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
Publishing Valentine Ackland
A substantial collection of VA 's poems, edited by Sylvia Townsend Warner , was published posthumously as The Nature of the Moment.
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus.
307
Author summary Valentine Ackland
VA published very little in her lifetime, and has gone largely unrecognised since. Her lifelong partner, Sylvia Townsend Warner , was very supportive of Ackland and helped her to get her writing into print. This...
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
Residence Valentine Ackland
In 1937, Ackland and Warner moved to Lower Frome Vauchurch on the river Frome, near Maiden Newton, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
40-3
Early in the Second World War, from...
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...
Residence Valentine Ackland
VA and Sylvia Townsend Warner lived in Miss Green's cottage at Chaldon Herring.
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
35
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
Travel Valentine Ackland
Sylvia Townsend Warner and Ackland travelled together to New York in May 1939 to attend the Third Congress of American Writers .
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
135
Their postwar holidays included trips to Italy in February 1949, and to...
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
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
politics Valentine Ackland
VA and Warner joined the Communist Party , believing, like many of their contemporaries, that Communism offered the best or only defence against encroaching Fascism.
Mulford, Wendy. This Narrow Place. Pandora.
55
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Introduction”. Letters: Sylvia Townsend Warner, edited by William Maxwell, Chatto and Windus, p. vii - xvii.
xiv
Textual Production Valentine Ackland
From the mid-1930s until the mid-1940s, Ackland published many of her early poems in the New Republic, New Masses, and The New Yorker. At that time Edmund Wilson , among others, appreciated...
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

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.