Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville (13 November 1901 – 4 July 1965) was a British music critic, novelist and, in his last years, a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. Musically gifted as a boy, he was attracted as a young man to a literary life and wrote a series of semi-autobiographical novels in the 1920s and 1930s. They made little impact, and his more lasting books are a biography of the essayist Thomas De Quincey and ''The Record Guide'', Britain's first comprehensive guide to classical music on record, first published in 1951. As a critic and a member of the board of the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

, he strove to promote the works of young British composers, including

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and Michael Tippett. Britten worked with him on a musical drama for radio and dedicated to him one of his best known works, the ''

Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings The ''Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings'', Op. 31, is a song cycle written in 1943 by Benjamin Britten for tenor, solo horn and a string orchestra. Composed during the Second World War at the request of the horn player Dennis Brain, it is a s ...

''.

Biography

Early years

Sackville-West was born at Cadogan Gardens, London, the elder child and only son of Major-General Charles John Sackville-West, who later became the fourth Baron Sackville, and his first wife, Maud Cecilia, née Bell (1873–1920). He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

.De-la-Noy, Michael.
"West, Edward Charles Sackville-, fifth Baron Sackville (1901–1965)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 December 2009. While at Eton he studied the piano with Irene Scharrer, his housemaster's wife, and became highly proficient, winning the Eton music prize in 1918. His partner

Desmond Shawe-Taylor Desmond Philip Shawe-Taylor (born 30 September 1955) was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures from 2005 to 2020. He succeeded Christopher Lloyd (art historian), Christopher Lloyd on Lloyd's retirement.Second Concerto of

Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

. He even contemplated a pianist's career, but was deterred by poor health."Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, ''The Gramophone'', October 1965, p. 24 At Oxford he made many literary friends, including

Maurice Bowra Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra, (; 8 April 1898 – 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar, literary critic and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Univer ...

, Roy Harrod and

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

, and literature began to rival music as his chief interest.''The Times'' obituary, 6 July 1965, p. 14 He left Oxford without taking his degree and embarked on a career as a novelist, writing a series of autobiographical novels.

Novelist

Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville; Raymond Mortimer

His first novel, ''The Ruin: A Gothic Novel'', was plainly autobiographical, and its depiction of turbulent, unconventional and ultimately calamitous relationships included characters readily identifiable from Sackville-West's circle. Its publication was therefore delayed, and his second novel, ''Piano Quintet'', was published first. "Edward Charles Sackville-West"
''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2003. Retrieved 8 December 2009 (subscription required). Sackville-West's biographer, Michael de-la-Noy, wrote, "''The Ruin'', like all the gothic literary efforts over which Sackville-West took infinite but rather pointless pains, was heavily laced with the mannered style of the late nineteenth-century 'decadent' movement … with whose work Eddy had unfortunately become enamoured when he was seventeen." He published a further three novels, ''Mandrake over the Water-Carrier'' (1928), ''Simpson: A Life'' (1931) and ''The Sun in Capricorn'' (1934). They were reviewed politely but made little stir. Reviewing the third novel, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' said, "The book is extremely cleverly and amusingly written, but to an ordinary intelligence it seems to be entirely inconsequent." ''Simpson: A Life'' was the best received. Its study of a children's nurse was judged "impressive and in its way original, the more so because Simpson has such a cool, aloof quality and so little resembles the conventional Nanny of fact or fiction." In this period, away from fiction, Sackville-West wrote ''A Flame in Sunlight: the Life and Work of Thomas De Quincey'' (1936), for which he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Musical work

In 1935 Sackville-West became music critic of the magazine ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', a post he held for twenty years, contributing weekly reviews of recordings. ''The Times'' wrote that his articles "were distinguished not only for their command of the jewelled phrase but for their zealous propagation of young British composers." He was an early admirer of and campaigner for the music of

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Sackville-West joined the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

as "an arranger and director of programmes". In 1943, he wrote ''The Rescue: a Melodrama for Broadcasting'', for which Britten composed the music. It was first broadcast that year and was revived several times. The BBC producer Val Gielgud rated it as "a genuine broadcasting classic". The theme of ''The Rescue'' was the end of ''The

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''. Maurice Bowra dubbed it "The Eddyssey." In the same year, Britten dedicated his ''

'' to Sackville-West. In addition to his column in ''The New Statesman'', Sackville-West contributed a substantial quarterly article to ''

The Gramophone ''Gramophone'' is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continued to edit the magazine until 1961. It was a ...

'', and, with Shawe-Taylor, wrote '' The Record Guide'', first published in 1951, a large volume reviewing all significant classical music recordings then available. They soon found the flow of new releases overwhelming and enlisted the aid of two younger critics, Andrew Porter and William Mann. A revised and updated edition of ''The Record Guide'' published in 1955 ran to 957 pages, and Sackville-West, Shawe-Taylor and their colleagues did not publish any more editions. From 1950 to 1955, Sackville-West was a member of the board of the

, Covent Garden, where he continued to work for the cause of modern British music, including that of Michael Tippett, whose opera ''

The Midsummer Marriage ''The Midsummer Marriage'' is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, on 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard. The reception of the opera was controversial, o ...

'' was premiered in 1955.

Personal life

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Long Crichel - Churchyard - geograph

Sackville-West's family home was

Knole Knole () is a country house and former archbishop's palace owned by the National Trust. It is situated within Knole Park, a park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house ranks in the top five of England's large ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He maintained rooms there which are now open to the public, but it was not until 1945 that he had a home of his own, having lived with the art historian Kenneth Clark and his family at Upton near

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

. Together with Shawe-Taylor and the art dealer

Eardley Knollys (Edward) Eardley Knollys (1902–1991) was a member of the Bloomsbury Group of artists - variously an art critic, art dealer and collector, active from the 1920s to 1950s. He only himself began to paint in 1949, and had his first solo exhibi ...

he bought

Long Crichel Long Crichel () is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Crichel, in east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase five miles northeast of Blandford Forum. In 2001 it had a population of 81. The civil parish was abolish ...

House, an old rectory near Wimborne. Along with the literary critic

Raymond Mortimer Charles Raymond Bell Mortimer CBE (25 April 1895 – 9 January 1980), who wrote under the name Raymond Mortimer, was a British writer on art and literature, known mostly as a critic and literary editor, who also wrote a classic history of th ...

, he established "what in effect was a male salon, entertaining at the weekends a galaxy of friends from the worlds of books and music." Guests included

E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

, Nancy Mitford,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Ben Nicholson. It is regarded as "one of the last great post-war salons". In 1956 he also bought Cooleville House at Clogheen in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, Ireland. On the death of his father on 8 May 1962 he inherited the title Baron Sackville. He took his seat in the

but never made a speech. He died suddenly in 1965 at Cooleville, aged 63. Shawe-Taylor wrote, "Barely a quarter of an hour before, he had been playing to a friend, who was staying with him, the new record of Britten's ''

Songs from the Chinese ''Songs from the Chinese'' is a song cycle for soprano or tenor and guitar composed in 1957 by Benjamin Britten (191376), and published as his Op. 58. It consists of settings of six poems translated from the original Chinese by Arthur Waley (1 ...

'' performed by Peter Pears and

Julian Bream Julian Alexander Bream (15 July 193314 August 2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. Regarded as one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public per ...

. When I arrived for the funeral a few days later, the record was still out of its cover—something the meticulous Eddy would never have allowed." He was succeeded in the barony by his cousin Lionel Bertrand Sackville-West.

Legacy

On his death in 1965, Sackville-West bequeathed a large collection of paintings to his friend and former lover Eardley Knollys, who added to it and in turn on his own death in 1991, left the collection to the Bulgarian emigre and picture framer Mattei Radev, a former lover of

. The collection, now known as The Radev Collection, consists of more than 800 works of

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Modernist art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the trad ...

.. Retrieved 8 October 2020

Notes

External links

* *
Hon. Edward Sackville-West Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Sackville, Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron 1901 births 1965 deaths English music critics 20th-century English novelists English art collectors English LGBT people Edward Sackville-West, 05 Baron Sackville

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Eldest sons of British hereditary barons People educated at Eton College James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients