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Collection Description
Although several manuscript collections in the University of Sussex
Library contain correspondence from poet Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
(see also the Bloomsbury Archives, the Geoffrey
Gorer Archive), one
collection is devoted entirely to a section of her correspondence.
The Edith Sitwell Letters are composed of 116 manuscript letters written
between 1930 and 1962 from Sitwell to Choura Tchelitchew, Madame Zaoussailoff.
Choura was the sister of Pavel Tchelitchew, Russian émigré painter
and protégé of Sitwell. The friendship between Dame Edith
and Choura was warm and long lasting. The letters are in French and
include detail of a contretemps with Sitwell’s declared ‘enemi’ Wyndham
Lewis, a row with photographer Cecil Beaton. Shortly before his death
in February 1975 Michel Robineau of Paris presented the letters to
the University. The correspondence had been bequeathed to him by Madame
Zaoussailoff. The donor wished the letters to be returned to Sitwell’s
own country, and they were acquired through the efforts of Brian Fothergill,
a friend of M. Robineau and a Friend of the University of Sussex Library.
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