Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. Among his most noteworthy works of short fiction are “ The Sailor,” “The Saint,” and “The Camberwell Beauty.” His non-fiction works include the memoirs ''A Cab at the Door'' (1968) and ''Midnight Oil'' (1971), and many collections of essays on literary biography and criticism.

Biography

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was born in

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (''née'' Martin). His father, a London businessman, relocated to

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

to establish a newspaper and stationery shop. The business ran into difficulty and his parents were lodging over a toy shop at 41 St Nicholas Street in Ipswich, where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. Pritchett disliked his first name, having been nearly mauled by a dog named Victor in his youth, hence he always preferred being styled by his

initials In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means ''of the beginning ...

"VSP", despite formally becoming "Sir Victor Pritchett" after being

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

ed.

His family moved to Ipswich to be near his mother's sister, who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in

Sedbergh Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Cumbria. It falls within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Since April 2023, it has been administered by Westmorland and Furness local authority. Th ...

, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit and his easy deceitfulness obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited, but life was always precarious. They tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family, but returned to Ipswich in 1910 to live for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St John's School. Subsequently, the family moved to East Dulwich and he attended

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, independent, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundatio ...

, where he first had the urge to be a writer, but when his paternal grandparents came to live with them at age 16, he was forced to leave school to work as a clerk and leather buyer in Bermondsey. At the same time, his father enlisted to work in Hampshire at an aircraft factory to help the war effort. After the Great War Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, about which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation and faith healing. The leather work lasted from 1916 until 1920 when Pritchett moved to Paris to work as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'', which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for that

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and for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', later being appointed its literary editor. Pritchett's first book, ''Marching Spain'' (1928), describes a journey across Spain, and his second book, ''Clare Drummer'' (1929), is about his experiences in Ireland. While there, he met Evelyn Vigors, whom he later married. Pritchett published five novels, but he said he did not enjoy writing them. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories, ''The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories'' (1932). Vigors had an affair in the 1930s, and meanwhile Pritchett fell in love with another woman, Dorothy Rudge Roberts. In 1936, he divorced his first wife and married Roberts, with whom he had two children; the marriage survived until Pritchett's death in 1997, although they both had other relationships. Their children include the journalist Oliver Pritchett, whose son is the cartoonist

Matt Pritchett Matthew Pritchett MBE (born 14 July 1964) is a British cartoonist who has worked on ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper under the pen name Matt since 1988. Early life and education Pritchett's father Oliver Pritchett, who was a columnist for ''Th ...

MBE, and daughter is screenwriter Georgia Pritchett. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Pritchett worked for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and the Ministry of Information while continuing to write weekly essays for the ''New Statesman''. After World War II he wrote extensively and embarked on various positions as a university lecturer in the United States: Princeton (1953), the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

(1962),

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

. Fluent in French, German and Spanish, he published acclaimed biographies of

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...

(1973),

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...

(1977), and

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

(1988). Pritchett was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in 1975 for "services to literature" and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1993. His other awards included

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(1958), CBE (1968), the Heinemann Award (1969), the PEN Award (1974), the W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990) and the Golden PEN Award (1994). He was President of

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide professional association, association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association ...

, the worldwide association of writers and the oldest human rights organisation from 1974 until 1976. Sir V. S. Pritchett died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997, aged 96.

Bibliography

Short stories

*'' The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories'', 1932 *''You Make Your Own Life'', 1938 *''It May Never Happen'', 1945 *''Collected Stories'', 1956 *''The Sailor, The Sense of Humour and Other Stories'', 1956 *''When My Girl Comes Home'', 1961 *''The Saint and Other Stories'', 1966 *''Blind Love'', 1969 *'' The Camberwell Beauty'', 1974 *''Selected Stories'', 1978 *''On the Edge of the Cliff'', 1979 *''Collected Stories'', 1982 *''More Collected Stories'', 1983 *'' A Careless Widow and Other Stories'', 1989 *''Complete Short Stories'', 1990

Novels

*''Clare Drummer'', 1929 *''Shirley Sanz'', 1932 *''Nothing Like Leather'', 1935 *''Dead Man Leading'', 1937 *''Mr Beluncle'', 1951 *'' The Key to My Heart: A Comedy in Three Parts'', 1963

Non-fiction

*''Marching Spain'', 1928 *''This England'', 1938 (editor) *''In My Good Books'', 1942 *''Novels and Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson'', 1945 (editor) *''Build the Ships'', 1946 *''The Living Novel'', 1946 *''Turnstile One'', 1948 (editor) *''Why Do I Write?: An Exchange of Views Between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, and V. S. Pritchett'', 1948 *''Books in General'', 1953 *''The Spanish Temper'', 1954 *''London Perceived'', 1962 (photographs by Evelyn Hofer) *''Foreign Faces'', 1964 *''New York Proclaimed'', 1965 *''The Working Novelist'', 1965 *''Dublin: A Portrait'', 1967 *''A Cab at the Door'', 1968 *''George Meredith and English Comedy'', 1970 *''Midnight Oil'', 1971 *''Penguin Modern Stories'', 1971 (with others) *''Balzac'', 1973 *''The Gentle Barbarian: the Life and Work of Turgenev'', 1977 *''The Myth Makers'', 1979 *''The Tale Bearers'', 1980 *''The Oxford Book of Short Stories'', 1981 (editor) *''The Turn of the Years'', 1982 (with R. Stone) *''The Other Side of a Frontier'', 1984 *''A Man of Letters'', 1985 *''Chekhov'', 1988 *''At Home and Abroad'', 1990 *''Lasting Impressions'', 1990 *''Complete Collected Essays'', 1991 *''The Pritchett Century'', 1997

Legacy

The V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize was founded by the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

at the beginning of the new millennium to commemorate the centenary of the birth of "an author widely regarded as the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century, and to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett's mastery of narrative"."V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize"
The Royal Society of Literature. This prize is awarded annually, with up to £2,000 being given for the best unpublished short story of the year. Perhaps his most prominent literary successor is the contemporary American writer Darin Strauss, who has written widely about Pritchett,Strauss, Darin
"On Lifting: Isaac Babel's My First Fee and V. S. Pritchett's The Diver"
/ref> and who worked to get Pritchett's 1951 novel ''Mr Beluncle'' back into print in America, providing a new introduction."Mr. Beluncle: A Novel"
at Amazon.

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources

* . * . * . * . * . * . * .

External links

* * * . * . * * .
''VS Pritchett Memorial Prize'' (RSL) – past recipients

''Sir V.S. Pritchett'' at www.npg.org.uk

Hans Koning's take on a review written by V.S. Pritchett (1968)

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
V.S. Pritchett collection, 1979-1982
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritchett, V. S. 1900 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English memoirists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century British essayists Writers from Ipswich People educated at Alleyn's School People educated at Dulwich College English short story writers English biographers Knights Bachelor Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English male short story writers English male novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English male non-fiction writers Presidents of the Society of Authors Presidents of the English Centre of PEN English literary critics British lecturers The Christian Science Monitor people New Statesman people 20th-century British educators 20th-century British journalists