Edith Sitwell

by Elizabeth Salter

With over 110 illustrations, 8 in color.

1 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Elizabeth Fulton Salter (2 Oct 1918-14 Mar 1981) was born into a Barossa Valley pioneering family which opened one of South Australia's first wineries.

An Australian expatriate author, Salter went to the United Kingdom in the 1952 and was later secretary to Dame Edith Sitwell from 1956 until Sitwell's death in 1964. During that time she wrote and published mystery novels. Later she wrote biographies.

She joined the ABC as a record librarian and script writer. During World War II she was WAAF officer in charge of entertainment. After Salter left Australia for England, she worked for the BBC and wrote professionally.

Select bibliography:
Daisy Bates: Queen of the Never Never
The lost impressionist
Dame Edith Sitwell
Tails she dies (unpublished on her death)
Once upon a tombstone
The voice of the peacock
Will to survive
Silver rain.

Reviews

[Caroline]

The wonderful creation that was Dame Edith Sitwell, was born in 1887, daughter to Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell. She grew up to be just under 6 foot tall, and was an unusual and aristocratic-looking woman.

As an adult, Edith was a successful poet and literary editor. Her flat in London was a major centre of literary life.. In the 1020s she was known as the high priestess of avant garde poetry. She also wrote a book called The English Eccentrics My mother had a copy of this, which was how I met Sitwell.

Besides being a successful writer, she was also a magnet to photographers and artists, all of whom wanted to capture her amazing looks and presence. At this point you are probably expecting you to give you examples of her poetry, but no, I'm not going to do that. I am far more interested by the wonderful ways in which she has been visually portrayed in this book. She was an incredible looking woman, with great charisma, and this really comes out in the pictures of her. In fact this book has inspired me to wonder why we don't have exhibitions based more often on subject matter, rather than the work of individual artists. For instance who needs a retrospective of Hockney's work, when we could have 100 pictures of swimming pools, all portrayed by a selection of different artists and photographers? I think it would be stimulating alternative. I love this book because it gives us so many different portrayals of Sitwell. A smorgasbord of the spirit of this woman, presented to us in a variety of mediums, styles and perspectives. I give a few examples.

One last thing, my edition of this book is dated 1979, and the quality of many of the pictures is less than perfect. Only the glossy pages survive in their full glory. Even so, I consider this book to be a gem. Even the slightly faded pix manage to convey the power of this extraordinary woman; and most of the pix are nice and big - the book is about A4 in size.


Wyndham Lewis


Roger Fry


Alvaro Guevara


Rex Whistler


Frank Dobson


Christopher Nevinson


Wyndham Lewis (cropped)


Pavel Tchelitchew


Pavel Tchelitchew


Mark Gerson

[Carole Tyrrell]

The English have always excelled at producing eccentrics and Edith Sitwell came from a long line of titled ones. This is a short, illustrated biography of the great poet and was written by her private and social secretary, Elizabeth Salter.
Edith came from an aristocratic family, the Sitwells of Renishaw Hall, and was the eldest child of an unhappy marriage (usually a good indicator of creativity) and after the birth of her younger brother, Osbert, she ran away aged 5. She was known for her quotations and apparently when a visitor asked her when she was aged 4 what she wanted to be when she grew up Edith riposted with ‘A genius.’ Sir George, her father, had hoped for a daughter ‘with a profile with a Pekinese dog and a taste for lawn tennis.’ Instead he got a daughter whose face was a throwback to a Plantagenet ancestor and a marked resemblance to Elizabeth 1. Edith always believed that she was a changeling and didn’t belong to her family. She had said of her appearance and the way that she dressed, wrapped in exotic fabrics and huge rings on her fingers ‘ If I were to appear in the streets in a coat or skirt people would doubt the existence of the Almighty’
The life of her grandmother, Lady Londesborough, was a good example of their lifestyle. Salter says ‘when she returned from a visit, a carpet would be unrolled so that her ladyship’s shoes would be protected from contact with the earth.’
Edith seems to have been a lonely child with a dog and pet peacock for company. But she was destined to become a poet with her younger brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell as her earliest audience. It was with them that she put on the surrealist inspired Façade. It had a very mixed reception to say the least and led to a 40 year feud with Noel Coward which was only resolved in the 1960’s.
From the book I had the impression of a very strong character who knew her path in life very early. Not for her the debutante round or marriage to another title and indeed she never married. Instead she moved in the artistic circles of the day with T S Eliot and Cecil Beaton amongst her friends and admirers. She reminded me of Isabella Blow who came from a privileged background which had no money and this was a constant theme of her life as it did with Edith.
The book is profusely illustrated with photos, paintings and drawings of Edith and her family and ancestral hall. What would she have made of today’s celebrity culture of which she would have undoubtedly been a great mover and shaker.
This book was a great introduction to her work and times.

[Jane]

An excellent introduction to Sitwell's life, a picture-book of the whos, the wheres, the whats and the whys.