The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s

Poets, patrons of the arts, and ardent self-publicists, the three Sitwell siblings, Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell, rarely missed an opportunity to promote themselves or denounce their sworn enemy, the Philistine. This book celebrates their lives and their artistic crusade, which brought them into contact and conflict with many of the leading figures of the arts in the early part of this century. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and Evelyn Waugh were among their friends; their favorite enemies included Wyndham Lewis, Noel Coward, and D. H. Lawrence.Throughout their lives, the Sitwells were painted and photographed by many famous artists and photographers, including John Singer Sargent, Wyndham Lewis, Rex Whistler, Bill Brandt, and Cecil Beaton. This richly illustrated book provides a unique iconography of the Sitwells and encapsulates fifty years of British cultural history.