An Original Hand Written and Signed Letter/ Envelope from Edith Sitwell. Letter dated 1913 which is an important year as it is when her first book was published. A handwritten and signed letter by the poet Edith Sitwell, on the writer Gilbert Cannan. 'Dearest Canty, I am so sorry Cousin Bill has got fever; poor thing, I do hope he is better. What hard luck. It will be great fun meeting on Thursday morning. Will you let me know at what time to get to Neville's. I have been flying furiously at that bounder Gilbert Cannan, in the pages of the Globe. He has written a book in which he makes fun of the men who are dying for their country. In fact, this sentence recurs: "You have died for your country, you are a herd; and you don't like it at all." Of course, he is simply beyond the pale. Luckily, I had hoarded up an article of his in "Poetry and Drama". So I wrote the enclosed furious letter to the Globe (the one I have marked), and I hope I have set the editor definitely on him. They can be fairly poisonous, so he ought to get part of what he deserves. My letter has been well edited; I suppose it was libellous; I said I thought it would take a deal of wind to make Mr Cannan fight for anything. But that has been left out. I saw Cecil a few days ago; she came to tea with me; she was looking very well, and needless to say, perfectly beautiful. Mother is now at large once more. With best love to yourself and Cousin Bill, Yours loving, Edith' Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887-1964 was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.Size of letter is 250mm x 205mm. Folding centre crease.