Short Fiction:
“Some World Far from Ours,” and “Stay Corydon, Thou Swain,” 1929
Elinor Barley, 1930
Moral Ending, and Other Stories, 1931
The Salutation, 1932
More Joy in Heaven, and Other Stories, 1935
Twenty-four Short Stories, 1939 (with Graham Greene and James Laver)
The Cat’s Cradle Book, 1940
A Garland of Straw, and Other Stories, 1943
The Museum of Cheats, 1947
Winter in the Air, and Other Stories, 1955
A Spirit Rises, 1962
A Stranger with a Bag, and Other Stories, 1966 (pb. in U.S. as Swans on an Autumn River: Stories, 1966)
The Innocent and the Guilty: Stories, 1971
Kingdoms of Elfin, 1977
Scenes of Childhood, 1981
One Thing Leading to Another, and Other Stories, 1984
Selected Stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1988
The Music at Long Verney: Twenty Stories, 2001 (Michael Steinman, editor)
Long Fiction:
Lolly Willowes: Or, The Loving Huntsman, 1926
Mr. Fortune’s Maggot, 1927
The True Heart, 1929
Summer Will Show, 1936
After the Death of Don Juan, 1938
The Corner That Held Them, 1948
The Flint Anchor, 1954
Poetry:
The Espalier, 1925
Time Importuned, 1928
Opus 7, 1931
Whether a Dove or a Seagull: Poems, 1933
Boxwood, 1957
Azrael, and Other Poems, 1978
Twelve Poems, 1980
Collected Poems, 1982
Nonfiction:
Jane Austen, 1951
T. H. White: A Biography, 1967
Letters, 1982
The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1994 (Claire Harman, editor)
I’ll Stand by You: Selected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, 1998 (Susanna Pinney, editor)
The Element of Lavishness: Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell, 1938–1978, 2001 (Michael Steinman, editor)
Sylvia Townsend Warner, though published often, has received sparse critical attention assessing her importance as a writer of short fiction, novels, poems, biographies, and translations. She was born in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, England, on December 6, 1893. Her father, George Townsend Warner, was a Harrow School housemaster, but Sylvia did not receive a formal education. Her mother, Eleanor (Hudleston) Warner, taught her to read, her father taught her history, and a governess tutored her in general subjects. By the age of ten, Sylvia was reading extensively in her father’s library. She favored books on the occult, a subject that would later influence much of her writings. After her father died in 1916 she took a job in a munitions factory during World War I. She then moved to London to study music and was a member of the editorial committee that compiled the ten volumes of Tudor Church Music (1922-1929), which took ten years to complete.
Warner’s first book of poetry, The Espalier, was published in 1925. Her first novel, Lolly Willowes, was printed in 1926 and was selected by the newly established Book-of-the-Month Club. Warner’s second novel, Mr. Fortune’s Maggot, published in 1927, was chosen by the Literary Guild. Despite this early popularity of her novels, Warner received little critical acclaim for them; she became best known for her short stories. From 1936 to 1978, The New Yorker published 144 of her stories. After her second book of poetry, Time Importuned, was published in 1928, Warner’s first collection of short fiction came out in “Some World Far from Ours,” and “Stay, Corydon, Thou Swain,” in 1929. Her prose style was often praised for its conciseness, precise wording, fast-moving action, and ironic tone. In 1930 Warner and her partner Valentine Ackland moved to the country, where Warner wrote and Ackland opened an antique shop. Always active, Warner studied the black arts, elves, and mysticism. She also became an accomplished cook. She used much of this knowledge in her writings. In 1935 Warner became active in the Communist Party. In 1936 she and Ackland sailed to Barcelona, Spain, to volunteer their services to the Red Cross. (Warner and Ackland would live together until Ackland’s death in 1969.) Also in 1936, Warner’s novel Summer Will Show was published. It is considered by some critics to be her best work.
In 1939 Warner published Twenty-four Short Stories (including stories by Warner, Graham Greene, and James Laver), which was followed by another short-story collection, The Cat’s Cradle Book, in 1940. Then her A Garland of Straw, and Other Stories saw print in 1943. These stories show her continued interest in Spanish life, first seen in her novel After the Death of Don Juan. Some of these stories depict the effects on individuals of the Spanish Civil War and appear more angry than playful. More short-story collections and novels followed over the next eight years. Her last novel, The Flint Anchor, appeared in 1954. After this publication, another book of short stories, Winter in the Air, and Other Stories, went on sale in 1955, and a collection of poems, Boxwood, was published in 1957. In 1962 Warner’s stories were collected in A Spirit Rises. Her prolific output continued, and her writings were still popular even when she was in her eighties. A short-story collection, Kingdoms of Elfin, and a collection of poems, Azrael, and Other Poems, were published shortly before her death.