Sylvia Townsend Warner

Maroula Joannou (Anglia Ruskin University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 6 Dec 1893
Died 1 May 1978
Activity 1913-1978

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Musician
Novelist
Poet

Resources

Warner's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Sylvia Townsend Warner was born in Harrow on the Hill in 1893, the only daughter of a history teacher at Harrow public school, and was educated privately at home. Her plans to study under Schoenberg in Vienna were disrupted by the 1914-18 war during which she found work in a munitions factory. An accomplished musicologist, she was one of four co-editors of the voluminous

Tudor Church Music

. Townsnd Warner is an excellent stylist whose elegantly crafted fiction is remarkable for its narratological rather than its verbal experimentation, as well as a poet whose verse often follows traditional metric patterns. The heroine of Townsend Warner's first best-selling novel,

Lolly Willowes

(1926), is a middle-aged spinster who flees from a life of drudgery, dependency and respectability in her…

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1015 words

Citation: Joannou, Maroula. "Sylvia Townsend Warner". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5026, accessed 21 November 2024.]