Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic, eldest of the three literary Sitwells.
Like her brothers Osbert and Sacheverell, Edith reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents, and lived for much of her life with her governess. Never married, she became passionately attached to the gay Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was unfailingly generous and helpful.
Edith published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was also praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship.
Read more about Edith Sitwell: Background, Poetry, Publicity and Controversy, Poetry Collections, Other Books
Famous quotes containing the words edith sitwell, edith and/or sitwell:
“Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
“Jane, Jane,
Tall as a crane,
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—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
“Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain—
‘Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.’”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)