LETTERS: Correspondence with her parents and in-laws.
Vita Sackville-West Correspondence to her Inlaws,
Sir Arthur(11th Bt (created Baron Carnock, 1916) (1849-1925)
and Lady Nicolson (d. 1951)
9 ALS Vita Sackville-West to Lady Nicolson, March 5 1913-March 5 1933, 1-4 pages, various letterheads (including VSW embossed, V & H embossed, British Embassy Constantinople, Hotel Statler, Detroit
1 ALS Vita Sackville-West to Sir Arthur Nicolson, January 21, 1914, 1 page, British Embassy Constantinople letterhead
This intimate collection of letters represents significant milestones in Vita Sackville-Wests’s (1892-1962) marital life. Beginning in March of 1913, four months before her engagement to Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) Vita formally wrote from Knole to her future Mother-in-law: “My dear Lady Nicolson” to thank her for a gift and to arrange a visit.
Seven months later and on her honeymoon with Harold in Florence, Vita wrote:
“My dearest H.M., May I call you that?--Harold’s Mother…” (October 10, 1913)
While describing her honeymoon with Harold, she prophetically called to mind Sissinghurst, the Nicolson’s future and illustrious residence when she described a castle the couple hoped to purchase:
“We have also found a house agent, which sounds a very tame way of setting about anything so ideal and visionary as our Italian castle, but he is rather nice and amused, and knows of a watch tower in the neighborhood of Volterra, where there are no brigands…” (October 10, 1913)
By December of 1913, the young Nicolsons were living in Constantinople; where Harold had been posted as an official with the British Foreign Office. Still settling into their first marital home, Vita had recently discovered that she was pregnant:
“We are both taken aback, and incredulous, and happy.” (December 20, 1913)
Ten days later she wrote again in a manner which suggests her relationship with Lady Nicolson was rather delicate:
“Your letter made me so very happy, it was so like you, full of tact and consideration…How could you think I should not tell you? We wrote to you the very day we knew ourselves…” (December 30, 1913)
Two years later, and back in England, Vita gaily reported from their home, Long Barn, on the impending birth of the Nicolson’s second child:
“Still, she is certainly unpunctual, though not so appallingly so as one might think. Anyway, there is nothing to worry about…” (October 8, 1916)
One month later, it was discovered that the unborn child was, in fact, dead.
The final letter of this collection was written in 1933 during Vita and Harold’s first visit to the Unites States and Canada and at the depths of the Great Depression. From Detroit, Michigan:
“…there is enough to be interested in especially at present, with the financial position of America crashing about one’s ears. People are left with literally one or two dollars in their possession, however much they may have in the bank.” (March 5, 1933)
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