caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality birth_date image article_title name occupation
portrait of sitwell by roger fry 9 december 1964 london , united kingdom scarborough , north yorkshire , united kingdom united kingdom 7 september 1887 roger fry - edith sitwell.jpg edith sitwell
 dame edith sitwell poetess
edith sitwell

dame edith louisa sitwell dbe -lrb- 7 september 1887 -- 9 december 1964 -rrb- was a british poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary sitwells .
like her brothers osbert and sacheverell , edith reacted badly to her eccentric , unloving parents , and lived for much of her life with her governess .
she never married , but became passionately attached to the homosexual russian painter pavel tchelitchew , and her home was always open to london 's poetic circle , to whom she was unfailingly generous and helpful .
sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913 , some of it abstract and set to music .
with her dramatic style and exotic costumes , she was sometimes labelled a poseur , but her work was also praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship .
