Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978) was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and musicologist, known for works such as '' Lolly Willowes'', '' The Corner That Held Them'', and '' Kingdoms of Elfin''. Her paternal grandfather, The Reverend George Townsend Warner was headmaster of

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...

Proprietary College in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

where he had taught Arthur Quiller Couch,

Bertram Fletcher Robinson Bertram Fletcher Robinson (22 August 1870 – 21 January 1907) was an English sportsperson, sportsman, journalist, editor, author and Liberal Unionist Party activist. During his life-time, he wrote at least three hundred items, including a ser ...

and

Percy Fawcett Percy Harrison Fawcett (18 August 1867 disappeared 29 May 1925) was a British geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer of South America. He disappeared in 1925 (along with his eldest son, Jack, and one of Ja ...

Life

Sylvia Townsend Warner was born at Harrow on the Hill,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, the only child of George Townsend Warner and his wife Eleanor "Nora" Mary (née Hudleston). Her father was a house-master at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and was, for many years, associated with the prestigious Harrow History Prize which was renamed the Townsend Warner History Prize following his death in 1916. As a child, Warner was home-schooled by her father after being kicked out of kindergarten for mimicking the teachers. She was musically inclined, and, before World War I, planned to study in Vienna under Schoenberg. She enjoyed a seemingly idyllic childhood in rural Devonshire, but was strongly affected by her father's death. She moved to London and worked in a munitions factory at the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1923, she met T. F. Powys, whose writing influenced her own and whose work she in turn encouraged. The two became friends, and her debut novel, '' Lolly Willowes,'' was published shortly after in 1926. From her first work, it was clear that Warner's focus was on subverting societal norms; she would later heavily use the themes of rejecting the Church, a need for female empowerment, and independence in her works. It was at Powys' home that Warner first met Valentine Ackland, a young poet; the two women fell in love, moving in together in 1930 and eventually settling at Frome Vauchurch, Dorset, in 1937. Her relationship with Ackland inspired many of Warner's works, and the couple collaborated on a collection of poems, ''Whether a Dove or a Seagull'', published in 1933. Warner and Ackland's relationship was tumultuous in part due to Ackland's infidelity, which included an affair with fellow writer Elizabeth Wade White. Alarmed by the growing threat of fascism, they were active in the Communist Party, and Marxist ideals found their way into Warner's works. Warner participated in the II International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture, held in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

between 4 and 17 July 1937, while serving in the Red Cross during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. After that war, Warner and Ackland permanently returned to England, living together until Ackland's death in 1969. EM Delafield portrayed a visit to Warner in 1931 in her ''The Provincial Lady Goes Further'' describing her as "novelist, famous in two continents for numerous and brilliant contributions to literature" and giving her and Ackland the pseudonyms 'Carina/ Charlotte Volley' and 'Miss Postman'. In 1937 Warner and Ackland moved to a house called Riversdale beside the River Frome in Forme Vauchurch near Maiden Newton. They initially rented the house and did not intend to stay there long, however they bought it in 1946 and they lived for the rest of their lives. In 1950 and 1951 they rented Great Eye Folly at Salthouse, where Warner wrote her final novel, ''The Flint Anchor'' (published 1954). After Warner's death in 1978, her ashes were buried with Ackland's at St Nicholas, Chaldon Herring, Dorset.

Work

Early in her career Warner researched 15th and 16th century music. From 1917 she was in regular employment as one of the editors of ''Tudor Church Music'', ten volumes published by Oxford University Press in the 1920s with the support of the Carnegie UK Trust. The lead editor was initially Sir Richard Terry, who as the Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, had been a pioneer in the revival of Tudor vocal repertoire. Warner obtained the work as the protegee of her lover and music teacher Sir Percy Buck, who was on the editorial committee. Warner was involved in travelling to study source material and in transcribing the music into modern

musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...

for publication. Warner wrote a section on musical notation for the '' Oxford History of Music'' (it appeared in the introductory volume of 1929). Her first published book was the 1925 poetry collection ''The Espalier'', which was praised by A. E. Housman and

Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish people, British writer who published using the pen name, pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication ''The Oxfor ...

.Harman, Claire. 'Lightning from skies', in ''The Guardian'', 29 March 2008
/ref> She was encouraged to write fiction by David Garnett.Jane Dowson. ''Women's Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology''. Routledge, 1996; (pp. 149–58). Warner's novels included '' Lolly Willowes'' (1926), ''Mr Fortune's Maggot'' (1927), ''Summer Will Show'' (1936), and ''The Corner That Held Them'' (1948). Darrell Schweitzer, "Warner, Sylvia Townsend", icin ''St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers'', edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996; (pp. 589–90). Recurring themes are evident in a number of her works. These include a rejection of Christianity (in ''Mr Fortune's Maggot'', and in ''Lolly Willowes'', where the protagonist becomes a witch); the position of women in patriarchal societies (''Lolly Willowes'', ''Summer Will Show'', ''The Corner that Held Them''); ambiguous sexuality, or bisexuality (''Lolly Willowes'', ''Mr Fortune's Maggot'', ''Summer Will Show''); and lyrical descriptions of landscape. ''Mr Fortune's Maggot'', about a missionary in the Pacific Islands, has been described as a "satirical, anti-imperialist novel". In ''Summer Will Show'', the heroine, Sophia Willoughby, travels to Paris during the 1848 Revolution and falls in love with a woman.Maroula Joannou, "Warner, Sylvia Townsend", in Faye Hammill, Esme Miskimmin, Ashlie Sponenberg (eds.) ''An Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing 1900–1950''. Palgrave, 2008 (pp. 266–7) ''The Corner That Held Them'' (1948) focuses on the lives of a community of nuns in a medieval convent. Warner's short stories include the collections ''A Moral Ending and Other Stories'', ''The Salutation'', ''More Joy in Heaven'', ''The Cat's Cradle Book'', ''A Garland of Straw'', ''The Museum of Cheats''. ''Winter in the Air'', ''A Spirit Rises'', ''A Stranger with a Bag'', ''The Innocent and the Guilty'', and ''One Thing Leading to Another''. Her final work was a collection of interconnected short stories set in the supernatural '' Kingdoms of Elfin''. Many of these stories were published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''.Dinnage, Rosemary
''An Affair to Remember''
(review of ''I'll Stand by You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland''). ''The New York Times'', 7 March 1999; retrieved 4 January 2013. In addition to fiction, Warner wrote

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

articles for such leftist publications as '' Time and Tide'' and '' Left Review''. After the death of the novelist T. H. White, Warner was given access to his papers. She published a biography which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' declared "a small masterpiece which may well be read long after the writings of its subject have been forgotten."Allen, Walter
"Lucky In Art Unlucky In Life"
(fee required), ''

'', 21 April 1968; retrieved 10 February 2008. White's long-time friend and literary agent, David Higham, however, questioned Warner's work, suggesting a bias in her approach due to her own homosexuality: he gave Warner the address of one of White's lovers "so that she could get in touch with someone so important in Tim's story. But she never, the girl told me, took that step. So she was able to present Tim in such a light that a reviewer could call him a raging homosexual. Perhaps a heterosexual affair would have made her blush." Warner produced several books of poetry, including ''Opus 7'', a book-length

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

poem about an elderly female flower-seller. The critical and personal hostility that greeted the jointly authored ''Whether a Dove or a Seagull'' in 1933 effectively put an end to the public poetic careers of both Warner and Ackland. It was only with the posthumous publication of Warner's ''Collected Poems'' in 1982 that the extent and significance of her poetry became evident, with poems ranging in date from 1914 through to 1978. Ackland's selected poems, ''Journey from Winter'', were not published until 2008. Although Warner never wrote an autobiography, ''Scenes of Childhood'' was compiled after her death on 1 May 1978 at age 84, based on short reminiscences published over the years in the ''New Yorker''. She also translated '' Contre Sainte-Beuve'' by

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

from the original French into English.

Legacy and commemoration

In the 1970s, Warner became known as a significant writer of feminist or lesbian sentiment, and her novels were among the earlier ones to be revived by Virago Press. Selected letters of Warner and Valentine Ackland have been published twice: Wendy Mulford edited a collection titled ''This Narrow Place'' in 1988, and ten years later Susanna Pinney published another selection, ''I’ll Stand by You''. The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society was founded in Dorchester in January 2000 and publishes ''The Journal of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society'' annually with UCL Press. In 2024 it was announced that Warner had been chosen to be the subject of a new statue in Dorchester. She was selected by a public vote carried by the charity Visible Women UK, for greater representation of women in public art. The design for the work by sculptor Denise Dutton shows Townsend Warner seated on a bench with one of her cats. The cat will be modelled on a well known local cat called Susie.

Publications

Musicology

* ''Tudor Church Music''. Edited by R. R. Terry, . H. Fellowes, S. T. Warner, A. Ramsbotham and P. C. Buck,etc.

Novels

* '' Lolly Willowes'' (1926) * ''Mr Fortune's Maggot'' (1927) * ''The True Heart'' (1929) * ''Summer Will Show'' (1936) * ''After the Death of Don Juan'' (1938) * '' The Corner That Held Them'' (1948) * ''The Flint Anchor'' (1954) (vt ''The Barnards of Loseby'', 1974)

Translations

* '' By Way of Sainte-Beuve'' (1958 Chatto and Windus, offset 1984 The Hogarth Press with introduction by Terence Kilmartin) by

* ''Proust on Art and Literature 1896–1919'' (1958 Meridian Books, revised 1997 Da Capo Press with introduction by Terence Kilmartin)

Non-fiction

* ''T. H. White: A Biography'' (1967)

Short stories

* ''The Maze: A Story To Be Read Aloud'' (1928) * ''Some World Far From Ours; and Stay, Corydon, Thou Swain'' (1929) * ''Elinor Barley'' (1930) * ''A Moral Ending and Other Stories'' (1931) * ''The Salutation'' (1932) * ''More Joy in Heaven and Other Stories'' (1935) * ''24 Short Stories'', with

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...

and James Laver (1939) * ''The Cat's Cradle Book'' (1940) * ''The Phoenix'' (1940) * ''A Garland of Straw and Other Stories'' (1943) * ''The Museum of Cheats'' (1947) * ''Winter in the Air and Other Stories'' (1955) * ''A Spirit Rises'' (1962) * ''A Stranger with a Bag and Other Stories'' (vt. ''Swans on an Autumn River) (1966) * ''The Innocent and the Guilty'' (1971) * '' Kingdoms of Elfin'' (1977)

Posthumous

* ''Scenes of Childhood'' (1981) * ''One Thing Leading to Another and Other Stories'', edited by Susanna Pinney (1984) * ''Selected Stories'' edited by Susanna Pinney and William Maxwell (1988) * ''The Music at Long Verney'' (2001)

Poetry

* ''The Espalier'' (1925) * ''Time Importuned'' (1928) * ''Opus 7'' (1931) * ''Whether a Dove or Seagull'' (1933) (jointly with Valentine Ackland) * ''Boxwood'' (1957) (collaboration with wood engraver Reynolds Stone) * ''Collected Poems'' (1982) * ''Selected Poems'' (Carcanet Press, 1985) * ''New Collected Poems'' (Carcanet Press, 2008) ;See also * Ackland, Valentine, ''Journey from Winter: Selected Poems'' (Carcanet Press 2008) * Steinman, Michael, ''The Element of Lavishness: Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell'' (Counterpoint 2001)

References

External links

*
The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society
''The New York Times'', 7 March 1999 * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Sylvia Townsend 1893 births 1978 deaths English short story writers English historical novelists English women historical novelists English fantasy writers British women musicologists British bisexual writers English women poets Bisexual women writers English anti-fascists English communists English translators French–English translators People from Harrow, London Writers from Dorset Place of death missing English LGBTQ poets English LGBTQ novelists English women short story writers English women science fiction and fantasy writers Communist women writers British women horror writers Communist Party of Great Britain members English socialist feminists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English translators 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century English musicologists 20th-century British women musicians Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age Writers from the London Borough of Harrow 20th-century English LGBTQ people