Scope and Contents
The collection consists chiefly of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, business and estate records, writings, lectures, and gardening papers. Correspondents include family members such as Lionel Edward Sackville-West, Victoria Sackville, Harold Nicolson, and Nigel Nicolson, and friends and lovers including Rosamund Grosvenor, Hilda Matheson, Gwen St. Aubyn, and Christopher St. John. Writings include typescripts and manuscripts for works including the novels The Edwardians and All Passion Spent. Gardening papers include horticultural catalogs, files on the National Trust's garden committee, and research materials. The collection documents Vita Sackville-West's family life, love affairs with women including Christopher St. John and Gwen St. Aubyn, her literary life and circle, including both Sackville-West's work and that of friends including Virginia Woolf, and the management of the Sissinghurst Castle estate and gardens.
Dates
- 1866-2003
- Majority of material found within 1900 - 1960
Creator
Language of Materials
Chiefly in English; some materials in French and Italian.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Vita Sackville-West Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. on the Chauncey Brewster Tinker Prize Fund, the Frederick W. Hilles Fund, and the Hubert Amer McGuire Memorial Fund, 2012.
June 2017 acquisition: Purchased from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc. on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2017.
March 2018 acquisition: Purchased from Joan Winterkorn on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2018.
Arrangement
Organized into six series: I. Correspondence, 1897-2003. II. Personal papers, 1900s-1960s. III. Writings and lectures, 1920s-1990s. IV. Gardening papers, 1930s-1960s. V. June 2017 acquistion, 1866-1994. VI. March 2018 acquisition, 1916-1991.
Extent
17.01 Linear Feet (27 boxes)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists chiefly of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, business and estate records, writings, lectures, and gardening papers. Correspondents include family members such as Lionel Edward Sackville-West, Victoria Sackville, Harold Nicolson, and Nigel Nicolson, and friends and lovers including Rosamund Grosvenor, Hilda Matheson, Gwen St. Aubyn, and Christopher St. John. Writings include typescripts and manuscripts for works including the novels The Edwardians and All Passion Spent. Gardening papers include horticultural catalogs, files on the National Trust's garden committee, and research materials. The collection documents Vita Sackville-West's family life, love affairs with women including Christopher St. John and Gwen St. Aubyn, her literary life and circle, including both Sackville-West's work and that of friends including Virginia Woolf, and the management of the Sissinghurst Castle estate and gardens.
Vita Sackville-West
Vita (Victoria) Sackville-West (1892-1962), was an English author, poet and gardener. She was the daughter of Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville, and Victoria Sackville-West. She and her husband Sir Harold Nicolson created the gardens at their Sissinghurst Castle estate.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Authors, English -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Diaries -- England -- 20th Century
- Gardening -- England
- Grosvenor, Rosamund, 1888-1944
- LGBTQ resource
- Lesbian authors -- England
- Lesbians -- England
- Matheson, Hilda, 1888-1940
- Nicolson, Harold, 1886-1968
- Nicolson, Nigel
- Sackville, Lionel Edward Sackville-West, Baron, 1867-1928
- Sackville, Victoria Josephine Sackville-West, Lady, 1862-1936
- Sackville-West, V. (Victoria), 1892-1962
- Sissinghurst Castle (England)
- St. Aubyn, Gwen
- St. John, Christopher (Christopher Marie)
- Women authors
- Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941
- Title
- Guide to the Vita Sackville-West Papers
- Author
- by Beinecke staff
- Date
- February 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.