The Sitwells (

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

Osbert Sitwell Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet CH CBE (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell. Like them, he devoted his life to art and l ...

Sacheverell Sitwell Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, (; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, particularly on baroque architecture, and an art and music critic. Sitwell produced some 50 volumes of poetry and some 50 works o ...

), from

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

and the family seat of Renishaw Hall, were three

sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the other person. A male sibling is a brother, and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised ...

s who formed an identifiable literary and artistic

clique A clique (AusE, CanE, or ; ), in the social sciences, is a small group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests rather than include others. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardles ...

around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930. This was marked by some well-publicised events, notably Edith's ''

Façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

'' with music by

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

, with its public debut in 1923. All three Sitwells wrote; for a while their circle was considered by some to rival

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

, though others dismissed them as attention-seekers rather than serious artists.

''Wheels'' anthologies

The first Sitwell venture was the series of ''Wheels''

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

produced from 1916.Cevasco, G. A
"Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa (1887–1964), poet and biographer"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford University Press, 2009 These were seen either as a counterweight to the contemporary Edward Marsh ''

Georgian Poetry ''Georgian Poetry'' is a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom. The Georgian poets were, by the strictest defi ...

'' anthologies, or as light 'society verse' collections. They did not really match the

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

anthologies of the same years, or the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

wing, in terms of finding poets with important careers ahead of them, but included both

Nancy Cunard Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the ...

and

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

Wheels 1916

, Arnold James, V. T. Perowne, Helen Rootham,

, Edward Tennant,

Iris Tree Iris Tree (27 January 1897 – 13 April 1968) was an English poet, actress, and art model, described as a Bohemianism, bohemian, an eccentricity (behaviour), eccentric, a wit, and an adventurer. Biography Iris Tree's parents were actors Sir He ...

Wheels 1917

, Arnold James, Helen Rootham, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Edward Tennant, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

Wheels 1918

Álvaro Guevara, Aldous Huxley, Arnold James, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

Wheels 1919

Aldous Huxley, Arnold James,

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

, Francesco Quevedo, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

Wheels 1920

John J. Adams, Leah McTavish Cohen, Geoffrey Cookson, Aldous Huxley, Alan Porter, William Kean Seymour, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Sherard Vines

Wheels 1921

H. R. Barber, Aldous Huxley, Charles Orange, Alan Porter, Augustine Rivers,

Paul Selver (Percy) Paul Selver (22 March 1888 – 6 April 1970) was an English writer and translator. A prolific translator of Czech literature into English, he was best known as the translator of Karel Čapek.Robert M. Philmus, 'Matters of Translation ...

, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Sherard Vines

Coat of arms

Barry of eight or and vert, charged with three lions rampant sable. The motto is ''Ne cede malis'' (Latin: Yield not to misfortune).

Legacy

Wood End, the former family home of the Sitwells in

has been redeveloped into a "creative industries centre" providing artists' workspace as well as administrative and learning spaces. Weston Hall in Northamptonshire, owned by the Sitwell family, was sold in 2021. A large collection of the Sitwells' papers reside at the

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

The University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, Austin.The Sitwell Collections
at the Harry Ransom Center

References

External links

Digitised copies of ''Wheels'' on the Modernist Journals Project website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwells, The English literary movements Literary collaborations Sibling musical trios Literary families Sitwell family Cliques