35 Facts About Edith Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells.

Edith Sitwell reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess.

Edith Sitwell never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful.

Edith Sitwell was a recipient of the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.

Edith Louisa Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping.

Edith Sitwell had two younger brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, both distinguished authors, well-known literary figures in their own right, and long-term collaborators.

Edith Sitwell described her childhood as "extremely unhappy" and said her mother had "terrible rages" while she rarely saw her father.

Edith Sitwell wrote in her autobiography that her parents had always been strangers to her.

In 1914,26-year-old Edith Sitwell moved to a small, shabby flat in Pembridge Mansions, Bayswater, which she shared with Helen Rootham, her governess since 1903.

Edith Sitwell never married, but seems to have fallen in love with a number of unavailable men over the course of her life.

Sassoon and Edith Sitwell were often seen out in each other's company, leading Sassoon's friend and mentor, the critic Edmund Gosse, to suggest that they marry.

In 1927, Edith Sitwell fell in love with the gay Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew.

In 1932, Rootham and Edith Sitwell moved to Paris, where they lived with Rootham's younger sister, Evelyn Wiel.

In 1930, Edith Sitwell published a study of the poet Alexander Pope, in which she argued for Pope's greatness and identified him as a precursor of Romanticism.

Edith Sitwell did not attend the funeral because of her displeasure with her parents during her childhood.

Edith Sitwell wrote under the light of oil lamps as the house had no electricity.

Edith Sitwell knitted clothes for their friends who served in the army.

In 1948 Edith Sitwell toured the United States with her brothers, reciting her poetry and, notoriously, giving a reading of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene.

Edith Sitwell became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1954.

Edith Sitwell wrote two books about Queen Elizabeth I of England: Fanfare for Elizabeth and The Queens and the Hive.

Edith Sitwell was the subject of This Is Your Life in November 1962, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews on the stage of the BBC Television Theatre in London.

Edith Sitwell lived from 1961 until her death in a flat in Hampstead in London, which is marked with an English Heritage blue plaque.

In 1959, Edith Sitwell was interviewed by John Freeman, about her life and work, on the BBC television series Face to Face.

Edith Sitwell was one of only two women to be interviewed during this first iteration of the series; the other being French actress Simone Signoret.

Edith Sitwell died at St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London, on 9 December 1964 at the age of 77.

Edith Sitwell is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of Saints Mary and Peter in Weedon Lois, Northamptonshire.

Edith Sitwell's papers are held at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Edith Sitwell became a proponent and supporter of innovative trends in English poetry and opposed what she considered the conventionality of many contemporary backward-looking poets.

Edith Sitwell's flat became a meeting place for young writers whom she wished to befriend and help: these later included Dylan Thomas and Denton Welch.

Edith Sitwell helped to publish the poetry of Wilfred Owen after his death.

Edith Sitwell had angular features resembling Queen Elizabeth I and she stood six feet tall.

Edith Sitwell often dressed in an unusual manner with gowns of brocade or velvet, with gold turbans and many rings; her jewellery is in the jewellery galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Edith Sitwell gave as good as she got, describing Leavis as "a tiresome, whining, pettyfogging little pipsqueak".

Edith Sitwell stated that she was delighted by Willard's wholly negative review of Burroughs' work, despite claiming not to know who Burroughs was.

Edith Sitwell explored the distinction between poetry and music in Facade, a series of abstract poems set to music by William Walton.