The Royal Oak Foundation announces a series of in-person lectures on Vita Sackville-West, Bloomsbury writer and poet and lover of Virginia Woolf

NEW YORK, March 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The Royal Oak Foundation announces a series of in-person lectures, “Vita Sackville-West and A Sense of Place” with Robert Sackville-West, 7th Baron Sackville

Vita Sackville-West was a Bloomsbury writer and poet and lover of Virginia Woolf. In this lecture, Robert Sackville-West, a cousin of Vita’s and 7th Baron Sackville, will describe Vita Sackville-West’s life and illustrate the places that were important to her.

A search for a sense of place as well as a longing for home permeates the life and writings of Vita Sackville-West. Born in 1892 at Knole, Kent, she died 70 years later at Sissinghurst, only 31 miles from where she was born. Vita’s writings chronicle a remarkable life that spanned the gilded Edwardian era, two World Wars and the dawn of a more democratic age.

Throughout her writing she revealed stories about her tempestuous love life and the saga of the Sackville family—whom she described as “a race too prodigal, too amorous, too weak, too indolent, and too melancholy; in short, a rotten lot, and nearly all stark staring mad.” Her obsession with Knole, the 365-room house in which she grew up but which she did not, as a woman, inherit, came to dominate her life. She often wrote about the legacy denied to her, and described places that fostered a sense of human attachment and belonging.

These thoughts also were immortalized in Orlando, the novel written by Vita’s lover Virginia Woolf. Two years later, Vita left Knole, moving to Sissinghurst, a nearby castle ruin and tumbledown farm. Despite her feelings about Knole, Sissinghurst is arguably Vita’s greatest creation and most enduring legacy.

Both Knole and Sissinghurst are today owned by Britain’s National Trust. Established 50 years ago, in 1973, the Royal Oak Foundation is proud to partner with the National Trust, helping to support the Trust’s vital conservation work.

Join us IN-PERSON on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m. (ET) 
20 W. 44th Street, NYC (Bet. 5th and 6th)
Reception and book-signing following

For other locations and dates as well as more upcoming events, visit: https://www.royal-oak.org/events/

SOURCE The Royal Oak Foundation