Edith Sitwell

by Richard Greene

  Pestelli, Luigi 433

  Petrouchka (Stravinsky) 151

  Phenomena (Tchelitchew) 193, 222, 264, 346, 441

  Philosophy of History, The (Hegel) 200

  phonofilms 185

  Picasso, Pablo 127, 190, 193, 194, 352, 390

  Pickering, H. Sidney 242

  Pickford, Mary 368

  Piper, John 291, 334

  Pisa 362

  Pissarro, Lucien 72

  Planet and Glow-Worm (E. Sitwell) 297

  Pleasures of Poetry, The (E. Sitwell) 204, 238

  Pleydell-Bouverie, Alice 338, 345, 350, 356, 371

  Pleydell-Bouverie, David 386

  Plomer, William 341–2, 343, 358, 412

  Poems New and Old (E. Sitwell) 279

  Poetry 390–1, 392, 393

  Poetry and Criticism (E. Sitwell) 178

  Poetry of the Present (Grigson) 357– 8

  Poetry Review 358

  Poet’s Notebook, A (E. Sitwell) 296– 7

  Polemic 334

  politics, and poetry 308–9

  Pope, Alexander 204–5, 218, 425; The Rape of the Lock 39; Dunciad 110

  Pope, Jesse 107; Jesse Pope’s War Poems 107

  Porter, Alan 143

  Porter, Katherine Anne 360–1

  Porter, Neil 182

  Post-Impressionist art 74–5

  Poulenc, Francis 138, 315–16

  Pound, Ezra 76, 114, 124, 126, 128, 143, 145, 177, 241

  Powell, Anthony 238–9

  Powell, Edith 195–6, 212

  Powys, John Cowper 407

  Prausnitz, Frederick 351

  Prévost, Jean 221

  Priestley, J. B. 282

  Primrose League 34

  Princeps, Gavrilo 144

  Prokofiev, Sergei 70, 272

  Pryce-Jones, Alan 356–7, 410–11

  psychoanalysis 151, 190, 240

  Psychology of the Unconscious, The (Jung) 335–6

  puppets 20, 148–9, 151

  Purcell–Handel Festival 425

  Purdy, James 402–3, 407–8, 417; Don’t Call Me By My Right Name 402

  Queen Elizabeth (ship) 345, 353, 369

  Queens and the Hive, The (E. Sitwell) 401, 412, 418, 423, 426–7, 434–5

  Quilter, Roger 70–1, 141

  Radburne Hall 230

  Ransom, John Crowe 419

  Rape of the Lock, The (A. Pope) 39

  Raphael, Enid 181

  Raymond, John 412

  Read, Herbert 136–7, 161, 240, 315, 317; Form in Modern Poetry 242

  Reed, Henry 332–3

  Reeve, Diana 338

  reincarnation 434

  Reisch, Walter 377, 381, 387–8

  Reitze, A. V. 54–5

  Renishaw Hall 13–14, 89, 131, 264, 291–2, 338, 363, 425; ES on 23–4, 24–5; ghosts 24; tapestries 24–5; landscaping 25–6; grounds 25–7; livestock 26–7; family portraits 44–5; ES’s twenty-first birthday party 62–3; lifestyle 63–4; furnishings 64; 1914: 90; exorcism 105–6, 142; ES visits, 1928: 201–2; ES visits, 1933: 228–9; during Second World War 1, 270–1, 276–7; V-1 rocket attacks 313; influence of 316; Auden visits 371

  Rexroth, Kenneth 392

  Reynolds News 281–2, 283

  Ribblesdale, Lady 345

  Rickword, Edgell 172

  Riding, Laura 193–4

  Ridler, Anne 409

  Rieu, E. V. 418

  Rimbaud 42, 115, 139–40, 141, 145, 194, 218, 392

  Road to Xanadu, The (Lowes) 306

  Roberts, Denys Kilham 329, 388

  Robins, John 271

  Robins, Susan 373

  Robles, August 395

  Robson, Flora 329

  Rockefeller, Mary 345

  Rodin, Auguste 68

  Roethke, Theodore 367

  Rohan, Mary 378

  Romain, Jules 221

  Rome 362, 407

  Rootham, Cyril Bradley 42, 141

  Rootham, Daniel 41–2

  Rootham, Ernest 325, 376, 389, 399

  Rootham, Ethel 42

  Rootham, Helen 5; appointed governess 41; background 41–2; musical talents 42; Sacheverell on 42, 105; Paris 1904–5: 48–9, 50–2; prudishness 49; neurasthenia 50–1; visits to Berlin, 1905: 52–5; letters to Sir George from Berlin 53–4; character 54; and the borrowing scandal 84–5; London, 1914: 86–7; ES’s provision for 88–9; exorcism of Renishaw Hall elemental 105–6, 142; Rimbaud translations 115, 139–40, 145; and religion 132, 142; and the Anglo-French Poetry Society 138; singing ambitions frustrated 140–1; breakdown with ES 140–7; Acton on 141–2; eccentricity 142; engagement 143, 196–7; and Mitrinovic 143–5; and the South Slavs 143–5; short fiction 145; Fundamentals of Music and their Relation to Modern Life 146; and Tchelitchew 191; breast cancer 196–7; decline 216; spinal cancer 228, 262; convalesance 237; declining health 251–2, 256–7, 258, 262–4; and the Spanish Civil War 253–4; death 89, 264, 265; will 293

  Rootham, Samuel 41

  Rosenberg, Isaac 106

  Ross, Robert 121, 123–4, 124, 132

  Rota, Bertram 103

  Rothenstein, Albert 72, 74, 116

  Rothenstein, John 74

  Rothenstein, William 72, 116

  Royal Academy 62

  Royal Air Force 271

  Royal College of Music 152

  Royal Festival Hall 374, 425, 436–7

  Royal Society of Literature 235, 418, 440

  Rubinstein, Arthur 70

  Rubio, Agustín 34

  Russell, Bertrand 121, 125

  Russell, Walter 72

  Rustic Elegies (E. Sitwell) 178

  Sackbut 160

  Sackville-West, Edward 395–6

  Sackville-West, Lionel 286

  Sackville-West, Vita 138, 295, 296; The Land 181; Pepita 286

  Sadducimus Triumphatus 173

  St John Gogarty, Oliver 256

  Salm-Salm, Princess (née Agnes Joy) 49–50

  Salter, Elizabeth 118, 191, 411–12, 417, 420, 421–2, 425–6, 431, 431–2, 435, 438, 440, 442

  Samain, Albert 76

  San Remo 49–50

  Sanders, Neill 437

  Sands, Ethel 72, 133

  Sappho 70, 320

  Sappho (Wharton) 71

  Sarasota 351–2, 368

  Sargent, John Singer 44–5, 67, 68

  Sartre, Jean-Paul 335; Huis-clos (No Exit) 335

  Sassoon, Siegfried 5, 108, 109, 113, 120–1, 122, 128, 129, 130, 139, 169, 182, 184–5, 194, 197, 201, 202–3, 205–6, 207, 216, 235, 256, 276, 359, 374, 389; The Old Huntsman 120; ‘Too Fantastic for Fat-Heads’ review 157; Emblems of Experience 374

  Saturday Review 17, 366

  Saturday Review of Literature 210–11

  Savage, Bernard 365

  Scarborough 14–15, 57, 80, 89, 132; cricket festival 9; Magdalens home 15; Grand Hotel 20; harbour 20; lifeboat 20, 21; summer 20–1; autumn 21; fishing 21; Belvoir House 21–2; tramps 21–2; poverty 22; family gatherings 22–3; German bombardment of 91; general election, 1918: 134

  Scarborough Post 17

  Schallert, Edwin 380–1

  Schiff, Sydney 136, 180, 212, 213

  Schiff, Violet 176

  Schuster, David 50

  Scott, Cyril 70, 141

  Scott, Paul 408

  Scrutiny 237, 238

  Searle, Gillen 375

  Searle, Humphrey 355–6, 374–5, 399

  Second World War 401; ES’s Goebbels letter 269–70; ES at Renishaw Hall 270–1; ES’s poetry 272–6, 281; siege of Warsaw 274; fall of France 277; Dunkirk evacuation 2, 277; the Blitz 280–1, 283; invasion of the Soviet Union 285; the Holocaust 295; DDay 309; liberation of Paris 310; V-1 rocket attacks 312–13; concentration camps 317, 321–2; VE Day 317; bombing of Nagasaki 318, 323

  Seferis, George 308

  Selected Poems (E. Sitwell) 246

  Selver, Paul 164

  Sense and Poetry (Sparrow) 240

  servants 28–36, 102; nurse maids 30–1; governesses 31–5, 41–3
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  Sesame, Imperial and Pioneer Club 247, 248, 249, 258, 264, 278, 290, 296, 317, 358, 371, 407–8, 426, 427, 429, 430–1

  Shakespeare and Company, Paris 220–2

  Shanks, Edward 170

  Shaping Spirit: Studies in Modern English and American Poets, The (Alvarez) 410

  Shaw, Sebastian 436

  Shearman, Monty 133

  Sheffield 34, 285, 316; air raids December 1940: 1, 2, 280–1; Claremont Nursing Home 428

  Sheffield, University of 343

  Shinwell, Manny 361

  shipwrecks 20

  shooting 9, 13

  Sicily 79–80, 373

  Sickert, Walter 100, 116; relationship with Elsie Swinton 68; ES’s introduction to 69; La Vecchia 69; The Camden Town Murder 71–2; career 71–3; and ES 72–4; as candidate for Jack the Ripper 71–2; and the ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ exhibition 75; death 294

  Sinclair, Upton 144

  Singleton, Geoffrey 136

  Sitwell, Blanche 14, 88, 92, 97, 104, 207

  Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa: lack of confidence 4; logical positivism 4–5; character 5; ease of targeting 5; key influences 5; birth 7; childhood 7, 10–13, 26–7, 30; on mother 7–8, 10; maternal background 7–13; on grandmother 8; personal style 8–9; appearance 9, 39–40, 48, 135, 187–8, 203, 296, 335; unreliability as witness 10; relationship with mother 10–11, 13, 39, 47, 202; and grandfather 12; and blood sports 13; relationship with father 13, 18–19, 39, 47, 63, 87; paternal background 13–19; on Louisa Sitwell 15; and Florence Sitwell 15–16; on father 18; on Scarborough 21; and poverty 22; and Renishaw Hall 23–4, 316; and Henry Moat 29–30; education 31–5, 48; honorary degree 33; hockey playing 34; music lessons 34; curvature of the spine 35–41; removal of adenoids 36–7, 41; back brace 37–8; on Lydia King-Church 38–9; sense of kinship with Pope 39; nose-truss 40–1; influence of Helen Rootham on 42–3; and Sargent family portrait 45; confirmation 46; emerging writing skill 47; finishing 48; Paris, 1904–5: 48–9, 50–2; in San Remo 49–50; neurasthenia 51; curvature of the spine cured 51–2; visits to Berlin, 1905 52–5; visits to Ingleborough 56, 57; coming out 57–62; at Ashridge 58–9; presentation at court 59; twenty-first birthday party 62–3; on Swinburne 66–7; visit to Swinburne’s grave 66–7; on Blake 67; passion for Yeats 67; personal mythology 67; Elsie Swinton’s influence on 67–71; introduction to Sickert 69; interest in violent murder 72, 100–1, 395; and Sickert 71–4; and modern art 74–5; and the French Symbolist poets 76; theory of Symbolism 75–6; visit to Sicily, 1910: 79–80; family troubles 79–97; stuck in Scarborough 80; death of Lady Hamner 80–1; and Tom Spring-Rice 81; visit to Florence 81–2; and the borrowing scandal 84–5; London, 1914: 86–8; diamond pendant inheritance 87–8; provision for Helen Rootham 88–9; on mother’s alcoholism 89; Paris, 1914: 89; and mother’s trial 92, 95; debut publication 98–9; Joan Wake’s influence 99; Pembridge Mansions furnishings 101; war work 101–2, 295–6; photographer’s shop incident 102; servants 102; Pembridge Mansions housework 102–3; first book published 103–4; first review 103–4; visits Sacheverell at Eton 105; exorcism of Renishaw Hall elemental 106; and reality 110; career phases 110–11; Fry portraits 111–12; emerging fame 111–12; at homes 112–13; relationship with Guevara 116–19; Guevara portrait 117; friendship with Huxley begins 119–20; and Sasson 122; anti-Semitism 123, 201; pacifism 123, 276, 319; and Gosse 123–4; friendship with T. S. Eliot 125–6; and Owen’s poems 129–30; and Nichols 130–2; and religion 132; Armistice celebrations 133–4; and Mew 134–5; friendship with Woolf 135–6; and Read 136–7, 315; and Marguerite Bennett 137–40; establishes Anglo-French Poetry Society 138–9; Bennett’s opinion of 140; breakdown of friendship with HR 140–7; on Mitrinovic 143–4; and ballet 150–2; on Stravinsky 151; collaboration with Walton 152–7, 181–2; ‘Too Fantastic for Fat-Heads review 157; on Wyndham Lewis 159; Wyndham Lewis portrait 159–60; first attempt at autobiography 161–2; friendship with Graves 164–5; agents 166–7; Noyes debate 167; and Coward 168–70; grave 173, 444; visits to Weston Hall 173; and Stein 174, 177, 180; social awareness 175–6, 196, 260, 319–20; meets Stein 176–7; back operation 177; Woolf on 177–8, 187–8; and SS’s marriage 179–80; Montegufoni visit, 1925: 179–80; and Harper 180–1; political views 182–3; and the General Strike 182–3; friendship with Sassoon 184–5, 235; Beaton photographs 185; and Lawrence 186–7; first meets Tchelitchew 189; Tchelitchew correspondence 6, 33, 191, 336; relationship with Tchelitchew 191–3, 203–4, 231, 235–6, 246–7, 265, 336, 345, 427; taste in men 192, 359; Tchelitchew portraits 193; break with Graves 193–4; and Picasso 194; Christmas, 1927: 195; letters 198; sense of humour 198; visit to Renishaw Hall, 1928: 201–2; relationship with Sassoon 205–6; lectures 206; expedites Tchelitchew’s visa 206–7; income 207; promotes Tchelitchew 207–9; Jefferson book dispute 208–9; concussion 209; portrayal in The Apes of God 212–13; denies is a lesbian 213; Florence Sitwell inheritance 215; reconciliation with Eliot 216–17; Paris visit, 1931: 218–19; visits Tchelitchew in Paris 219; Shakespeare and Company reading 220–2; move to Paris 223–4, 225; nurses Helen Rootham 228, 237; visit to Renishaw Hall, 1933: 228–9; and Tanner 230; correspondence with Charlotte Franken Haldane 232–4; on Leavis 238; and the Surrealists 239–40; plagiarism 243; at Levanto 244–6; on Greenwood 246; in Gerona 248; and Thomas 249, 328; and fame 250–1; and the Spanish Civil War 253, 254; Tchelitchew portrait, 1936: 255–6; reviews Thomas 257; mother’s death and funeral 258; Northcliffe Lecture 258; support for Helen Rootham during final illness 262–4; expenses 263; and Helen Rootham’s death 264, 265; and the Sudetenland crisis 265–6; exhaustion 266; makes up with Tchelitchew 267; on Dunkirk 2; Goebbels letter 269–70; Second World War life 270–1, 276–9; refusal to go to America 278; back trouble 279–80; first meets Ellerman 280; air raids December 1940: 1, 2, 280–1; and the Blitz 280–1; Reynolds News case 281–2, 283; and the death of Virginia Woolf 283; friendship with Charles Henri Ford 283–4; friendship with Tchelitchew 284; nightmares 284–5; kindness 290, 325; Bryher’s gifts 290–1; buys house in Bath 291; puts affairs in order 293; support for Evelyn Wiel 293–4, 314, 325, 375–6, 389–90, 421–2, 440; on the Holocaust 295; religious beliefs 298; on father’s death 299, 301; inheritance 299, 301; debts 302; psychological injuries 302–3; and Splendours and Miseries 302–3; self assessment 303–4; intimidated by Tchelitchew 305; self improvement 305–9; and politics 308–9; health 309; on the French 310; Churchill Club reading 312–13; and Eliot’s Four Quartets 313; status 314, 322, 384–5; on Doolittle 314–15; writes to Greene 315; and the concentration camps 317; and the end of the war 317; and Sacheverell’s depression 317–18; and the dropping of the atomic bomb 318–19, 323; achievement 322–3; reunion with Evelyn Wiel 324–5; worries about mind 325–7; Wigmore Hall recital 328–9; search for talent 330–1; BBC Third Programme broadcasts 332–3, 335; new kind of poetry 333–4; Grigson’s Polemic article criticising 334; height 335, 380; on Sartre 335; on Jung 335–6; visits Switzerland 335–6; relationship with Yeats 336–7; Clark’s essay on 337; summer at Renishaw Hall, 1947: 338; American tour planned 338–9; and Lindsay 339–40; and symbols 340; and Plomer 341–2; friendship with Fleming 342; honorary doctorates 343–4, 371, 438; arrival in New York 344, 345–6; American tour 345–54; American tour readings 348, 352; American Façade performance 350–1; elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters 352; American tour farewell dinner 353; second American tour suggested 356; health, 1950: 361; political opinions 361; visit to Italy, 1950: 361–2; arranges Tchelitchew’s financial security 363; return to America 363–4; performance as Lady Macbeth 365–6; second tour of America 365–9; Shakespeare recordings 368; conception of humanity 369–70; and Auden 371; and Tchelitchew’s silence 372; visit to Italy, 1951–2: 372–4; renews friendship with Sassoon 374; financial situation 375–6; in Hollywood 376–81, 386–8; and Monroe 380, 402; and Thomas’s death 381–3; on Hughes 384–5; Tchelitchew re-establishes contact with 388; becomes Dame 388–9; rages 389–90; financial trouble 392; American tour, 1955:
392–6; drinking 10, 393, 404, 427–8; becomes Catholic 395–9; income tax problems 399; feeling of having been cheated 399–400; declining health 401; and Purdy 402–3; falls 404; physical decline 404–5; and Eliot’s marriage to Valerie Fletcher 405; American tour, 1957: 405–7; debts, 1957: 406; and Spark 408; and Tchelitchew’s death 408–9; mental decline 411; hires Salter 412; seventieth birthday 412; and Bateson 412–13; William Foyle Poetry Prize 414; meeting with Corso and Ginsberg 416–17; debts, 1958: 417–18; elected a vice-president of Royal Society of Literature 418; and leprosy 419–21; depression 421, 427–8, 437–8; demands on 422–3; dispute with Logue 424; television appearances 424–5; difficulty praying 425; seclusion 425; Edinburgh Festival reading 426; increasing frailty 426, 427; tax arrears 427; admitted to Claremont Nursing Home 428; emotional collapse 428; Lady Chatterley letter 429; noise battle 430–1; move to Greenhill 431–2; sells manuscripts 432–3; sells Tchelitchews paintings 432–3; debts settled 433; reincarnation of Elizabeth I 434; seventy-fifth birthday 434; will 434; rapprochement with Coward 435–6; Royal Festival Hall concert 436–7; This is Your Life appearance 437; round-the-world voyage 438–9; haemorrhages 440, 443–4; pneumonia 440; final months 441–4; death 4, 444; funeral 444; reputation 4–5

  Sitwell, Edith: poems and poetry 1–2, 5; ‘Acrobats’ 127–8; The American Genius anthology 356; The Atlantic Book of British and American Poetry 360, 419; ‘Aubade’ 102–3; ‘Bread of Angels’ 298; Bucolic Comedies 144, 166; ‘The Canticle of the Rose’ 348; The Canticle of the Rose 356–7, 360–1; ‘The Child who saw Midas’ 174; ‘Clowns’ Houses’ 109–11, 152; Clowns’ Houses 126–8, 135; Collected Poems 77, 132, 152, 210–11, 246, 392, 407, 409–11, 413–14; ‘Colonel Fantock’ 10, 31, 162–4, 174; ‘Comedy for Marionettes’ 148–9; ‘The Dancers’ 108; ‘Dark Serenade’ 232; ‘Dirge for the New Sunrise’ 348; ‘Drowned Suns’ 98–9, 103; ‘The Drum’ 173; ‘The Drunkard’ 100, 103, 114; earliest 77–8; ‘An Elegy for Dylan Thomas’ 390–1, 397; Elegy on Dead Fashion 178; ‘Epithalamium’ 232; The Faber Book of Modern Verse selection 256; Façade 4, 110, 152–7, 166, see also Façade (Sitwell and Walton); ‘Fireworks’ 126–7; Five Variations on a Theme 231–3; ‘Four in the Morning’ 174; ‘Gardeners and Astronomers’ 369–70; Gardeners and Astronomers 384, 385–6; ghostly speakers 101; ‘A Girl’s Song in Winter’ 431; glittering style 126; ‘Gold Coast Customs’ 198–201, 210, 211, 240, 319, 321, 355–6; ‘The Great Chain of Being’ 369; ‘Green Song’ 296–7; Green Song 310–13, 330; ‘Harvest’ 298, 310; ‘Heart and Mind’ 310–11; ‘His Blood Colours My Cheek’ 414–15; ‘Hornpipe’ 152; ‘In Fancy’s Tower’ 78; ‘Invocation’ 310; ‘A Lamentation’ 114; ‘The Little Ghost Who Died for Love’ 439; Look! The Sun 287; ‘Lullaby’ 2, 272–4, 276, 278, 279; ‘Madamoiselle Richarde’ 174, 175–6; ‘The Man with the Green Patch’ 175; ‘Metamorphosis’ 198, 306; ‘The Mother’ 100–1, 103, 114; The Mother and Other Poems 103–4; ‘A Mother to Her Dead Child’ 296; new kind of poetry 333–4; ‘The Night Wind’ 387–8; ‘Nocturne by myself 16 June: 1912’ 77; ‘Note: written on the very verge of sleep’ 326–7; ‘An Old Woman’ 287–9; ‘An Old Woman Laments in Springtime’ 174; ‘The Outsiders’ 416, 434; Oxford Book of Modern Verse selection 256; ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’ 360–1; Planet and Glow-Worm 297; ‘The Pleasure Gardens’ 174; The Pleasures of Poetry 204, 238; ‘Plutocracy at Play’ 122–3; Poems New and Old 279; poetic theory 3, 100, 245–6; A Poet’s Notebook 296–7; ‘Polka’ 178; ‘Popular Song’ 152; ‘Praise We Great Men’ 425; ‘Prelude to a Fairy Tale’ 178; ‘Romance’ 232, 279; Rustic Elegies 178; Selected Poems 246; ‘Serenade: Any Man to Any Woman’ 2, 77, 103, 272, 274–6, 278, 279; ‘Seven Nursery Songs’ 149–50; ‘The Shadow of Cain’ 10, 101, 306, 320–4, 335, 339, 340, 342, 348, 374–5; The Sleeping Beauty 170–2, 178, 194, 274, 320; ‘Solo for Ear-Trumpet’ 150; ‘A Song of the Cold’ 319–20; ‘The Song of the Cold’ 146–7; The Song of the Cold 320–1, 348, 349; ‘A Song of the Dust’ 385; ‘A Song of the Time’ 321; ‘The Spider’ 109; ‘Still Falls the Rain’ 2–4, 233, 281, 287; ‘Stopping Place’ 148; ‘Street Song’ 281; Street Songs 287–9, 297, 307; symbols 340; task of 172; texture 419; theme 149; Troy Park 174–6; Twentieth Century Harlequinade 109–10; ‘Waltz’ 21; war poems 122–3, 287–9, 310–13, 314; ‘Weathercocks’ 127; ‘The Web of Eros’ 103; Wheels anthology first cycle 114–15; Wheels anthology second cycle 119–20; Wheels anthology fourth cycle 129–30; Wheels anthology fifth cycle 139, 145–6; Wheels anthology sixth cycle 158, 164; ‘The Wind of Early Spring’ 444; The Wooden Pegasus 148–50