more on his autobiographical series, Left Hand! Right Hand! (1944), Scarlet Tree (1946), Great Morning! (1947), Laughter in the Next Room (1948), and Noble Essences (1950), than on his poetry. Some of his poetry publications: Mrs. Kimber, 1937. Selected Poems, Old and New, 1943. Wrack at Tidesend, 1952. Some of his poems: "How Shall We Rise to Greet the Dawn?" "Hymn to Moloch," "In the Potting Shed," "Peace Celebration," "The Next War," "War-Horses."

   • Sir Sacheverell, 1897-1988

   He became the 6th baronet on the death of his brother in 1969. Although also a poet, he is best known for his books on art, baroque architecture, and travel. He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, but did not graduate. During World War I he served in the Grenadier Guards. Constant Lambert set his poem The Rio Grande to music; it was performed and broadcast in 1929. Sitwell was justice of the peace, 1943, and high sheriff of Northamptonshire, 1948-1949. He also wrote biographies of several composers. He was made a Companion of Honor in 1984. Some of his poetry publications: The People's Palace, 1918. Selected Poems, 1938. Tropicalia, 1971. Agamemnon's Tomb, 1972. A Notebook on My New Poems, 1974. An Indian Summer: 100 Recent Poems, 1982. Some of his poems: "Derbyshire Bluebells," "Fountains," "Kingcups," "The River God," "The Venus of Bolsover Castle," "Tulip Tree."

   Sources: British Women Writers: An Anthology from the Fourteenth Century to the Present. Dale Spender and Janet Todd, eds. Peter Bedrick Books, 1989. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Men Who March Away: Poems of the First World War. I.M. Parsons, ed. Viking Press, 1965. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Modern British Poetry. 7th rev. ed. Louis Untermeyer, ed. Harcourt, Brace, 1962. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Poetry of the World Wars. Michael Foss, ed. Peter Bedrick Books, 1990. The Chatto Book of Modern Poetry 1915-1955. Cecil Day Lewis and John Lehmann, eds. Chatto and Windus, 1966. The Collected Poems of Edith Sitwell. The Vanguard Press, 1954. The Collected Satires and Poems of Osbert Sitwell. Duckworth, 1931. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Earth is the Lord's: Poems of the Spirit. Helen Plotz, ed. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1965. The Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1892-1935. William Butler Yeats, ed. Oxford University Press, 1936. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).