Sylvia Townsend Warner

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Standard Name: Warner, Sylvia Townsend
Birth Name: Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner
STW once commented that her career in writing was an accidental one, as her initial career was in musicology. However, she was very prolific for more than fifty years of the twentieth century over a considerable range of genres, including poetry, fourteen volumes of short stories, journal articles, radio plays, seven novels, biographies, and translations. Her letters and diaries have been published as well. Her fiction often explores supernatural themes and the twists of human psychology. She has been particularly praised for her short stories about middle-class characters, mainly women: for acute observation, clarity, precision, simplicity, and originality of language and of imagery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Valentine Ackland
The issues of religion and politics caused great unhappiness between Ackland and her lifelong partner, Sylvia Townsend Warner , almost destroying their relationship. Ackland became increasingly right-wing, and their political views diverged sharply.
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
234-5
Dedications Valentine Ackland
VA , with Sylvia Townsend Warner , published Whether a Dove or Seagull, a collection of love poems.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
xix-xx
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus.
131
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
VA calls Foster X in her autobiography.
Ackland, Valentine. For Sylvia: An Honest Account. Chatto and Windus.
76
They remained lovers during Ackland's marriage, and their relationship lasted until she fell in love with Sylvia Townsend Warner .
Ackland, Valentine. For Sylvia: An Honest Account. Chatto and Windus.
73
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
20-1
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
VA and Sylvia Townsend Warner committed themselves to each other in a lesbian marriage.
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus.
111
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
The three women had done political work together during the Spanish Civil War. VA 's relationship with Sylvia Townsend Warner became increasingly strained as a result of this affair with White, which continued for more...
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
Sylvia Townsend Warner , who had originally bought the house, wished not to pressure VA , but to allow her the freedom to choose whom she preferred as a partner. She moved out to live...
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
VA began an intimate relationship with Elizabeth Wade White , a young American friend of both Ackland and Sylvia Townsend Warner .
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus.
176ff
Family and Intimate relationships Valentine Ackland
VA lived with her lover, Elizabeth Wade White , in the same house that Ackland had shared with Sylvia Townsend Warner for many years at Lower Frome Vauchurch.
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
173
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus.
228-9, 234
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Taylor
As a child Betty Coles (later ET ) wrote plays (with very short scenes each demanding a new and elaborate setting) and stories. She said she always wanted to be a novelist.
Leclercq, Florence. Elizabeth Taylor. Twayne.
2
At twelve...
Intertextuality and Influence Sarah Waters
SW puts in puts in something like a regular work day when writing, but keeps going to all hours when re-writing. Despite her success, she still finds the process largely torture. And yet [s]tarting...
Literary responses Mary Butts
Although her work received mixed reviews, MB was generally recognized as an important if eccentric literary figure during her lifetime, and she was highly praised by other modernist writers, including Ezra Pound , Marianne Moore
Literary responses Naomi Royde-Smith
Askwith (herself a published writer) defended NRS in the columns of The Times soon after the latter's death. She ranked The Delicate Situation as a novel likely to survive, and likened it to other works...
Literary Setting Valentine Ackland
The book extended ideas covered in her articles for the Left Review.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend, and Valentine Ackland. I’ll Stand By You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland. Editor Pinney, Susanna, Pimlico.
141n1
The text's downtrodden family was based on tenants living at East Chaldon with Ackland and Sylvia Townsend Warner . Ackland added...
Occupation Valentine Ackland
VA opened an antique shop in Lower Frome Vauchurch, where she lived with Sylvia Townsend Warner .
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
234
politics Virginia Woolf
On 10 May Germany had invaded Holland and Belgium. In the event of an invasion of England, they could indeed expect a terrible personal fate, on account of their anti-war politics, Leonard's anti-war career and...

Timeline

21 February 1924: The first issue appeared of the New Yorker...

Writing climate item

21 February 1924

The first issue appeared of the New Yorkermagazine (still going strong in the twenty-first century).
Borne Back Daily. http://borneback.com/ .
21 February 2011

16 April 1926: The Book-of-the-Month Club, newly founded...

Writing climate item

16 April 1926

The Book-of-the-Month Club , newly founded in the USA, mailed out its first monthly choice: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner .

February 1936: The awesome trio of political theorist Harold...

Writing climate item

February 1936

The awesome trio
Laity, Paul. “The left’s ace of clubs”. Guardian Unlimited.
of political theorist Harold Laski , publisher Victor Gollancz , and writer and Labour MP John Strachey established the Left Book Club (LBC) .

18 July 1936: The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans...

National or international item

18 July 1936

The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans (including Communists) and the Fascists led by Francisco Franco .

May 1978: Virago Press issued its first Virago Modern...

Women writers item

May 1978

Virago Press issued its first Virago Modern Classics, a historically important series most though not all of which were novels.

Texts

Warner, Sylvia Townsend. A Garland of Straw, and Other Stories. Chatto and Windus, 1943.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. A Moral Ending, and Other Stories. William Jackson, 1931.
Huguenin, Jean René. A Place of Shipwreck. Translator Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Chatto and Windus, 1963.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. A Spirit Rises. Chatto and Windus, 1962.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. A Stranger With a Bag, and Other Stories. Chatto and Windus, 1966.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. After the Death of Don Juan. Chatto and Windus, 1938.
Harman, Claire, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. “Afterword”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press, 1985, p. 95.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Azrael, and Other Poems. Libanus Press, 1978.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend, and Reynolds Stone. Boxwood. Monotype Corporation, 1957.
Proust, Marcel. By Way of Sainte-Beuve. Translator Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Chatto and Windus, 1958.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend, and Valentine Ackland. “Editor’s Note”. I’ll Stand By You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, edited by Susanna Pinney, Pimlico, 1998, p. vii - viii.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, 1982, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Elinor Barley. Cresset Press, 1930.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend, and Valentine Ackland. I’ll Stand By You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland. Editor Pinney, Susanna, Pimlico, 1998.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Introduction”. Letters: Sylvia Townsend Warner, edited by William Maxwell, Chatto and Windus, 1982, p. vii - xvii.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend, and David Garnett. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Sylvia and David: The Townsend Warner / Garnett Letters, edited by Richard Garnett, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994, p. various pages.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Jane Austen, 1775-1817. Longmans, Green, 1951.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. King Duffus, and Other Poems. Clare, Son and Company, 1968.
Ackland, Valentine. Later Poems. Editor Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Privately printed by Clare, Son, 1970.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Letters: Sylvia Townsend Warner. Editor Maxwell, William, Chatto and Windus, 1982.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Lolly Willowes. Chatto and Windus, 1926.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. More Joy in Heaven, and Other Stories. Cresset Press, 1935.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Mr Fortune’s Maggot. Chatto and Windus, 1927.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “My Mother Won the War”. New Yorker.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Opus 7. Chatto and Windus, 1931.