Vita Sackville-West

Selected writings from the British author and gardener’s diaries, memoirs, letters, travel writing, criticism, poetry, fiction, and more.

“An invaluable resource. Vita crossed many continents, literal and metaphoric, but she always brought home treasure.” —Margaret Reynolds, editor of The Sappho Companion and Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology

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 Writings provides the best and most accessible introduction to this unique writer.

“Caws succeeds in conveying the remarkable range of Sackville-West’s literary work.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK)

“Everything about Vita Sackville-West defied type-casting; none of life’s categories could contain her. She wrote in all genres, she was rich but never social, she loved widely yet relished her notably happy marriage. Her writings herein anticipate Vita’s reemergence into fame with all her talents glowing.” —Carolyn Heilbrun, author of Writing a Woman’s Life