{{Short description|20th century sibling writers and literary personas}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[Image:Sargent - Familie Sitwell.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|John Singer Sargent, ''The Sitwell Family'', 1900. ''Private collection''. From left: Edith Sitwell (1887–1964), Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida, Sacheverell Sitwell (1897–1988), and Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969).]] [[File:Sitwells-and-Walton.png| thumb|upright=1.75|In 1926: left to right Osbert, Edith, Sacheverell, William Walton, and, with the ''Façade'' megaphone, Neil Porter of the Old Vic.|alt=Group photograph with four clean-shaven white men and one woman in full-length frock]] [[File:Blue plaque to the Sitwell family on Wood End - geograph.org.uk - 3753022.jpg|thumb|upright|Blue plaque on Wood End in Scarborough, one of the family homes of the Sitwells]]

'''The Sitwells''' (Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell), from Scarborough, North Yorkshire and the family seat of Renishaw Hall, were three siblings who formed an identifiable literary and artistic clique around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930. This was marked by some well-publicised events, notably Edith's ''Façade'' with music by William Walton, with its public debut in 1923. All three Sitwells wrote; for a while their circle was considered by some to rival Bloomsbury, though others dismissed them as attention-seekers rather than serious artists.<ref>Pearson, John. ''Facades: Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell'' (1978)</ref>

==''Wheels'' anthologies==

The first Sitwell venture was the series of ''Wheels'' anthologies produced from 1916.<ref name=odnb>Cevasco, G. A. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36113 "Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa (1887–1964), poet and biographer"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford University Press, 2009 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> These were seen either as a counterweight to the contemporary Edward Marsh ''Georgian Poetry'' anthologies, or as light 'society verse' collections.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cotsell |first=Michael |title=Wheels: An Introduction |url=https://modjourn.org/wheels-an-introduction/?|website=Modernist Journals Project|quote=*Wheels*… mocked explicitly or implicitly the standards of poetic decorum… undermined the dignified postures of academic men of letters associated with Marsh’s Georgians.|access-date=2026-04-08}}</ref> They did not really match the Imagist anthologies of the same years, or the modernist wing, in terms of finding poets with important careers ahead of them, but included both Nancy Cunard and Aldous Huxley.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wheels 1916–1921|url=https://modjourn.org/journal/wheels/?|website=Modernist Journals Project|quote=Most of the poets who wrote for *Wheels* were friends of the Sitwells: among them Helen Rootham, Nancy Cunard, Iris Tree, Aldous Huxley…|access-date=2026-04-08}}</ref> === Wheels 1916 === Nancy Cunard, Arnold James, V. T. Perowne, Helen Rootham, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Edward Tennant, Iris Tree

=== Wheels 1917 === Aldous Huxley, Arnold James, Helen Rootham, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Edward Tennant, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

=== Wheels 1918 === Álvaro Guevara, Aldous Huxley, Arnold James, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

=== Wheels 1919 === Aldous Huxley, Arnold James, Wilfred Owen, Francesco Quevedo, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Iris Tree, Sherard Vines

=== Wheels 1920 === John J. Adams, Leah McTavish Cohen, Geoffrey Cookson, Aldous Huxley, Alan Porter, William Kean Seymour, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Sherard Vines

=== Wheels 1921 === H. R. Barber, Aldous Huxley, Charles Orange, Alan Porter, Augustine Rivers, Paul Selver, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Sacheverell Sitwell, Sherard Vines

==Coat of arms== Barry of eight or and vert, charged with three lions rampant sable. The motto is ''Ne cede malis'' (Latin: Yield not to misfortune).<ref>{{cite book |title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage|editor=Townend, Peter|publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited|pages=2237–2238 |edition=103rd }}</ref>

==Legacy== Wood End, the former family home of the Sitwells in Scarborough has been redeveloped into a "creative industries centre" providing artists' workspace as well as administrative and learning spaces.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scarboroughmuseums.org.uk/wood_end.html |title=Scarborough Museums site |access-date=2007-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809110853/http://scarboroughmuseums.org.uk/wood_end.html |archive-date=2007-08-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Weston Hall in Northamptonshire, owned by the Sitwell family, was sold in 2021.<ref>[https://www.dreweatts.com/auctions/weston-hall-and-the-sitwells-a-family-legacy/ Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy]</ref>

A large collection of the Sitwells' papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas, Austin.<ref>[http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/search?text-join=and&text=&text-exclude=&text-prox=&sectionType=&title=&creator=sitwell&unitdate= The Sitwell Collections] at the Harry Ransom Center</ref> <!---UNCITED A poem by Ogden Nash refers to the family: "How many miles to Babylon? / Love-in-a-mist and Bovril. / Are there more Sitwells than one? / Oh yes, there are Sacheverell."--->

==See also== *Edith Sitwell *Osbert Sitwell *Sacheverell Sitwell *Sitwell baronets *William Sitwell

==References== <references/>

==Further reading== *''The Sitwells'', Sarah Bradford, published in 1996 by the National Portrait Gallery to accompany the exhibition "The Sitwells and the arts of the 1920s and 1930s"; hardback {{ISBN|1-85514-140-X}}; paperback {{ISBN|1-85514-141-8}} *''Renishaw Hall: The Story of the Sitwells'', Desmond Seward; hardback published by Elliott & Thompson, 2015 * ''A Nest of Tigers: The Sitwells in Their Times'', John Lehmann (1968) * ''Facades: Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell'', John Pearson (1978)

==External links== *[https://modjourn.org/journal/wheels/ Digitised copies of ''Wheels'' on the Modernist Journals Project website] * {{librivox book | stitle=Wheels | dtitle=''Wheels'' anthologies| author=Sitwell}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwells, The}} Category:English literary movements Category:Literary circles Category:Sibling trios Category:Literary families Category:Sitwell family Category:Cliques Category:Works by The Sitwells