Edith Sitwell, a Unicorn Among Lions [Hardcover]

Victoria Glendinning (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1981

Not until her twenties was the real Edith Sitwell born. Freed from her unhappy home life she set up home in a shabby London flat: she became - almost overnight - one of the best-known 1920s pioneering poets. Her Plantagenet good looks attracted the photographer Cecil Beaton and the principal painters of the day. She befriended Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein. She rebuffed Wyndham Lewis and ardently loved the temperamental Russian painter, Pavel Tchelitchew. The thirties she spent in penury, writing her novels, poems and biographies and it was only when Yeats hailed her as 'a major poet' that her work reached a wider audience and she set off to conquer New York and Hollywood. In this vivid and sympathetic portrayal, drawing on Edith's brilliantly funny and often outrageous letters, Victoria Glendinning shows the spontaneous, gallant, yet tragically insecure woman behind the public image.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Victoria Glendinning is a freelance writer, well-known for her successful biographies and novels. She has won many prizes including the Whitbread Prize for Biography twice, the Duff Cooper Prize and the James Tait Black Prize. She is also President of English PEN and a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London, but travels widely, particularly to Provence and south-west Ireland. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf; 1st edition (May 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394504399
• ISBN-13: 978-0394504391
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,555,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)