Poetic Pages Immortalizing Literary Love
By Alissa Watson
Romeo and Juliet.
Lancelot and Guinevere.
Vita and Virginia.
Poet, Vita Sackville-West and writer, Virginia Woolf penned hundreds of poetic letters to each other over the course of their lifetimes. Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando is a love letter to Vita, born from their intense friendship and love affair that spanned two decades. In Orlando, Woolf immortalizes her lover in a sexy and playful tribute, capturing Vita’s lifestyle and family history. An only child, Sackville-West wrote over 35 books and actively challenged the limitations of high society. Vita was no stranger to scandal; she often journeyed through Europe dressed as a man, embraced various alter egos, and had love affairs with both men and women, even eloping with a lover—after her marriage—only to be returned home by disgruntled family members. Vita was far from shy about the way she lived her life and later penned, “I believe it will be recognized that many more people of my type do exist than under the present-day system of hypocrisy.”
Vita and Virginia met at a costume party in 1922 and later grew closer by attending a series of dinner parties together in London. Despite the great love that grew between them, neither Vita nor Virginia were exclusive. Upon meeting, both women were married: Virginia to author and activist Leonard Woolf and Vita to British diplomat and author Harold Nicolson. Both Harold and Vita had same-sex affairs during their long marriage, Virginia being Vita’s most famous. “The truth is one has room for a good many relationships,” Virginia wrote to her husband after one of her first private visits with Vita.
In 1926, approximately a year after their romantic relationship began, Vita left the country to travel, but neither Virginia nor Vita was satisfied to be so far apart. Vita wrote to Virginia:
“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. [. . .] I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is just really a squeal of pain. It is incredible how essential to me you have become.”
Woolf and Sackville-West’s last surviving letter is from March 22, 1941, 6 days before Virginia took her own life. Both women have described the love between them as “unalterable” and “permanent.” “The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in Orlando,” Vita’s son, Nigel Nicolson later wrote. It is “the longest and most charming love letter in literature.”
Works Referenced
Carver, Stephen. ““The Longest and Most Charming Love Letter in Literature” – Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.” Ainsworth & Friends, Ainsworth & Friends, 31 July 2021, ainsworthandfriends.wordpress.com/2021/07/31/the-longest-and-most-charming-love-letter-in-literature-virginia-woolfs-orlando/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Haynes, Suyin. “What to Know about Virginia Woolf’s Love Affair with Vita Sackville-West.” Time, 23 Aug. 2019, time.com/5655270/virginia-woolf-vita-sackville-west-relationship/.
History Is Gay. “History Is Gay.” History Is Gay, 20 Aug. 2018, www.historyisgaypodcast.com/notes/tag/Vita+Sackville-West. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Kennedy, Maev. “Vita Sackville-West’s Erotic Verse to Her Lover Emerges from “Intoxicating Night.”” The Guardian, The Guardian, 29 Apr. 2013, www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/29/sackville-west-lost-poem-lover-trefusis. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Knight, Rebecca Dinerstein. “The Fabulous Forgotten Life of Vita Sackville-West.” The Paris Review, 31 Mar. 2020, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/03/31/the-fabulous-forgotten-life-of-vita-sackville-west/.
Lesperance, Alice. “10 Very Gay Excerpts from Vita and Virginia’s Love Letters.” Autostraddle, 24 May 2017, www.autostraddle.com/vita-and-virginia-love-letters-378151/.
Woolf, Vita Sackville-West & Virginia. “A Thing That Wants Virginia.” The Paris Review, 9 Mar. 2016, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/09/a-thing-that-wants-virginia/.
Photo Credits
Top: (Left) Photograph Of Vita Sackville-West By E. O. Hoppe / Hulton Archive / Getty; (Right) Photograph Of Virginia Woolf Via Mondadori Portfolio / Getty
Bottom: Virginia and Vita at Monk’s House, Virginia and Leonard’s residence, in 1933 (as photographed by Leonard Woolf).
Published October 2024