Vita Sackville-West reads from her poem The Land

Now something completely different. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) reading from her most famous poem The Land. Recorded by Columbia in 1931 for the International Education Society. Wonderful voice and especially good sound for 1931. Check the Wikipedia entry for her. She lead an extraordinary life.

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People & Blogs

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• Sackville-West
• Columbia

[jamesjeffreypaul]

I hope you've made digital copies of your entire record collection--I shudder to think what would happen if it got lost.

[merrihew]

Well let's see. About 20,000 records and maybe 35,000 sides each lasting about 4 min. With setup time, adjusting, etc, I might be able to do one side in 10 minutes. 35,000 sides x 10 min. =350,000 min. = about 58,000 hours. The average work year is 2000 hrs. So it would take me 29 years!!! 78's are VERY durable - more so than LP's and CD's.

[tristambeow]

saw a reference to this clip in the Times Literary Supplement, july 08, no. 5494. beats reactions to two girls one cup any day.

[merrihew]

I can die happy, I made the London Times!

[potpalm]

Would love to put this recording on my IPOD. Can you help?

[merrihew]

You can (with an adapter - from RadioShack) connect from the speaker output of your computer to the aux. input of a stereo receiver. Then from the stereo line out (or tape out) into whatever. There may be a more sophisticated way but others will have to tell you.

[voila79595]

Fantastic! What a treasure. Such a queenly voice. Twas to be expicted. O! The Liand, the Liand, the Liand!

Thank you. Seriously, this is very rare and much, much appreciated.

[curseofreverence32]

Damn..... Her voice sounds just as I imagined it...

[MirrPL]

I can't believe I'm hearing the actual voice of Vita Sackville-West! This is fantastic!

Thank you very much for uploading this, merrihew.

Cheers from Sweden ;)

[PaulHaigh072]

I find it difficult to believe that people talk of the mediocrity of her verse. She was an accomplished poet, although epic and therefore probably too long winded to be popular. Her garden and gardening journalism are high points to which all should aspire. And, lest we forget, she left one of the greatest memoires of all time. Fascinating to hear that kind of voice again, clipped in places we'd now expand, and those wonderful long O's. Like hearing great granny again.

[vita1950]

I am greatly indebted to this amazing gesture. Words fail.

With undying gratitude....

[choirfreak26]

It's amazing hearing her voice, and hearing her read her own work.

[68generation]

Great piece of literary history, I had never heard Vita's voice, thanks!

[68generation]

Grande pezzo di storia letteraria, veramente incredibile, grazie!

[kimjociable]

is it just me or does her british accent sound a bit different than the standard british accent spoken today? or is it just her voice that makes her sound more nasal?

[brucewayne909]

@zoey8072 she was very fluent in french ( her mother ( also named victoria sackville -west was raised in france ) ...I'm currently reading Vita by Victoria Glendinning & there is no reference to her ever learning spanish

[fleurt1]

I have just finished reading A Portrait of A Marriage, the most passionate, extraordinary book ever and so it is such a joy to hear her voice, and what a rare recording! Thank you so much for postying this.

[diannebbbbb]

Oh - to only see her too