top of page
Search

Writers, Friends, Lovers and More.Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.

“Please, in all this muddle of life, continue to be a bright and constant star. Just a few things remain as beacons: poetry, and you, and solitude.” ― Vita Sackville-West, Love Letters: Vita and Virginia.

Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, two prolific writers of 20th century England. What unique and intimate feelings existed between the literary geniuses and how it impacted their work?


It was December 1922, a dinner party where the spark between the two women would initiate almost two decades of flirtation and friendship. Virginia Woolf, a relatively unknown writer at the time, belonging to an artistic and literary circle known as the Bloomsbury group, and Vita Sackville-West, a renowned author of aristocratic descent, had their first encounter. However, it does not go as smoothly, as Virginia writes in her diary: 


“This is partly the result of dining to meet the lovely gifted aristocratic Sackville-West last night at Clive’s. Not much to my severer taste – florid, moustached, parakeet coloured, with all the supple ease of aristocracy, but not the wit of the artist. She writes fifteen pages a day – has finished another book – publishes with Heinemanns – knows everyone. But could I ever know her?”

Vita & Virginia. Directed by Chanya Button, Thunderbird Releasing, 2018. Elizabeth Debicki as Virginia Woolf https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5859882/mediaviewer/rm2023650560/?ref_=ttmi_mi_51_3.
Vita & Virginia. Directed by Chanya Button, Thunderbird Releasing, 2018. Elizabeth Debicki as Virginia Woolf https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5859882/mediaviewer/rm2023650560/?ref_=ttmi_mi_51_3.


At the same time, Vita also has mixed impressions of the bohemian artist, which she expresses to her husband Harold:


“Mrs Woolf is so simple: she does give the impression of something big. She is utterly unaffected: there is no outward adornments – she dresses quite atrociously. At first you think she is plain; then a sort of spiritual beauty imposes itself on you, and you find a fascination in watching her.”

Vita & Virginia. Directed by Chanya Button, Thunderbird Releasing, 2018. Gemma Arterton as Vita Sackwille-West https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5859882/mediaviewer/rm2057204992/?ref_=ttmi_mi_52_1.
Vita & Virginia. Directed by Chanya Button, Thunderbird Releasing, 2018. Gemma Arterton as Vita Sackwille-West https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5859882/mediaviewer/rm2057204992/?ref_=ttmi_mi_52_1.

The social circles of both women were quite different, as well as their upbringing. Virginia Woolf, raised among seven siblings in a more or less affluent household and Vita Sackville-West, an only child in the family of aristocratic lineage. The previously mentioned Bloomsbury group, which consisted of artists, writers and philosophers with left-leaning political ideas who believed in freedom of conventional concepts of relationships, was the environment in which Virginia Woolf created. Together with her husband, Leonard Woolf, Virginia founded a publishing enterprise, under which she published her books. Virginia Woolf’s professional writing career started with the novel The Voyage Out in 1915. At the same time, a much younger Vita Sackville-West, was known as a socialite, being married to a diplomat, Harold Nicolson. However, her marriage could nowadays be described as an open relationship, as both spouses were known for their affairs with people of both their own and opposite gender. Vita’s writing career included several memoirs of her past relationships. For example, Portrait of a Marriage describes her affair with an author, Violet Keppel. 


As time passed, and the authors spent more time together, their judgments started to fade and transform into a genuine friendship and creative collaboration. They started to frequently exchange letters, which would be made into a book, almost a hundred years later, which told us so much about their interactions. During Virginia's trip to Spain in March 1923, Vita invites her to be a member of the PEN committee of writers, which Woolf eventually accepts. In 1914, Virginia invited Vita to write a book under the Wolfs' Hogarth Press. Sackville-West writes Seducers in Ecuador, which she dedicates to Virginia. The turning point in their relationship dates to 1925, when the couple spent three days at Long Barn, the Nicolsons’ country house in Kent. From then on, their interactions were more romantic in nature. During Virginia’s illness, Vita writes, in response to Virginia’s letter:


“But it is a great comfort to think of you when I’m not well – I wonder why. Still nicer – better to see you.” – Virginia.


“Oh my poor dear, ill again, and the novel thwarted – How maddening for you. I have a great deal to say. Firstly that I don’t care a damn, not a little row of pins, whether I catch it or not; I’d travel all the way to Egypt with the fever heavy upon me sooner than not see you [...]” – Vita.


Perhaps their most passionate feelings transpired during Vita’s travel to Persia alongside Harold. Vita would write intense letters from as far afield as Tehran and Trieste:


“The funny thing is, that you are the only person I have ever known properly who was aloof from the more vulgarly jolly sides of life. And I wonder whether you lose or gain? I fancy that you gain, – you, Virginia [...]”


Virginia would write longing passages, such as: 


“Honey dearest, don’t go to Egypt please. Stay in England. Love Virginia. Take her in your arms.” And “Dearest Honey, Are you back? At Long Barn? Happy? With the dogs? Comfortable? Well?…I think of Vita at Long Barn: all fire and legs and beautiful plunging ways like a young horse.”


Their reunion, after months apart, was awkward. Expected physical passion did not immediately materialize. Still, the period of their greatest intimacy followed.


George Green, Leonard. “Portrait of Vita Sackville-West, Taken on 2 Nov 1927; Image Facing Page 158 of Orlando: A Biography (1928), with Caption: Orlando on Her Return to England.” Internet Archive, 2 Nov. 1927, archive.org/details/orlandobiography0000virg. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
George Green, Leonard. “Portrait of Vita Sackville-West, Taken on 2 Nov 1927; Image Facing Page 158 of Orlando: A Biography (1928), with Caption: Orlando on Her Return to England.” Internet Archive, 2 Nov. 1927, archive.org/details/orlandobiography0000virg. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

However, as no relationships are perfect, both women had difficulties with coming to terms with each other's characters. Vita would go on to have multiple affairs with other women, which Virginia openly opposed. How strange it may be, the two would not drift apart right away. Quite oppositely, Virginia Woolf would be inspired by Vita to write one of her most successful novels, Orlando, which follows a poet of an ambiguous gender that travels through centuries. She dedicated the book to Vita, and in addition, Sackville-West posed for photographs that would serve as illustrations to the book. 



As time passed, the two eventually relinquished their feelings. Virginia writes in her diary in 1934:


“My friendship with Vita is over. Not with a quarrel, not with a bang, but as ripe fruit falls.”


Vita and Virginia last met as war raged in February 1941, writing their last letters in March. Unfortunately, due to her struggles with mental health, on 28 March Virginia Woolf committed suicide. Sharing her pain with Harold, Vita wrote: 


Charles Beresford, George. “Portrait of Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941), a British Author and Feminist, with Her Chignon.” Wikimedia Commons, restored by Adam Cuerden, 1902, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Charles_Beresford_-_Virginia_Woolf_in_1902_-_Restoration.jpg. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
Charles Beresford, George. “Portrait of Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941), a British Author and Feminist, with Her Chignon.” Wikimedia Commons, restored by Adam Cuerden, 1902, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Charles_Beresford_-_Virginia_Woolf_in_1902_-_Restoration.jpg. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

“I think I might have saved her if only I had been there.” 


The words most intimate of friendships and tragic love story can describe the type of feelings Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf had for each other. Their story not only had an immense effect on both of their art, but also greatly influenced modern cinematography. The 2018 film Vita and Virginia, directed by Chanya Button and written by Eileen Atkins, depicts the relationship between the couple, portrayed by Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki respectively.










Page design: Asya Chub


Bibliography


Photos:





Comments

bottom of page