The Sitwells

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From left: Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida, Sacheverell Sitwell (1897-1988), and Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969). Painting by John Singer Sargent, 1900.

The Sitwells (Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell) were three siblings, who formed an identifiable literary and artistic clique around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930. This was marked by some well-publicised events, the most prominent of which was probably Edith's Façade with music by William Walton, with its public debut in 1923. All three Sitwells wrote; for a while their circle was considered by some to rival Bloomsbury, though others dismissed them as attention-seekers rather than serious artists.

The first Sitwell venture was the series of Wheels anthologies produced from 1916. These were seen either as a counterweight to the contemporary Edward Marsh Georgian Poetry anthologies, or as light 'society verse' collections. They did not really match the Imagist anthologies of the same years, or the modernist wing, in terms of finding poets with important careers ahead of them, but included both Nancy Cunard and Aldous Huxley.

1 Wheels (1916)
2 Wheels 1917
3 Wheels 1918
4 Wheels 1919
5 Wheels 1920
6 Wheels 1921
7 Miscellanea
8 Reference

[edit] Wheels (1916)

Nancy Cunard - Arnold James - V. T. Perowne - Helen Rootham - Edith Sitwell - Osbert Sitwell - Sacheverell Sitwell - E. W. Tennant - Iris Tree

[edit] Wheels 1917

Aldous Huxley - Arnold James - Helen Rootham - Edith Sitwell - Osbert Sitwell - Sacheverell Sitwell - E. W. Tennant - Iris Tree - Sherard Vines

[edit] Wheels 1918

Alvaro Guevara - Aldous Huxley - Arnold James - Edith Sitwell - Osbert Sitwell - Sacheverell Sitwell - Iris Tree - Sherard Vines

[edit] Wheels 1919

Aldous Huxley - Arnold James - Wilfred Owen - Francesco Quevedo - Edith Sitwell - Osbert Sitwell - Sacheverell Sitwell - Iris Tree - Sherard Vines

[edit] 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

[edit] Wheels 1921

H. R. Barber - Aldous Huxley - Charles Orange - Alan Porter - Augustine Rivers - Paul Selver - Edith Sitwell - Osbert Sitwell - Sacheverell Sitwell - Sherard Vines

[edit] Miscellanea

There is a coffee shop in Cincinnati, Ohio named Sitwell's Coffee House in honor of Edith Sitwell.

[edit] Reference

The Sitwells published by the National Portrait Gallery to accompany the exhibition 'The Sitwells and the arts of the 1920's and 1930's' hardback ISBN 1-85514-140-X; paperback ISBN 1-85514-141-8