Aristocrat, novelist, essayist, traveler, and lover of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West lived a fascinating and daring life on the periphery of the Bloomsbury circle. She wrote in an astounding variety of genres, including travel narrative, historical and literary studies, poetry, fiction, and essays, and is probably best known or her novels, The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, and incomparable writings about English country houses and gardens. Here, for the first time, is an anthology that represents the full expanse of her interests and styles. Over half of the works, including intimate diaries and a dream notebook, have never been published. Edited by a foremost expert on the Bloomsbury circle,Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writingsprovides the best and most accessible introduction to this unique writer.
Preface by Nigel Nicolson * Introduction *Diaries and Dreams* Victoria Sackville-West, Diary Selections * Vita Sackville-West, Diary Selections * Vita's Dream Notebook *Memoirs* Beginnings * Thirty Clocks Strike the Hour *Letters* Family Letters * Sons and Mothers * Vita Sackville-West/Harold Nicolson letters * Vita Sackville-West/Virginia Woolf *Travel Writing* FromPassenger to Tehran* FromTwelve Days in the Bakhtiari Mountains* Vita's US Travel Diary *Critical Writing* Some Tendencies of Modern English Poetry * Andrew Marvell *Gardening and Houses* FromKnole and the Sackvilles* FromCountry Notes* FromEnglish Country Houses* FromJoy of Gardening*Short Stories* The Engagement * The Poet * The Poetry Reading *Novels* FromChallenge*Seducers in Ecuador*Poetry* Sissinghurst * The Muezzin: Constantiople * Palmyra * A Bowl of Blue Beads * Persia * Storm in the Mountains: For Hilda Matheson * The Quarryman * The Temple of Love * Dawn * Middleton Place, South Carolina * In Memoriam: Virginia Woolf * The Intellectual to His Puppy * Winlƒ°