Sacheverell Sitwell | |
|---|---|
 Sitwell in 1927 | |
| Born | Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell (1897-11-15)15 November 1897 Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 1 October 1988(1988-10-01) (aged 90) Towcester, Northamptonshire, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Period | 1918–1986 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingSir Reresby Sitwell, 7th Baronet |
| Parents | Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet |
| Relatives | Edith Sitwell (sister) Osbert Sitwell (brother) George Sitwell (grandson) William Sitwell (grandson) |
Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet,CH (/sæˈʃɛvərəl/; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was anEnglish writer, particularly onbaroque architecture, and anart andmusic critic. Sitwell produced some 50 volumes of poetry and some 50 works on art, music, architecture, and travel.[1]
Sitwell was born inScarborough, North Yorkshire on 15 November 1897 and brought up inDerbyshire. He was the youngest child ofSir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, ofRenishaw Hall, and the former Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison. DameEdith Sitwell and SirOsbert Sitwell were his older siblings.[2]
His paternal grandparents wereSir Sitwell Sitwell, 3rd Baronet and his wife Louisa Lucy Hutchinson (daughter of the Hon. Henry Hely Hutchinson). His maternal grandparents wereWilliam Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough and Lady Edith Somerset (a daughter of the7th Duke of Beaufort), who claimed descent through female lines from thePlantagenets.
Sitwell was educated atEton College. InWorld War I he served from 1916 in theBritish Army, in theGrenadier Guards. After the war he went toBalliol College, Oxford but did not complete a degree, and was heavily involved in Osbert and Edith's projects.
Sitwell's poetry collectionA Hundred and One Harlequins attracted some attention in 1922, but the first works to gain more widespread notice and acclaim were three prose studies of painting, architecture and music:Southern Baroque Art (1924),German Baroque Art (1927) andSpanish Baroque Art (1931).[3]Cyril Connolly calledSouthern Baroque Art "a milestone in the development of our modern sensibility".[4] A series of books on music and musicians - includingMozart (1932),Liszt (1934) and shorter essays on Scarlatti, Offenbach and Tchaikovsky (Valse des Fleurs, 1941) - were also highly influential.
The Dance of the Quick and the Dead (1936) established a new strand of his work, evoking "outcast and vagabond societies; their music, their dress, their customs and rituals".[3] This was the first of a series of lengthy autobiographical, travel and art-based "fantasias" that are among his most original works. Later examples includeThe Hunters and the Hunted (1947) andFor Want of the Golden City (1973). Although most often associated with exotic art, culture and foreign travel, Sitwell also established himself as a connoisseur of English art and architecture, with the publication ofBritish Arts and Craftsmen (1945), concluded by his final publication, the anthologySacheverell Sitwell's England (1986).[3]
Poltergeists (1940) reviewedpoltergeist cases over the centuries. Sitwell concluded that many, though not all, cases could be explained by human trickery (conscious or unconscious) andhysteria.[4]Journey to the Ends of Time (1959), was "a kaleidoscopic series of meditations on death and the possibility of survival".[5]
As his poetry was so severely criticised, particularly by those who disliked the Sitwells in general, and althoughCanons of Giant Art (1933, including the highly praised poem 'Agamemnon's Tomb') was a work of considerable impact,[4] he refused to publish any of his poems for many years.Constant Lambert's setting of his early poemThe Rio Grande for chorus and orchestra (taken fromThe Thirteenth Caesar, and other Poems, 1924) was first performed and broadcast in 1928 and has retained its popularity.[6] In 1967Derek Parker published a selection of his poems in the summer edition ofPoetry Review, including 'Serenade to a Sister', an elegy for his sister Edith.An Indian Summer (1982), with a preface byPeter Quennell, collecting together 100 of his best most recent poems, was his final volume of poetry.[4]
Sitwell was an early member of theNew Party, a group established in 1931 byOswald Mosley and containing former members of the major British political parties.[7]
In his later life he withdrew from the publicity that attached tothe Sitwells collectively, instead preferring to travel and concentrate on writing. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother Osbert in 1969. He was made aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1984. His main residence wasWeston Hall,Northamptonshire, the family home and he served asHigh Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1948.[8]
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On 12 October 1925 Sitwell married Georgia Doble, the daughter of Arthur Richard Doble, a wealthy Canadian banker.[9] They had two sons:[2]
Georgia Doble had difficulty adapting to married existence and missed the social life in London. Despite affairs on both sides, they remained deeply attached to each other until the end and never officially separated. The personal correspondence of Doble, preserved at theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas, include letters withDavid Stuart Horner and Frank Magro, Osbert Sitwell's partners, and friends like Lawrence Audrain,John Lehmann,Loelia Lindsay,René Massigli,Evelyn Waugh, andMae West.[13]
Sitwell died in October 1988 at the age of 90. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his elder sonReresby.[2]
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Baronet (of Renishaw, Derbyshire) 1969–1988 | Succeeded by |
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