Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings

by Vita Sackville-West, Mary Ann Caws (Editor), Nigel Nicolson (Foreword by)

Overview

Aristocrat, novelist, essayist, traveler, and lover of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West lived a fascinating and daring life on the periphery of the Bloomsbury circle. She wrote in an astounding variety of genres, including travel narrative, historical and literary studies, poetry, fiction, and essays, and is probably best known or her novels, The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, and incomparable writings about English country houses and gardens. Here, for the first time, is an anthology that represents the full expanse of her interests and styles. Over half of the works, including intimate diaries and a dream notebook, have never been published. Edited by a foremost expert on the Bloomsbury circle, Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings provides the best and most accessible introduction to this unique writer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403963185
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/08/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

Mary Ann Caws is a renowned critic of the Bloomsbury circle, modernism, and surrealism. She is Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature and Co-Director of the Henri Peyre French Institute at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Preface by Nigel Nicolson is the son of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. He recently published a biography of Virginia Woolf in the Penguin Lives series and is the author of the acclaimedPortrait of a Marriage.

Table of Contents

Preface by Nigel Nicolson * Introduction * Diaries and Dreams * Victoria Sackville-West, Diary Selections * Vita Sackville-West, Diary Selections * Vita's Dream Notebook * Memoirs * Beginnings * Thirty Clocks Strike the Hour * Letters * Family Letters * Sons and Mothers * Vita Sackville-West/Harold Nicolson letters * Vita Sackville-West/Virginia Woolf * Travel Writing * From Passenger to Tehran * From Twelve Days in the Bakhtiari Mountains * Vita's US Travel Diary * Critical Writing * Some Tendencies of Modern English Poetry * Andrew Marvell * Gardening and Houses * From Knole and the Sackvilles * From Country Notes * From English Country Houses * From Joy of Gardening * Short Stories * The Engagement * The Poet * The Poetry Reading * Novels * From Challenge * Seducers in Ecuador * Poetry * Sissinghurst * The Muezzin: Constantiople * Palmyra * A Bowl of Blue Beads * Persia * Storm in the Mountains: For Hilda Matheson * The Quarryman * The Temple of Love * Dawn * Middleton Place, South Carolina * In Memoriam: Virginia Woolf * The Intellectual to His Puppy * Winter Afternoon * From Autumn * Selected Bibliography * Glossary of the Works of Vita Sackville-West

Editorial Reviews

Caws succeed in conveying the remarkable range of Sackville-West's literary work.” —Times Literary Supplement

“This lightly annotated volume of selected writings...is intended to acquaint the contemporary reader with the range of Sackville-West's literary talents.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Vita Sackville-West is now largely remembered for her Bloomsbury connections and her love life, as recorded in her son Nigel Nicolson's bestselling Portrait of a Marriage. She was, however, an accomplished novelist, a talented travel writer and a gifted gardener who planned the famous gardens at her home, Sissinghurst, and wrote brilliantly about the joys of gardening. This lightly annotated volume of selected writings, many previously unpublished, the rest long out-of-print, is intended to acquaint the contemporary reader with the range of Sackville-West's literary talents. There are selections from her diaries and from her mother's; samples of correspondence to and from her husband, Harold Nicolson, and her sons; records of her dreams; three short stories; excerpts from three novels; some poetry; and several travel journals. One of these last, taken from the record she kept of a grueling book tour of the United States in 1933, will provide an American audience with a glimpse into the disdain visiting British aristocrats of the time often felt for the accents and manners of their American hosts as well as the drearily familiar anti-Semitism they appeared to pack with their hats. As for the rest, there is not much here likely to spark renewed interest in Vita as a writer. She wrote well and gracefully, often passionately, but her best work has appeared in print and the unpublished pieces Bloomsbury scholar Caws has resurrected reveal little that is new. 22 b&w photos. (July 15) Forecast: This should be a good backlist title, with slow but steady sales. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Sackville-West (1892-1962) is now most remembered as Virginia Woolf's flamboyant lover and the inspiration for her Orlando. Married to British diplomat Harold Nicholson, Sackville-West was a loving wife and mother and a famous gardener. She was also a lifelong member of the Bloomsbury group, producing novels (All Passion Spent), poetry (The Land), travel literature (Passenger to Teheran), and history (St. Joan of Arc). Although many of her letters, diaries, and memoirs remain in print, editor Caws (English, CUNY) has also included excerpted letters, diaries, poetry, and a dream notebook never before published. (Sackville-West's description of an interminable lecture tour of U.S. universities in 1933 is particularly illuminating to Americans wondering how we are viewed by others.) Caws also gives excerpts of all of her differing genres, both published and unpublished, and pr cis of novels. Given that many selections are brief, this anthology is clearly meant to introduce Sackville-West to new readers and to provide access to previously unpublished writings for scholars. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Shelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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