Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as well as a prolific letter writer and diarist. She published more than a dozen collections of poetry and 13 novels during her life.
She was twice awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Imaginative Literature: in 1927 for her pastoral epic, The Land, and in 1933 for her Collected Poems. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of Orlando: A Biography, by her friend and lover Virginia Woolf.
She wrote a column in The Observer from 1946 to 1961 and is remembered for the celebrated garden at Sissinghurst in Kent, created with her husband, Sir Harold Nicolson.
First Loves
Sackville-West debuted in 1910.
In 1924 she had a passionate affair with historian Geoffrey Scott. Scott’s marriage collapsed shortly thereafter, as was often the fallout with Sackville-West’s affairs, all with women after this point (as most of them had been beforehand).
Sackville-West fell in love with Rosamund Grosvenor (1888–1944), who was four years her senior. In her journal, Vita wrote “Oh, I dare say I realized vaguely that I had no business to sleep with Rosamund, and I should certainly never have allowed anyone to find it out,” but she saw no real conflict.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Marriage to Harold Nicolson
In 1913, Harold Nicolson married the novelist Vita Sackville-West. The couple had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships before and during their marriage, as did some of the Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists, with whom they had connections.: 127 Sackville-West saw herself as psychologically divided into two: one side of her personality was more feminine, soft, submissive, and attracted to men while the other side was more masculine, hard, aggressive, and attracted to women.
Relationship with Violet Keppel
Sackville-West and Keppel disappeared together several times from 1918 on, mostly to France. One day in 1918 Vita writes that she experienced a radical ‘liberation’, where her male aspect was unexpectedly freed.
The Paris Review, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Relationship with Violet Keppel
The mothers of both women joined forces to sabotage the relationship and force their daughters back to their husbands. But they were unsuccessful. Sackville-West often dressed as a man, styled as Keppel’s husband. The two women made a bond to remain faithful to one another, pledging that neither would engage in sexual relations with their husbands.
Keppel continued to pursue her lover to great lengths, until Sackville-West’s affairs with other women finally took their toll. In November 1919, while staying at Monte Carlo, Sackville-West wrote that she felt very low, entertaining thoughts of suicide, believing that Nicolson would be better off without her.
In 1920 the lovers ran off again to France together and their husbands chased after them in a small two-seater aeroplane. Sackville-West heard allegations that Keppel and her husband Trefusis had been involved sexually, and she broke off the relationship as the lesbian oath of fidelity had been broken. Despite the rift, the two women stayed devoted to one another.
Relationship with Virginia Woolf
Sackville-West’s relationship with the prominent writer Virginia Woolf began in 1925 and ended in 1935, reaching its height between 1925 and 1928.: 195–214 The American scholar Louise DeSalvo wrote that the ten years while they were together were the artistic peak of both women’s careers, owing to the positive influence they had on one another: “neither had ever written so much so well, and neither would ever again reach this peak of accomplishment”.
See also: Wyrd Women post on Virginia Woolf
Sissinghurst Castle
In 1930 the family acquired and moved to Sissinghurst Castle, near Cranbrook, Kent. It had once been owned by Vita’s ancestors. This gave it a dynastic attraction as she was excluded from inheriting Knole and a title. Sissinghurst was an Elizabethan ruin and the creation of the gardens would be a joint labour of love that would last many decades, first entailing years of clearing debris from the land. Nicolson provided the architectural structure, with strong classical lines, which would frame his wife’s innovative informal planting schemes. She created a new and experimental system of enclosures or rooms, such as the White Garden, Rose Garden, Orchard, Cottage Garden and Nuttery. She also innovated single colour-themed gardens and design principles orientating the visitors’ experience to discovery and exploration.
Source: Vita Sackville-West – Wikiwand. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.
