Sybille Bedford
Sybille Bedford was a notable German-born British writer, born on March 16, 1911, in Charlottenburg, Germany. As the daughter of a German diplomat and an Englishwoman, her early life was marked by upheaval, including her mother's departure when she was just eight and the subsequent death of her father. Bedford's varied experiences, particularly her tumultuous family dynamics and romantic relationships, greatly influenced her literary work, which is often described as autobiographical. She married Walter Bedford in 1935 for citizenship purposes but spent much of her life engaged in relationships with women, notably Eda Lord, an American novelist.
After World War II, Bedford traveled to Mexico, which inspired her first published book, *A Visit to Don Otavio: A Traveller's Tale from Mexico*, released in 1953. She went on to write several novels and works of nonfiction, including a biography of Aldous Huxley, a close friend. Though her output was gradual, Bedford's writing received critical acclaim for its clarity and attention to detail, earning her recognition such as being named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1981. Her novel *Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education* was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1989. Bedford's contributions to literature span over five decades, reflecting her unique perspective on personal and historical narratives.
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Sybille Bedford
Writer
- Born: March 16, 1911
- Birthplace: Charlottenburg, Germany
- Died: February 17, 2006
Biography
Sybille Bedford was born in Charlottenburg, Germany, on March 16, 1911, the only child of Baron Maximilian von Schoenebeck, a German diplomat, and Elizabeth Bernard, a wealthy Englishwoman. Her first home was a chateau given to her father by her mother as a wedding present. Her mother left when Sybille was eight, leaving her with her father in the understaffed chateau, where he entertained her with stories of his youth. Three years later, while Bedford was in Italy visiting her mother, her father died of appendicitis. Her mother sent her to live with a family in England so that she might be educated.
Bedford still spent summers with her mother, who had remarried and settled on the French Riviera. Elizabeth’s tempestuous relationship with her new husband left her dependent on morphine; Bedford both had to inject her mother and find pharmacies to fill her prescriptions. The colorful drama of Bedford’s childhood became inspiration for her fiction writing, which is largely understood to be autobiographical.
Bedford had numerous affairs with women throughout her life, including a long-term relationship with Eda Lord, an American novelist. She was, however, married to man, Walter Bedford, in 1935. This marriage was arranged through a friend, the wife of Aldous Huxley, in order that Sybille—a German citizen with some Jewish heritage—might become a British citizen as Europe moved toward World War II. Sybille never lived with Mr. Bedford, and she spent the war years in the United States.
After the war, she made an extended visit to Mexico, a place that appealed to her for its detachment from the upheaval of the previous decade of global affairs. This journey became the basis for her first book, A Visit to Don Otavio: A Traveller’s Tale from Mexico, a travelogue published in 1953.
While she wrote but failed to publish three novels in her twenties, the success of A Visit to Don Otavio facilitated another attempt at long fiction. This effort resulted in A Legacy, a historical novel of the German aristocracy, which was published in 1956. Despite her early success, Bedford published slowly; over the next fifty years, she published three more novels and four more works of nonfiction, including a meticulously detailed biography of her friend and mentor, Aldous Huxley.
Bedford worked a little more regularly as a journalist, however. She covered high-profile court cases, including the trials of Jack Ruby and several Auschwitz workers, for major magazines in the 1960’s. In the same period, she filed travel dispatches that often focused on food and drink from all over Europe. While her fiction often drew from her own experiences, she finally published a memoir, Quicksands: A Memoir, in 2005.
Bedford was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 and was named a Companion of Literature in 1994. Her biographical novel, Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1989. Her writing, fiction and nonfiction alike, has been critically acclaimed for its crispness and for its attention to detail in the service of illuminating her larger narrative themes.