Edwardians, The.
Original Manuscript
Sackville-West, Vita. The Edwardians. 1930.
Folio; title page; two pages of introduction; ca. 277 leaves of text in seven sections with approximately eight to ten chapters in each, written in blue, black and green inks primarily on rectos of lined paper of assorted sizes, some of which are embossed with the insignia of Great Britain (possibly secured from Harold Nicolson’s office); text additions and deletions throughout; occasional paper clip rust stains and ink smudges; many pages are numbered in the upper right corner according to chapters; marginal date and location notations throughout. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
According to Vita Sackville-West’s numerous manuscript notations on this manuscript it is possible to track both her progress and her whereabouts as she proceeded to create what was to become her most popular novel, The Edwardians. Her meticulous marginal recordings of dates and locations in which she worked to complete various parts of the manuscript lend insightful autobiographical details to the creation of the novel. The first chapter was begun at her country house, Long Barn on March 30, 1929. Over the next three months or so, she continued to work on it regularly from that location. By the end of July, Sackville-West had gone off to the Continent and made note of the fact that she was writing as she traveled through Val d’Isire, Basel and Carlsruhe and then back to England. She next took it for a visit to her writer-friend, Dorothy Wellesley, at her home Penns-in-the-Rocks where work on her novel, according to the dates, slowed down. Her writing resumed in earnest when she returned to Long Barn in September of that year and proceeded at a steady pace into the next year as she alternated her time between Long Barn and the London flat she shared with her husband Harold Nicolson in Kings Bench Walk. On the last page of the manuscript, at the end of the story, Sackville-West noted “Finished 2:30 KBW March 5 1930.” It is underlined with a double flourish.
Studying the manuscript’s revisions, one is able to discern Sackville-West’s creative process. As the story begins, there are many additions and deletions but as it reaches approximately mid-point there are far fewer alterations. It seems fairly clear that by that time Vita had a firm vision of what direction she wanted the story to take and as she progressed, her thought pattern became increasingly definite.
Sackville-West’s manuscript notation for the completion date contradicts Nicolson’s record of the same event in his published diaries, as well as the published account in Sackville-West’s biography, both of which state she finished it one day prior. Perhaps she gave herself one more day of private contemplation before admitting to herself that she was truly done. Coincidentally, on the same day, Sackville-West and Nicolson received word that a chicken farm was slated to be installed next door. Horrified that this would ruin their idyll, Sackville-West immediately went in search of a new home. A short time later she discovered and purchased Sissinghurst. It was to prove to be a great irony because The Edwardians, a book about a great house which stood for her great love of Knole, would eventually earn Sackville-West enough money to resuscitate Sissinghurst from the dilapidated state in which she had found it and transform it into her new architectural touchstone and inspiration for the remaining thirty years of her life.
Immediately upon completion of The Edwardians, she submitted the manuscript to Virginia and Leonard Woolf and their Hogarth Press for publication. In a letter dated March 7, 1930 Virginia wrote. “A thousand congratulations from L and V on your finish. I shall read it over the weekend. Lord! What an excitement! And Lord! Again I pray that the chicken horror may be stamped in the egg” (The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. Four, ed. Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann,
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