Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. His non-fiction works include the memoirs ''A Cab at the Door'' (1968) and ''Midnight Oil'' (1971), and many collections of essays on

literary biography When studying literature, biography and its relationship to literature is often a subject of literary criticism, and is treated in several different forms. Two scholarly approaches use biography or biographical approaches to the past as a tool for i ...

and criticism.

Biography

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was born in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (''née'' Martin). His father, a London businessman, relocated to Ipswich to establish a newspaper and stationery shop. The business ran into difficulty and his parents were lodging over a toy shop at 41 St Nicholas Street in Ipswich where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. Pritchett disliked his first name, hence he always preferred being styled by his initials "VSP", despite formally becoming "Sir Victor Pritchett" after being

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed.

Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist but unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice moved to Ipswich to be near her sister, who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to

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, Essex, then to

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit and his easy deceitfulness obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited, but life was always precarious. They tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family, but returned to Ipswich in 1910 to live for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St John's School. Subsequently, the family moved to East Dulwich and he attended

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Church of England, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Ed ...

, but when his paternal grandparents came to live with them at age 16, he was forced to leave school to work as a clerk and leather buyer in Bermondsey. At the same time his father enlisted to work in Hampshire at an aircraft factory to help the war effort. After the Great War Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, about which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation and faith healing. The leather work lasted from 1916 until 1920 when he moved to Paris to work as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'', which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for that

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and for the ''

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 ...

'', later being appointed its literary editor. Pritchett's first book, ''Marching Spain'' (1928), describes a journey across Spain, and his second book, ''Clare Drummer'' (1929), is about his experiences in Ireland. While he was there he met Evelyn Vigors, who he later married. Theirs was not a happy marriage. Pritchett published five novels, but he said he did not enjoy writing them. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories, ''The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories'' (1932). In 1936 he divorced his first wife and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts, by whom he had two children; the marriage survived until Pritchett's death in 1997, although they both had other relationships. Their children include the journalist Oliver Pritchett, whose son is the cartoonist

Matt Pritchett Matthew Pritchett MBE (born 14 July 1964) is a British pocket cartoonist who has worked on ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper under the pen name Matt since 1988. Early life and education Pritchett's father Oliver Pritchett, who was a columnist for ...

MBE, and daughter is screenwriter

Georgia Pritchett Georgia Pritchett (born 1968) is a British producer, screenwriter, and author. She is best known for her work on ''Veep'' and '' Succession'', as well as her book ''My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety''. ''The Guardian'' described Pri ...

. During the

Second World War 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 ...

Pritchett worked for 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 ...

and the Ministry of Information while continuing to write weekly essays for the ''New Statesman''. After World War II he wrote extensively and embarked on various university teaching positions in the United States:

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

(1953), the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

(1962),

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. Fluent in French, German and Spanish, he published acclaimed biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977), and

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

(1988). Pritchett was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

in 1975 for "services to literature" and a

Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. Founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire, it is sometimes ...

in 1993. His other awards included

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(1958),

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1968), the Heinemann Award (1969), the

PEN Award This is a list of awards sponsored by International PEN centres. There are over 145 PEN centres on the world, some of which hold annual literary awards. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" literary awar ...

(1974), the W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990) and the

Golden PEN Award The Golden PEN Award is a literary award established in 1993 by English PEN given annually to a British writer for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". The winner is chosen by the Board of English PEN. The award has previously been ...

(1994). He was President of PEN International, the worldwide association of writers and the oldest human rights organisation from 1974 until 1976. Sir V. S. Pritchett died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.

Bibliography

*''Marching Spain'', 1928 *''Clare Drummer'', 1929 *''The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories'', 1932 *''Shirley Sanz'', 1932 *''Nothing Like Leather'', 1935 *''Dead Man Leading'', 1937 *''This England'', 1938 (editor) *''You Make Your Own Life'', 1938 *''In My Good Books'', 1942 *''It May Never Happen'', 1945 *''Novels and Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson'', 1945 (editor) *''Build the Ships'', 1946 *''The Living Novel'', 1946 *''Turnstile One'', 1948 (editor) *''Why Do I Write?: An Exchange of Views Between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, and V. S. Pritchett'', 1948 *''Mr Beluncle'', 1951 *''Books in General'', 1953 *''The Spanish Temper'', 1954 *''Collected Stories'', 1956 *''The Sailor, The Sense of Humour and Other Stories'', 1956 *''When My Girl Comes Home'', 1961 *''London Perceived'', 1962 (photographs by Evelyn Hofer) *''The Key to My Heart'', 1963 *''Foreign Faces'', 1964 *''New York Proclaimed'', 1965 *''The Working Novelist'', 1965 *''The Saint and Other Stories'', 1966 *''Dublin'', 1967 *''A Cab at the Door'', 1968 *''Blind Love'', 1969 *''George Meredith and English Comedy'', 1970 *''Midnight Oil'', 1971 *''Penguin Modern Stories'', 1971 (with others) *''Balzac'', 1973 *''The Camberwell Beauty'', 1974 *''The Gentle Barbarian: the Life and Work of Turgenev'', 1977 *''Selected Stories'', 1978 *''On the Edge of the Cliff'', 1979 *''Myth Makers'', 1979 *''The Tale Bearers'', 1980 *''The Oxford Book of Short Stories'', 1981 (editor) *''The Turn of the Years'', 1982 (with R. Stone) *''Collected Stories'', 1982 *''More Collected Stories'', 1983 *''The Other Side of a Frontier'', 1984 *''A Man of Letters'', 1985 *''Chekhov'', 1988 *''A Careless Widow and Other Stories'', 1989 *''Complete Short Stories'', 1990 *''At Home and Abroad'', 1990 *''Lasting Impressions'', 1990 *''Complete Collected Essays'', 1991 *''A Cab at the Door & Midnight Oil'', 1994— *''The Pritchett Century'', 1997

Legacy

The V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize was founded by the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

at the beginning of the new millennium to commemorate the centenary of the birth of "an author widely regarded as the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century, and to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett's mastery of narrative"."V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize"
The Royal Society of Literature. This prize is awarded annually, with up to £2,000 being given for the best unpublished short story of the year. Perhaps his most prominent literary successor is the contemporary American Writer

Darin Strauss Darin Strauss is a best-selling American writer whose work has earned a number of awards, including, among numerous others, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Strauss's 2011 book ''Half a Life (memoir), Half a ...

, who has written widely about Pritchett,Strauss, Darin
"On Lifting: Isaac Babel’s My First Fee and V. S. Pritchett’s The Diver"
and who worked to get Pritchett's novel ''Mr Beluncle'' back into American print, providing a new introduction."Mr. Beluncle: A Novel"
at Amazon.

Notes

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources

* . * . * . * . * . * . * .

External links

* * * . * . * * .
''VS Pritchett Memorial Prize'' (RSL) – past recipients

''Sir V.S. Pritchett'' at www.npg.org.uk

Hans Koning's take on a review written by V.S. Pritchett (1968)

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
V.S. Pritchett collection, 1979-1982
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritchett, Victor Sawdon Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V.S. People educated at Alleyn's School Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. Pritchett, V. S. 20th-century English novelists English male short story writers English male novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers Presidents of the Society of Authors Presidents of the English Centre of PEN