Books and Writers

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SACKVILLE-WEST, VICTORIA (VITA)
Novelist & Poet. Only child of the 3rd Lord Sackville. Married the diplomat Harold Nicolson 1913. Had a passionate affair with Violette Trefusis in 1918, who married Denys Trefusis in 1919 to suppress the scandal. She lived at Sissinghurst in Kent

SAROYAN, WILLIAM
Novelist, Short Story Writer, Playwright

SASSOON, SIEGFRIED (LORRAINE)
Poet. Noted for his hatred of war. Served in WW1. Became a Catholic 1957. Married Hester Getty in 1933

SAUNDERS, HILARY ST GEORGE
Crime Novelist & Historian. Died of asthma

SAVILLE, LEONARD MALCOLM
Children's writer

SAYERS, DOROTHY LEIGH
Novelist & detective writer. Creator of Lord Peter Wimsey. Married Oswald Arthur Fleming in 1926. In 1947 she stopped writing detective novels and concentrated on translating Dante and lecturing on philosophy, medieval literature and religion. In 1922 she worked for Benson's Advertising Agency and coined the phrase "My Goodness, My Guinness". Lived at Witham in Essex from 1929

SCARRY, RICHARD MCCLURE
Children's writer and illustrator

SCIENCE FICTION, SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

SCOTLAND, BOOKS ON

SCOTT, SIR WALTER
Novelist, Poet & Biographer. Associated with the Borders. Married Charlotte Charpentier in 1797. In 1826 bankrupt as a result of his publishing partner and for sinking money into the Ballantyne's printing business (a total of £130.000). He worked for the rest of his life to clear his debts. Lived at Abbotsford from 1812

SEARLE, RONALD WILLIAM FORDHAM
Cartoonist, Caricaturist, Illustrator, designer, Publisher and humorist. Married Kaye Webb in 1948 (dissolved 1967) & Monica Koenig in 1967. Searle lived in Paris from 1961 and moved to the south of France in 1977. See Willans

SENDAK, MAURICE BERNARD
Children's Writer and illustrator

SEUSS, DR
Children's writer and illustrator with German background

SEXUALITY, BOOKS ON

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM
Actor, Poet & Dramatist. Little known up to 18. Married a farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway in 1582. Went to London, Globe Theatre as actor and playwright. 38 Plays in total. 36 Printed in the First Folio of 1623. He is the most published author in history.

SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD
Dramatist, wit, and socialist. Left Ireland to live in London in 1876 and didn't return for 30 years. In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne-Townsend (1857-1943). Nobel Prize 1925. Lived in the new rectory at Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire from 1906 (it was renamed Shaw's Corner after 1946) until his death.

SHELLEY, MARY
Novelist and poet. Daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft & William Godwin. Met and eloped to the Continent with Percy B Shelley 1814 and they married in 1817, but Shelley drowned in 1822

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE
Romantic Poet. Married Harriet Westbrook in 1811 (drowned herself in the Serpentine in 1816). He left her in 1814 after meeting Mary Godwin, and they eloped to Italy. They married in 1816. Accidentally drowned while sailing near Spezzia in Italy

SHEPARD, ERNEST HOWARD
Children's book illustrator

SHERWOOD, MRS MARY MARTHA
Writer. Evangelical Christian. Married her cousin Capt Henry Sherwood in 1803 and went to India with him until 1816. Wrote over 350 books, tracts and pamphlets

SHIRE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Publisher. Cromwell House, Church St, Princes Risborough, Aylesbury, Bucks in 1994

SILLITOE, ALAN
Novelist & Poet. Married Ruth Fainlight in 1959. Lived in Majorca, on his RAF pension, for six years

SIMENON, GEORGES JOSEPH CHRISTIAN
Crime Novelist. Used 17 pseudonyms and claimed to have slept with over 1000 women. Lived in Paris

SIMON, ANDRE LOUIS
Writer on gastronomy. Married Edith Symons in 1900

SIMS, GEORGE ROBERT
Novelist, Poet & Playwright. Married Florence Wykes in 1901. He was hugely successful. His play "Lights O'London", first performed in 1881, was said to have earned him £72,000 by 1894

SITWELL, DAME EDITH
Poet. Sister of Osbert and Sacheverell. Experimenter with Verse form

SITWELL, SIR OSBERT
Poet and critic. Invalided from WW1 in 1916

SITWELL, SACHEVERELL
Poet and Critic. Married Georgia Doble in 1925

SMART, CHRISTOPHER
Poet. He edited and contributed to John Newbery's magazine "The Midwife". In 1753 he married Newbery's stepdaughter, Anna Maria Carnan. He was imprisoned for debt in 1747, his wife left him and Newbery disowned him. Thomas Carnan was to help him but he died. Entered a mental asylum from 1756-1763, which led him to constant public prayer and the production of most of his religious poetry. Died in the King's Bench prison

SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE
Novelist. All his work is satirical and full of coarse humour. He travelled the world as a ship's surgeon and died on the continent. Also translated Cervantes

SOCIOLOGY, BOOKS ON

SOUTHEY, ROBERT
Lake Poet, Translator and historian. Poet Laureate from 1813. Married Edith Fricker in 1795 (died 1837) & Caroline Bowles in 1839. Brother in law of Coleridge. Buried at Crosthwaite churchyard in Cumbria, his grave was restored by the Brazilian Government as a 'thank-you' for his History of Brazil

SPARK, MURIEL SARAH
Novelist & Poet. Converted to Catholicism. Married S O Spark whilst she was in Africa in 1938 (dissolved)

SPENDER, STEPHEN HAROLD
Poet. Married Agnes Pearn in 1936 & Natasha Litvin in 1941. Homosexual. Lived in Germany. Fought in Spanish Civil War. Son of Edward Harold Spender

SPENSER, EDMUND
Poet. Married Machabyas Chyld in 1579 (died 1591) and Elizabeth Boyle in 1594. Called the 'poet's poet'. Went to Ireland in 1580 and wrote much of his work there in Kilcolman Castle (Cork) which was burnt in an insurrection in 1598. Buried in Westminster Abbey

SPRAGUE DE CAMP, LYON
Science Fiction Novelist. Married Catherine (d.1999) in 1939 and much of his work was co-written with her

ST DOMINIC'S PRESS
Private Press based at Ditchling in Sussex and founded by the artist Eric Gill

STABLES, DR WILLIAM GORDON
Prolific writer of Boy's Stories, Animal Books, health books and Historical Novels. Married Theresa McCormack in 1874. Produced an average of 4 books per year for 30 years. He appeared often in Fleet St in full highland dress, and toured England in a horse-drwn caravan called "The Wanderer", complete with valet and coachman

STANLEY, HENRY MORTON
Explorer and author & amateur artist. Born John Rowlands, he was orphaned and brought up in the St Asaph Workhouse 1847-56. Adopted by a New orleans cottonbroker, Henry Stanley. Served in the Confederate army 1861-2. became a roving journalist in Asia Minor, Abyssinia & Africa. Married the artist and illustrator Dorothy Tennant in 1890

STEADMAN, RALPH IDRIS
Author, Cartoonist, Caricaturist, Illustrator & Novelist

STEIN, GERTRUDE
Writer and novelist, poet and literary experimentalist. Lesbian. Moved to France 1903 and spent rest of her life with Alice B Toklas from 1907. Friend of Picasso & Braque

STERNE, LAURENCE
Novelist, Traveller and humorist. A born philanderer, he married Elizabeth Lumley in 1741 and it was an unhappy union. Led a wandering, unconventional life and died in poverty. Although buried in London his remains were interred in 1969 and reburied at Coxwold in Yorkshire

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS (BALFOUR)
Novelist. The son of a prosperous civil engineer. Married a divorced American, Fanny Osborne (nee Van de Grift), in 1880. They lived in Switzerland and France until ill-health (probably TB) forced him to Samoa in 1890 where he died of a brain haemorrhage

STOBBS, WILLIAM
Prolific writer and illustrator of children's books. Married to Joanna Stubbs

STOKER, BRAM (ABRAHAM)
Novelist. Married Florence Balcombe in 1878. He died of syphilis

STOWE, HARRIET ELIZABETH BEECHER
Novelist. Married Calvin Ellis Stowe in 1836. Although not herself an Abolitionist her supporters were

STRANG, HERBERT
Pseud of George Herbert Ely (1866-1958) & C James L'Estrange (1867-1947) who were staff members of the Oxford University Press. They published fiction, textbooks and non-fiction for both boys and girls. Sometimes they collaborated with John Aston, George Lawrence & Richard Stead

STREATFEILD, NOEL
Children's writer

STREET, MAJOR CECIL JOHN CHARLES
Novelist & Writer. He lived in Seaford, Sussex and died in Eastbourne. His Miles Burton pseudonym remained a secret until the 1960s

STYLES, FRANK SHOWELL
Mountaineer, Children's Writer & Novelist, esp of crime

SUFFOLK
English County

SUFFRAGETTES

SURREY

SUSSEX

SWIFT, JONATHAN
Prose Satirist. English parents. Came to England 1688 and took Anglican orders. A Whig at first, then became a Tory (1710). Retired to Ireland 1714. Esther Johnson (Stella)(1681-1728) figured very importantly in his life but it is unknown if he ever married her. It has been said that in his will he left £11.000

SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES
Poet & Critic. From 1879 lived with Theodore Watts-Dunton. He is buried at Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight

SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON, THE YOUNGER
Poet, Essayist, Critic, Historian & Biographer. Married Catherine North 1864. Homosexual. Probably died of TB

SYMONS, JULIAN GUSTAVE
Novelist, Crime Novelist, critic, Biographer and poet. Brother of A J A. Married