Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962) was an English poet, novelist and gardener. Her long narrative poem, The Land, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She won it again, the only writer to do so, in 1933 with her Collected Poems. She helped create her own gardens in Sissinghurst, Kent which provide the backdrop to Sissinghurst Castle. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage, and her passionate affairs with women.
Early life
Sackville-West was born at Knole House in Kent, and her first love affair was with this ancient and huge house; because she was a woman, she could not inherit it, and this affected the rest of her life. She was the daughter of the 3rd Baron Sackville and his wife Victoria Sackville-West. She was christened "Victoria Mary Sackville-West" but was known as "Vita" throughout her life.
Personal life, marriage and bisexuality
In 1913, Sackville-West married Harold Nicolson, at different times a diplomat, journalist, broadcaster, Member of Parliament, author of biographies and novels, and, crucially, a fellow bisexual in favour of what would now would be called an open marriage. Both she and her husband had several consecutive same-sex relations outside their marriage, as was common among the Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists to which they belonged.
Affair with Violet Trefusis
The affair that had the deepest and most lasting effect on Vita's personal life was that with novelist Violet Trefusis, daughter to courtesan Alice Keppel. By the time both Vita's sons were out of diapers, Vita and Violet had eloped several times from 1918 on, mostly to France, where Vita would dress as a young man when they went out. The affair eventually ended badly, with Trefusis pursuing Sackville-West to great lengths, until Sackville-West's affairs with other women finally took their toll, but Trefusis refused to give up.
Also, the two women had made a bond to remain exclusive to one another, meaning that although both women were married, niether could engage in sexual relations with their husband. Sackville-West received word that allegedly Trefusis had been involved sexually with her (Trefusis') husband, indicating she had broken their bond, prompting her to end the affair. Despite the poor ending, the two women were devoted to one another, and deeply in love.
Sackville-West wrote an autobiographical account about this period, which was later edited and published by her son Nigel Nicolson as Portrait of a Marriage. Nigel had to perform some heavy explaining of his choice of title, given that it was, in fact, the portrait of an extra-marital affair. The piece aired in a three-part Masterpiece Theatre series July 19 through Aug. 2 1992. [1]
Vita's novel Challenge also bears witness of this affair: Vita and Violet had started writing this book as a collaborative endeavour, the male character's name, Julian, being Vita's nickname while passing as a man. Vita's mother, Lady Sackville, found the portrayal obvious enough to insist the novel not be published in England. Nigel (1973, p. 194), however, praises Vita: "She fought for the right to love, men and women, rejecting the conventions that marriage demands exclusive love, and that women should love only men, and men only women. For this she was prepared to give up everything… How could she regret that the knowledge of it should now reach the ears of a new generation, one so infinitely more compassionate than her own?"
Affair with Virginia Woolf
The affair for which Sackville-West is most remembered was with the prominent writer Virginia Woolf in the late 1920s. In consequence, Woolf wrote one of her most famous novels, Orlando, which Nigel Nicolson called "the longest and most charming love-letter in literature". Unusually, Orlando's moment of conception was "captured on film" so to speak. As excerpted from her diary posthumously by her husband Leonard Woolf, for an entry dated October 5th 1927, Virginia records: "And instantly the usual exciting devices enter my mind: a biography beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day, called Orlando: Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other."
In 1931 Sackville-West became involved in an affair with journalist Evelyn Irons, who worked for the Daily Mail as a fashion correspondant. [2]
These affairs, and others not listed here, were, however, no impediment to a true closeness between Sackville-West and her husband, which appears from their nearly daily correspondence (also published later by their son Nigel), and from an interview they gave for BBC radio after World War II. They were truly devoted to each other, and Nicolson gave up his diplomatic career partly so that he could live with Vita in England, uninterrupted by long solitary postings to missions abroad.
Well known writings
The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. This novel was faithfully dramatized by the BBC in 1986 starring Dame Wendy Hiller.
Sackville-West's science-fantasy Grand Canyon (1942) is a "cautionary tale" (as she termed it) about a Nazi invasion of an unprepared United States. The book takes an unsuspected twist, however, that makes it something more than a typical invasion yarn.
In 1946 Sackville-West was made a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. The following year she began a weekly column in the Observer called In your Garden. In 1948 she became a founder member of the National Trust's garden committee.
Sissinghurst Castle is now owned by the National Trust. Sissinghurst Castle Garden is the most visited garden in England.
Quotes
"Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong." [3]
Selected bibliography
Poetry
Novels
- Heritage (1919)
- Challenge (1923)
- The Edwardians (1930)
- All Passion Spent (1931)
- The Dark Island (1934)
- Grand Canyon (1942)
Biographies/Other works
Further reading
- Victoria Glendinning: Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West (1983)
- Robert Cross and Ann Ravenscroft-Hulme: Vita Sackville-West: A Bibliography (Oak Knoll Press, 1999) ISBN 1584560045
External links
- Fuller list of Vita Sackville-West's publications
- About Gay Movies :: Portrait of a marriage: Synopsis, gay interest, review, quotes, pictures, dvd and more.
- Double DVD set of Portrait of a marriage
- Vita Sackville-West as a garden designer