LETTERS: Correspondence and Manuscript Archive (17 items in a blue binder).
The Sackville-West / Evelyn Irons Archive
In 1931, Evelyn Irons, as the Women’s Page Editor of the Daily Mail, was sent to cover a poetry reading by Vita Sackville-West of her poem The Land. Afterwards, the two women met and there was an immediate and mutual attraction. They arranged to meet again for lunch. Two weeks later, Evelyn journeyed to Vita’s estate, Sissinghurst to spend the night. It was to be the beginning of a yearlong love affair, and a life-long friendship. The following items document that important relationship.
1920s
1. Sackville-West, Vita. “The Planetarium.” Proofs pulled from The Nation. N.d. but ca. 1929.
Single leaf, long galley; corrections in ink.
Sackville-West’s corrected galleys to this article about the Berlin Planetarium, mostly likely composed during her husband Harold’s diplomatic posting there in 1929. With seven corrections by her ink, correcting facts and rethinking word choice. She poetically incorporated quite a few facts about astronomy while offering constructive criticism of the star show she had witnessed. The last paragraph conveys some personal philosophical thoughts of the moment as well as a fleeting glimpse of what it must have felt like on that particular evening:
Then we come out into the lit streets of Berlin; the snow has ceased to fall, and instead the night sky twinkles like an inferior and sobered reproduction of the sky we have been watching. Why, we reflect with a heightened impatience, should human beings who have hoisted themselves out of their limitations even to a conception of the infinite, be contented with reality when falsehood can be so much richer and more entertaining?
1930s
2. Sackville-West, Eddy. Autograph letter signed, “Eddy,” to “My dear Evelyn,” November 6, no year but likely 1930 (Eddy was in this particular nursing home in November of 1930); 1 leaf, 2 pages; Preston Deanery Hall, Northampton.
Vita’s cousin “Eddy” (1901-1965), as he was known to his friends, the inevitable heir to her beloved Knole, the Sackville ancestral seat, was a music critic, poet and novelist. Evelyn first became acquainted with him in the 1920s when he frequented the London bookshop in which she worked, well before she met Vita. This letter was written from a nursing home where Eddy had gone for a rest cure, likely in 1930 but possibly during another year. He appears to be counseling her on possible nom de plumes for her fiction-writing career, which would eventually fail. He also discusses his health regime in a humorous tone:
My dear Evelyn,
I don’t think “David Graham” at all good. You must be taking any number of people’s names in vain with that. “Roger Stoneleigh” (pronounced Stonely) or “Wilfrid Stutterton” would be much better. Do change!
Behold me in the bed once graced by Lady Muriel Paget, drinking 24 glasses of milk a day, accompanied by 24 prunes, having steam baths & stomach massage. I am already heaps better; Cameron is really a wonderful man.
I read & write all day & attempt to listen to the wireless through earphones which buzz & are far too loud. But I am quite happy. Only I don’t like the thought of London leaving me behind.
Don’t leave me behind, Evelyn dear, & do write to me again.
Yr loving,
Eddy
3. Sackville-West, Vita. Unpublished photograph: Sackville-West with two puppies. c.1931.
Sepia toned photograph; 4 x 6”.
An unpublished photograph of Sackville-West and “Freya’s puppies,” so labeled in her hand on the verso.
Sackville-West was most comfortable when alone with her dogs. In this photograph, she is sitting on stone garden steps with three puppies produced by her dog Freya. The location is not identified but might possibly be that of Long Barn, Sackville-West’s residence prior to her acquisition of Sissinghurst.
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