Voting Station

Dame Edith Sitwell

Please vote to return to collections.

Poet

The Resume

    (September 7, 1887-December 9, 1964)
    Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
    Sister of writers Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell
    Edited poetry anthology ‘Wheels’ (1916-1921)
    Wrote poetry collections ‘Clowns’ Houses’ (1918), ‘Gold Coast Customs’ (1929), ‘Façade and Other Poems’ (1920-1935) and ‘The Outcasts’ (1962)
    Wrote ‘Fanfare for Elizabeth’ (1946) and ‘The Queens and the Hive’ (1962), biographies of Queen Elizabeth I

Why she might be annoying:

    T.S. Eliot referred to her family as the ‘Shitwells.’
    She described her parents as strangers and refused to attend her mother’s funeral.
    Her only love affair was with a homosexual artist.
    She often dressed in flamboyant Elizabethan styles.
    Today she is better known for her eccentric behavior than her writing.
    Her avant-garde poetry grew more traditional as she aged.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She spent much of her childhood locked in an iron frame to correct her curvature of the spine.
    Her mother and father were embarrassed by her unusual looks and treated her coldly.
    She did much to promote the work of other modernist writers such as Dylan Thomas.
    She knitted clothing for soldiers during World War 2, including Alec Guinness.
    Evelyn Waugh acted as her godfather when she converted to Catholicism.
    Her last words were ‘I’m afraid I’m being an awful nuisance.’

Credit: Georgina


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 20 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 162 Votes: 68.52% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 32 Votes: 43.75% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 21 Votes: 71.43% Annoying