Nicolson, Nigel

Nigel Nicolson (b. 1917) is the younger son of (Sir) Harold Nicolson (1886-1968), diplomatist and author, and Victoria Mary (Vita) Sackville-West (1892-1962), writer and gardener. He edited his father s diaries and letters, 1930-62 (3 vols, 1966-68) and in Portrait of a Marriage (1973) Nigel recounted the story of [their] union, unorthodox in some respects, which was cemented by a mutual understanding and deep affection probably unsurpassed by any literary partnership ( Dictionary of National Biography on Vita). One unorthodox respect was Vita s passionate relationships with other women, among them, in the late 1920s and 1930s, the novelist Virginia Woolf (1886-1941). That contributed to Nicolson preparing an edition of Virginia s letters, assisted by Joanne Trautmann, which was published by the Hogarth Press in six volumes in 1975-80.

In 1992 he presented to the University of Sussex some 900 letters relating to the editorial project, as it might be of interest to future researchers to show how Joanne Trautmann (Assistant Editor) and I set about our task, and because many of the letters are from people connected with Bloomsbury and knew the Woolves intimately.

From the guide to the Nicolson Papers, 1926-1982, (University of Sussex Library)