APCS. (“Sacheverell Sitwell”). 1p. Postcard Towchester, May 15, 1968. On Mrs. Sitwell’s Weston Hall stationery postcard.
“Thank you for your copy of ‘Charles West’ [?] which came this morning. My thanks and best wishes to you…”
ALS. (“Sacheverell Sitwell”). 1¼p. Oblong 8vo. Towchester, March 20, 1970. On Weston Hall stationery. Regarding Turok’s piano work Three Transcendental Etudes, Op. 30: The Bells of Arcos.
“Your three Transcendental Etudes, Op. 30 came this morning. I have got one or two friends who are good pianists, and I must get one of them to play them to me. It is very good of you to send me the inscribed copy of them. I am wondering if The Bell of Arcos is about the Spanish town Arcos de la Frontera in Andalucia! I would like to send you the warmest thanks – and all good wishes. Maybe, one day we will be able to meet. Till then, all my kind thoughts…”
ALS. (“Sacheverell Sitwell”). 1p. Oblong 8vo. Towchester, January 18, 1970. On Weston Hall stationery.
“Thank you very much indeed for sending me your Fantasia on Liszt’s ‘Great Clouds.’ It looks very interesting. I wish I could be at the recital at Tully Hall in May! And of course I am wanting to know what the two other of your Transcendental Etudes can be! With many thanks for your kind thought and all good wishes to you…”
ALS. (“Sacheverell Sitwell”). 1¼ pp. Oblong 8vo. Towchester, July 10, 1972. On Weston Hall stationery.
“Forgive the delay in answering! But I have been grappling with the typewritten proofs of an immensely long book (200,000 words) which have driven me half crazy – but now they are finished. I was delighted to hear from you. And to have news of you both. I am longing for the Etudes to arrive! Death of a Fly is the opening chapter of the book I mentioned, and I will be sending you a copy of it when it appears. We both send you and your wife all our good wishes, and have warm and delightful memories of meeting you both.”
ALS. (“Sacheverell Sitwell”). 2 pp. Oblong 8vo. Towchester, August 18, 1970. On Weston Hall stationery.
“Thank you very much indeed for the beautiful record, and what a fine pianist he is! We were away in London for a fortnight, and found it waiting for us here on our return: hence the delay in writing to thank you. I loved the…and feel very proud to think of it. And prouder still to have heard it. I, also, of course, admired the Etude of Nuages Gris inspiration if that is the right word for it. What a mysterious thing that late piece of Liszt is! I hope you are both well and flourishing. It has been a horrible summer. Nothing but pouring rain and perpetual shiver, but I have been able to walk a lot. We both remember your visit with warm feelings and send you both all our kind thoughts, and hope to see you both again one day!…PS. Please, also thank your uncle for so kindly bringing over the record and forwarding it to me.”
John Singer Sargent’s portrait of the Sitwell Family: (From L to R) Edith, Sir George, Lady Ida, Sacheverell, and Osbert
A prolific author and critic who wrote poetry and books about music, architecture, and art, especially from the Baroque period, Sacheverell was one of the trio of famous Sitwell siblings, whose other members included his brother Osbert and his sister Dame Edith Sitwell. During the 1920s, “they were regarded as the spearhead of the avant-garde,” (“Sir Sacheverell Sitwell Dies at 90, Last of Trio of Literary Eccentrics,” The New York Times). Together the brothers, organized the important London Exhibition of French Art, 1914–17, the first to exhibit the works of Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Raoul Dufy, and Henri Matisse in England and also amassed their own impressive collection of modern art. Osbert was a novelist who also wrote a multi-volume autobiography that was praised by George Orwell. Edith was a prolific poet and her home was a hub of literary activity. “Her career traces the development of English poetry from the immediate post-World War I period of brightness and jazzy rhythms through the political involvements of the 1930s and the return to spiritual values after World War II… Her work displays enormous range of subject and of form. With her contemporary [T.S.] Eliot she remains one of the most important voices of twentieth-century English poetry,” (Dictionary of Literary Biography).
Many of Sacheverell Sitwell’s more than 100 books were on musical subjects and include his 1934 book Liszt, which musicologist Alan Walker noted was “full of errors,” but which also contains an analysis of Hector Berlioz’s works, stating “He had given the measure of his talent in the Symphonie Fantastique and in the Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem).” Sacheverell also wrote the scenario for the 1926 pantomime ballet The Triumph of Neptune in collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballet Russes.
Turok, a composer and critic who studied under Roger Sessions at Berkeley and Princeton, composed orchestral works that have been performed by the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and which include Transcendental Etudes Op. 30: The Bells of Arcos. Sacheverell was a world traveler and, “In 1987, the writer Philip Purser called Sir Sacheverell ‘an 18th-century gentleman who has seen all the world’s masterpieces of art, visited its most beautiful countries, read its books, collected its stories, meditated on its curiosities,’” (ibid.).
The letters are folded with normal wear and the postcard bears some creases and wear from mailing. All are in very fine condition.
