View source for Osbert Sitwell

{{Short description|English writer (1892–1969)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|Bt|CH|CBE}}
| name             = Osbert Sitwell
| image            = Osbert Sitwell in 1939.jpg
| caption          = Sitwell in 1939
| birth_name       = Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1892|12|6}}
| birth_place      = London, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1969|5|4|1892|12|6}}
| death_place      = near [[Florence]], Italy
| occupation       = Writer
| period           = 1919–1962
| genre            = 
| partner          = [[David Stuart Horner]]
| parents          = [[George Sitwell|Sir George Sitwell]]<br/>Lady Ida Denison
| relatives        = [[Edith Sitwell]] (sister)<br/>[[Sacheverell Sitwell]] (brother)
| education        = [[Eton College]]
}}

'''Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet''' [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour|CH]] [[CBE]] (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was [[Edith Sitwell]] and his younger brother was [[Sacheverell Sitwell]]. Like them, he devoted his life to art and literature.

==Early life==
[[File:Sargent - Familie Sitwell.jpg|thumb|left|[[John Singer Sargent]], ''The Sitwell Family'', 1900. Private collection. From left: [[Edith Sitwell]] (1887&ndash;1964), [[George Sitwell|Sir George Sitwell]], Lady Ida, [[Sacheverell Sitwell]] (1897&ndash;1988), and Osbert Sitwell (1892&ndash;1969)]]

Sitwell was born on 6 December 1892 at 3 Arlington Street, [[St James's]], London. His parents were [[George Sitwell|Sir George Reresby Sitwell]], fourth baronet, [[genealogist]] and [[antiquarian]], and Lady Ida Emily Augusta (''née'' Denison). He grew up in the family seat at [[Renishaw Hall]], Derbyshire, and at family mansions in the region of [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], and went to [[Ludgrove School]], then [[Eton College]] from 1906 to 1909. For many years his entry in ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]'' contained the phrase "Educ[ated]: during the holidays from Eton."<ref name=www>{{cite book|title=Who Was Who, 1961-1970|url=https://archive.org/details/whowaswho196119706lond|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=A and C Black|page=[https://archive.org/details/whowaswho196119706lond/page/1040 1040]|isbn=9780713612028}}</ref>

In 1911 he joined the [[Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry]] but, not cut out to be a cavalry officer, transferred to the [[Grenadier Guards]] at the [[Tower of London]] from where, in his off-duty time, he could frequent theatres and art galleries.

===Army===
Late in 1914 Sitwell's civilised life was exchanged for the [[Trench warfare|trenches of France]] near [[Ypres]] in [[Belgium]]. It was here that he wrote his [[Media of World War I#Poetry and songs .28contemporary.29|first poetry]], describing it as  "Some instinct, and a combination of feelings not hitherto experienced united to drive me to paper". "Babel" was published in ''[[The Times]]'' on 11 May 1916. In the same year, he began literary collaborations and anthologies with his brother and sister, the trio being usually referred to simply as [[the Sitwells]].

==Political and other activity==
He acted as [[best man]] at the wedding of [[Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke|Alexander, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke]], son of [[Prince Henry of Battenberg]] and [[Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom]], on 19 July 1917 at the [[Chapel Royal]], [[St. James's Palace]], [[St. James's, London|London]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Legge |first=Edward |date=1918 |title=King George and the Royal Family. Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6LSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22best+man+was+captain+sitwell%22 |location=London |publisher=Grant Richards |page=160 |access-date=7 November 2023 }}</ref>

In 1918 Sitwell left the Army with the rank of [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]], and contested the 1918 general election as the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] candidate for [[Scarborough and Whitby (UK Parliament constituency)|Scarborough and Whitby]], finishing second.

{{Election box begin |
|title=[[1918 United Kingdom general election|General election 1918]]: Scarborough & Whitby<ref name="ReferenceA">British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, Craig</ref>
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link coalition 1918|
|party      = Unionist Party (UK)
|candidate  = [[Gervase Beckett]]
|votes  = 11,764
|percentage  = 56.6
|change  = n/a
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party      = Liberal Party (UK)
|candidate  = Osbert Sitwell
|votes  = 7,994
|percentage  = 38.5
|change  = n/a
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party      = Labour Party (UK)
|candidate  =John Watson Rowntree
|votes  = 1,025
|percentage  = 4.9
|change  = n/a
}}
{{Election box majority|
|votes  = 3,770
|percentage  = 18.1
|change  = n/a
}}
{{Election box turnout|
|votes  = 
|percentage  = 60.1
|change  = n/a
}}
{{Election box win
|winner     = Unionist Party (UK)
|swing      = n/a
}}
{{Election box end 1918}}

Sitwell was opposed to [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|British intervention in the Russian Civil War]]. Sitwell wrote a 1919 poem ("A Certain Statesman"), satirizing [[Winston Churchill]] for his advocacy of British involvement in the conflict.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blythe |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Blythe |date=1964 |title=The Age of Illusion : England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |page=243}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Addison |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Addison |date=2005 |title=Churchill : The Unexpected Hero|location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=105 |isbn=9781429430791}}</ref>  Sitwell also wrote the poem "Shaking Hands With Murder" which was published in the ''[[Daily Herald (United Kingdom)|Daily Herald]]'' newspaper in 1920; this poem derided Brigadier-General [[Reginald Dyer]] for ordering the [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre|Amritsar massacre]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Croft |first1=Andy |author-link1=Andy Croft |last2=Mitchell |first2=Adrian |author-link2=Adrian Mitchell |date=2003 |title=Red Sky at Night : An Anthology of British Socialist Poetry |url= |location=Nottingham |publisher=Five Leaves |page=44 |isbn=9780907123491}}</ref>

Later he moved towards the political right, though politics were very seldom explicit in his writings.  In ''Who's Who'' he ultimately declared of his political views: "Advocates compulsory Freedom everywhere, the suppression of Public Opinion in the interest of Free Speech, and the rationing of brains without which innovation there can be no true democracy."<ref name=www />

Sitwell campaigned for the preservation of [[Georgian architecture|Georgian buildings]] and was responsible for saving [[Sutton Scarsdale Hall]], now owned by [[English Heritage]]. He was an early and active member of the [[Georgian Group]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/10695981/Neil-Kinnocks-former-aide-causes-uproar-at-Georgian-Group.html|title=Neil Kinnock's former aide causes uproar at Georgian Group|last=Walker|first=Tim|journal=Daily Telegraph|date=2014-03-14|access-date=2019-09-27|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

He also had an interest in the [[paranormal]] and joined [[the Ghost Club]], which at the time was being relaunched as a dinner society dedicated to discussing paranormal occurrences and topics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ghostclub.org.uk/history.html|title=History|website=www.ghostclub.org.uk|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/things-that-go-bump-in-the-night/|title=Things That Go Bump in the Night |magazine=Notre Dame Magazine |publisher=University of Notre Dame|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref>

==Writing career==
Sitwell devoted himself to poetry, art criticism and controversial journalism. Together with his brother, he sponsored a controversial exhibition of works by [[Henri Matisse|Matisse]], [[Maurice Utrillo|Utrillo]], [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]] and [[Amedeo Modigliani|Modigliani]]. The composer [[William Walton]] also greatly benefited from his largesse (though the two men afterwards fell out) and Walton's [[cantata]] ''[[Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)|Belshazzar's Feast]]'' was written to Sitwell's libretto. He published three books of poems: ''Argonaut and Juggernaut'' (1919); ''At the House of Mrs Kinfoot'' (1921); and ''Out Of The Flame'' (1923).<ref name=sitwells>{{citation |title=Façades: Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell |first=John |last=Pearson |author-link=John Pearson (author) |publisher=Macmillan |year=1978 }}</ref>

===Works===
Sitwell's first work of fiction, ''Triple Fugue'', was published in 1924, and visits to Italy and Germany produced ''Discursions on Travel, Art and Life'' (1925). His first novel, ''Before the Bombardment'' (1926), set in an out-of-season hotel, was well reviewed – Ralph Straus writing for ''[[Bystander (magazine)|Bystander]]'' magazine called it 'a nearly flawless piece of satirical writing', and [[Beverley Nichols]] praised 'the richness of its beauty and wit'.<ref>Quotes from thumbnail publicity for the Oxford University Press edition of the novel, introduced by [[Victoria Glendinning]].</ref> His subsequent novel ''The Man Who Lost Himself'' (1929) did not receive the same critical acclaim. However, for Osbert Sitwell it was an attempt to take further the techniques that he had experimented with in his début, and he ventured to explain this in one challenging sentence in his Preface<ref>Author's Preface, 1929 – 'The Man Who Lost Himself' (LTMI Ed., 2007)</ref> when he said: "Convinced that movement is not in itself enough, that no particular action or sequence of actions is in itself of sufficient concern to dare lay claim to the intelligent attention of the reader, that adventures of the mind and soul are more interesting, because more mysterious, than those of the body, and yet that, on the other hand, the essence does not reside to any much greater degree in the tangle of reason, unreason, and previous history, in which each action, event and thought is founded, but is to be discovered, rather, in that balance, so difficult to achieve, which lies between them, he has attempted to write a book which might best be described as a Novel of Reasoned Action". Re-edited over three quarters of a century after its initial publication, ''The Man Who Lost Himself'' has found new popularity as an idiosyncratic mystery novel.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Sitwell went on to write several further novels, including ''Miracle on Sinai'' (1934) and ''Those Were the Days'' (1937) neither of which received the same glowing reviews as his first.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} A collection of short stories ''Open the Door'' (1940), his fifth novel ''[[A Place of One's Own (novel)|A Place of One's Own]]'' (1940), his ''Selected Poems'' (1943) and a book of essays ''Sing High, Sing Low'' (1944) were reasonably well received.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} His "The Four Continents" (1951) is a book of travel, reminiscence and observation.

===''Rat Week''===
Sitwell was a close friend of the Duke and Duchess of York, future [[King George VI]] and [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Elizabeth]].<ref>Sitwell, Osbert, ''Rat Week: An Essay on the Abdication'', Michael Joseph, 1986, {{ISBN|0 7181 1859 6}}, p. 37</ref> In December 1936, when the [[abdication]] of [[King Edward VIII]] was announced, he wrote a poem, ''Rat Week'', attacking principally the former king and [[Wallis Simpson]] but also those friends of Edward who deserted him when his alliance with Simpson became common knowledge in England.<ref>Pearson, John, Foreword to ''Rat Week'', 1986, p. 15</ref> Because of its libellous content it was not published but Sitwell ensured that it was circulated privately.<ref name="Pearson, p16">Pearson (1986), p. 16</ref> In February 1937, a version appeared in ''[[Cavalcade (magazine)|Cavalcade]]'', which Sitwell described as a "paper, which confounded liveliness with mischief".<ref name=Sitwell67>Sitwell, p. 67</ref> The ''Cavalcade'' version omitted the "offensive"<ref name="Pearson, p16"/> references to Edward and Wallis. This resulted in the poem's gaining an unwarranted reputation as being sympathetic to the Windsors over the way some of their friends had treated them.<ref>Pearson (1986), pp. 15-16</ref> ''Cavalcade'' also missed out a verse in which a number of the "rats" were named explicitly, as to publish this would have been libellous.<ref name=Sitwell67/>

Sitwell sued ''Cavalcade'' for breach of copyright. He obtained an interim injunction preventing further publication in ''Cavalcade'', which ensured further surreptitious circulation of the poem. When the full case came to court, ''Cavalcade'' tried to get Sitwell to produce the missing verse. Sitwell resisted on the grounds that he could not be forced to make a criminally libellous statement. The case ended up in the Appeal Court, where Sitwell won and obtained damages and costs.<ref>Sitwell, pp. 70-73</ref>

Sitwell knew that, because of the libel issue, the poem could not be published in his lifetime; he decided that publication should wait even longer than that to avoid "pain to those still living".<ref>Sitwell, p. 24</ref> The poem was first published posthumously in 1986, the year the Duchess of Windsor (as Wallis had become) died, in a book entitled ''Rat Week: An Essay on the Abdication''. Sitwell then explained the background to the poem in some detail because he recognised that the long delay in publication would result in many readers being unfamiliar with the characters.<ref>Sitwell, p. 60</ref> The book also contains a foreword by [[John Pearson (author)|John Pearson]], explaining some of the background to the publication of the book.<ref>Pearson (1986), pp. 7-19</ref>

===Autobiography===
In 1943 he started [[Left Hand, Right Hand!|an autobiography]] that ran to four volumes: ''Left Hand, Right Hand!'' (1943), ''The Scarlet Tree'' (1946), ''Great Morning'' (1947) and ''Laughter in the Next Room'' (1949). The first volume includes a chapter on "The Sargent Group" a humorous account of [[John Singer Sargent]]'s group portrait of [[the Sitwells]] (Sitwell family), and the adjustments that Sargent made to Edith's and her father's noses.

Writing in ''[[The Adelphi]]'', [[George Orwell]] declared that, "although the range they cover is narrow, [they] must be among the best autobiographies of our time."<ref>The Adelphi, July–September 1948, reprinted in Orwell:Collected Works, ''It Is What I Think'', p.398</ref> Sitwell's autobiography was followed by a collection of essays about various people he had known, ''Noble Essences: A Book of Characters'' (1950), and a postscript, ''Tales my Father Taught Me'' (1962).

The sometimes acidic diarist [[James Agate]] commented on Sitwell after a drinking session on 3 June 1932, in ''Ego'', volume 1, "There is something self-satisfied and having-to-do-with-the-Bourbons about him which is annoying, though there is also something of the crowned-head consciousness which is disarming."

In ''Who's Who'', he summed up his career: "For the past 30 years has conducted, in conjunction with his brother and sister, a series of skirmishes and hand-to-hand battles against the [[Philistinism|Philistine]].  Though outnumbered, has occasionally succeeded in denting the line, though not without damage to himself."<ref name=www />

==Baronetcy and honours==
After Sitwell's father died, in 1943, Osbert succeeded to the [[baronet]]cy.

Sitwell was made a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in 1956 and a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] (CH) in 1958.<ref name=www/>

==Personal life==
In 1923, Sitwell met [[David Stuart Horner]] (1900 – 1983) who was his lover and companion for most of his life.<ref name=sitwells/>

==Death==
[[File:III Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori, grave -Osbert Sitwell.jpg|thumb|Sitwell's headstone in the [[Cimitero degli Allori]], Firenze, Italy]]

Sitwell suffered from [[Parkinson's disease]] from the 1950s; by the mid-1960s his condition had become so severe that he had to abandon writing. He spent his last years in Italy, at the {{ill|Castle of Montegufoni|it|Castello di Montegufoni|fr|Château de Montegufoni}}, in [[Montespertoli]] near [[Florence]], which his father had bought derelict and restored as his personal residence; he died there on 4 May 1969.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ted |last=Jones |title=Florence and Tuscany: A Literary Guide for Travellers |location=London |publisher=Tauris |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-85773-127-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6WmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT178 }}</ref><ref>Pearson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rwKqKQDW3P8C&q=7.15+on+4+May ''Façades'']</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |first=Frank |last=Kermode |author-link=Frank Kermode |title=Literary Upper Crust |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/19/reviews/991219.19kermodt.html#:~:text=Osbert%20settled%20into%20an%20almost,comic%20portrait%20in%20his%20autobiography |magazine=[[New York Times Book Review]] |type=Review of ''Osbert Sitwell'' by Philip Ziegler }}</ref>

The castle was left to his nephew, Reresby; his money was left to his brother Sacheverell. Sitwell was cremated and his ashes buried in the [[Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori]] in Florence, together with a copy of his first novel, ''Before the Bombardment''.<ref>Pearson, ''Façades'', pp. 503-504</ref>

==Select bibliography==
* ''Triple Fugue'' (stories) (1924)
* ''Discursions on Travel, Art and Life'' (essays) (1925)
* ''Before the Bombardment'' (novel) (1926)
* ''The Man Who Lost Himself'' (novel) (1929<ref>24th Oct 1929</ref>)
* ''Dumb-Animal and Other Stories'' (1930)
* ''Collected Poems and Satires'' (1931)
* ''Winters of Content, More Discursions on Travel, Art and Life'' (1932)
* ''Dickens'' (1932)
* ''Miracles on Sinaï'' (novel) (1934)
* ''Penny Foolish: A Book of Tirades and Panegyrics'' (1935)
* ''Those Were the Days'' (novel) (1937)
* ''Escape With Me! An Oriental Sketch-Book'' (travels, China) (1939)
* ''[[A Place of One's Own (novel)|A Place of One's Own]]'' (novel) (1940)
* ''Selected Poems'' (1943)
* ''Left Hand! Right Hand!'' (autobiography, vol. 1) (1944)
* ''Sing High, Sing Low'' (essays) (1944)
* ''The Scarlet Tree'' (autobiography, vol. 2) (1946)
* ''Great Morning'' (autobiography, vol. 3) (1947)
* ''Laughter in the Next Room'' (autobiography, vol. 4) (1948)
* ''Four Songs of the Italian Earth'' (1948)
* ''The Death of a God and Other Stories'' (1949)
* ''Noble Essences'' (autobiography, vol. 5) (1950)
* ''Wrack at Tidesend'' (poetry) (1954)
* ''Tales My Father Taught Me'' (1962) (adapted for radio in 1990)<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 Extra - Peter Terson - Tales My Father Taught Me |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09rwhgn |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>
* ''Pound Wise'' (final complete work) (1963)
* ''Rat Week: An Essay on the Abdication'' (posthumously published) (1986)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Ziegler, Philip, ''Osbert Sitwell'', Knopf, 1999, {{ISBN|0679446508}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Sitwell, Osbert|name=Osbert Sitwell|author=yes}}
*[http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00237.xml Osbert Sitwell Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218060532/http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead%2F00237.xml |date=18 February 2012 }} at the [[Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center]]
* {{Librivox author |id=12437}}
*Works by [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/51386 Osbert Sitwell] at [[Project Gutenberg]]

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg|uk-bt}}
{{succession box
  | title  = [[Sitwell Baronets|Baronet]]<br />'''(of Renishaw, Derbyshire)'''
  | years  = 1943–1969
  | before = [[Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet|George Sitwell]]
  | after  = [[Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet|Sacheverell Sitwell]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwell, Osbert}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century English short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English memoirists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:Writers from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:English expatriates in Italy]]
[[Category:English gay writers]]
[[Category:Grenadier Guards officers]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People educated at Ludgrove School]]
[[Category:Writers from Scarborough, North Yorkshire]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ poets]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ novelists]]
[[Category:LGBTQ memoirists]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from Yorkshire]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ politicians]]
[[Category:Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry officers]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:Sitwell baronets|5]]
[[Category:Sitwell family|Osbert]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]