Editing Siegfried Sassoon

{{short description|English war poet and writer (1886–1967)}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Siegfried Sassoon
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|MC}}
| image            = Siegfried Sassoon by George Charles Beresford (1915).jpg
| caption          = Sassoon photographed in 1915 by [[George Charles Beresford]]
| pseudonym        = {{hlist|Saul Kain|Pinchbeck Lyre}}
| birth_name       = Siegfried Loraine Sassoon
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=y|1886|9|8}}
| birth_place      = [[Matfield]], Kent, England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|1967|9|1|1886|9|8}}
| death_place      = [[Heytesbury]], Wiltshire, England
| education        = {{ubl|[[Clare College, Cambridge]]|[[Marlborough College]]|[[New Beacon School]]}}
| occupation       = {{Hlist|Soldier|[[war poet]]|writer}}
| genre            = {{hlist|Poetry|fiction|biography}}
| notableworks     = ''[[The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston]]''
| spouse           = {{Marriage|Hester Gatty|1933|1945|end=Separated}}
| children         = [[George Sassoon|George]]
| relatives        = [[Sassoon family]]
| module           = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| allegiance       = United Kingdom
| branch           = [[British Army]]
| serviceyears     = 1914–1919
| rank             = [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]]
| unit             = {{ubl|[[Sussex Yeomanry]]|[[Royal Welch Fusiliers]]}}
| battles          = [[First World War]]
| awards           = [[Military Cross]]
}}
}}
'''Siegfried Loraine Sassoon''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|MC}} (8 September 1886&nbsp;– 1 September 1967) was an English [[war poet]], writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Sassoon |first=Siegfried |title=Journal, 26 June 1916 – 12 August 1916 |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09852-00001-00007/17
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140806015131/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09852-00001-00007/17 |archive-date=6 August 2014 |publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=1 August 2014}}</ref> he became one of the leading poets of the [[First World War]]. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a [[jingoism]]-fuelled war.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|1998}} Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war with his "Soldier's Declaration" of July 1917, which resulted in his being sent to the [[Craiglockhart War Hospital]]. During this period, Sassoon met and formed a friendship with [[Wilfred Owen]], who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume, fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the [[Sherston trilogy]].

==Early life==
[[File:First World War 1914 - 1918- War Poets HU50506.jpg|thumbnail|left|Sassoon (front) with his brother Hamo and other students on the morning after a college [[May Ball]] at Cambridge University in 1906]]
Siegfried Sassoon was born to a Jewish father and an [[Anglo-Catholic]] mother, and grew up in the neo-gothic mansion named Weirleigh (after its builder [[Harrison Weir]]) in Matfield, Kent.<ref name=KSC10122010>{{Cite news|title=War poet was tasty with bat |first=Frank |last=Chapman |newspaper=Kent and Sussex Courier |date=10 December 2010 |page=42}}</ref> His father, Alfred Ezra Sassoon (1861–1895), son of [[Sassoon David Sassoon]], was a member of the wealthy [[Baghdadi Jews|Baghdadi Jewish]] [[Sassoon family|Sassoon merchant family]]. Siegfried's mother, [[Theresa Thornycroft|Theresa]], belonged to the [[Thornycroft family]], sculptors responsible for many of the best-known statues in London; among them her brother, Sir [[Hamo Thornycroft]].

There was no German ancestry in Sassoon's family; his mother named him Siegfried because of her love of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]'s operas. His middle name, Loraine, was the surname of a clergyman she respected.

Siegfried was the second of three sons, the others being Michael and Hamo. When he was four years old his parents separated. During his father's weekly visits to the boys, Theresa locked herself in the drawing-room. In 1895, Alfred Sassoon died of [[tuberculosis]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Siegfried Sassoon |url=https://war.web.ox.ac.uk/siegfried-sassoon |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=War Collections |publisher=University of Oxford |language=en}}</ref>

Sassoon was educated at the [[New Beacon School]], Sevenoaks, Kent; at [[Marlborough College]], Wiltshire; and at [[Clare College, Cambridge]], where from 1905 to 1907 he read history. He left Cambridge without a degree and spent the years after 1907 hunting, playing [[cricket]] and writing verse, some of which he published privately.<ref name=":1" />

Although his father had been disinherited from the Sassoon fortune for marrying a woman who was not Jewish,<ref name=":1" /> Siegfried had a small private income that allowed him to live modestly without having to earn a living. Later, he was left a large legacy by an aunt, [[Rachel Beer]], allowing him to buy the great estate of [[Heytesbury#Notable buildings|Heytesbury House]] in Wiltshire.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://siegfried-sassoon.firstworldwarrelics.co.uk/html/heytesbury.html| title = Heytesbury House| access-date = 3 March 2012| archive-date = 21 November 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191121222521/http://siegfried-sassoon.firstworldwarrelics.co.uk/html/heytesbury.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>

His first published success, "The Daffodil Murderer" (1913), was a parody of [[John Masefield]]'s ''[[The Everlasting Mercy]]''. [[Robert Graves]], in ''[[Good-Bye to All That]]'', describes it as a "parody of Masefield which, midway through, had forgotten to be a parody and turned into rather good Masefield."

=== Cricket ===
Sassoon played for his village cricket team at a young age, and his brothers and three of his tutors were cricket enthusiasts. The Marchant family were neighbouring landowners, and [[Frank Marchant]] was captain of the county side between 1890 and 1897. Sassoon played for his house at [[Marlborough College|Marlborough]], once taking 7 wickets for 18 runs, and during this time he contributed three poems to ''Cricket'' magazine.<ref name="coldham" />

For some years around 1910 he often played for Bluemantles Cricket Club, at the [[Nevill Ground]], in Tunbridge Wells, sometimes alongside [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. He later played for a [[Downside Abbey]] team called "The Ravens", continuing playing well into his seventies.<ref name="KSC10122010" /><ref name="coldham">Coldham, James D (1954) [http://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketer/content/story/276146.html Siegfried Sassoon and cricket], ''[[The Cricketer]]'', June 1954. Republished at [[CricInfo]].</ref>

==War service==

===The Western Front: Military Cross===
[[File:Siegfried Sassoon by Glyn Warren Philpot 1917.jpeg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Sassoon by [[Glyn Warren Philpot]], 1917 ([[Fitzwilliam Museum]])]]
Sassoon joined the Army just as the threat of a new European war was recognized, and was in service with the [[Sussex Yeomanry]] on 4 August 1914, the day the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. He broke his arm badly in a riding accident and was put out of action before leaving England, spending the spring of 1915 convalescing. He was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve), [[Royal Welch Fusiliers]], as a second lieutenant on 29 May 1915.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29175|page=5115|date=28 May 1915}}</ref>

On 1 November, his younger brother Hamo was killed in the [[Gallipoli Campaign]],<ref>{{cwgc|id=681993|name=Sassoon, Hamo}}</ref> dying on board the ship {{SS|Kildonan Castle||2}} after having had his leg amputated.<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/3904659
 |title        = We remember Hamo Watts Sassoon
 |publisher = [[Imperial War Museums]]
 |access-date  = 8 May 2025
 }}</ref> In the same month, Siegfried was sent to the 1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, in France, where he met [[Robert Graves]], and they became close friends. United by their poetic vocation, they often read and discussed each other's work. Though this did not have much perceptible influence on Graves' poetry, Graves' views on what may be called "gritty realism" profoundly affected Sassoon's concept of what constituted poetry.

He soon became horrified by the realities of war, and the tone of his writing changed completely: where his early poems exhibit a [[Romanticism|Romantic]], dilettantish sweetness, his war poetry moves to an increasingly discordant music, intended to convey the ugly truths of the trenches to an audience hitherto lulled by patriotic propaganda. Details such as rotting corpses, mangled limbs, filth, cowardice and suicide are all trademarks of his work at this time, and this philosophy of "no truth unfitting" had a significant effect on the movement towards [[Modernist]] poetry.

Sassoon's periods of duty on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] were marked by exceptionally brave actions, including the single-handed capture of a German trench. Armed with grenades, he scattered sixty German soldiers:{{sfn|Egremont|2005|p=103}}{{blockquote|He went over with bombs in daylight, under covering fire from a couple of rifles, and scared away the occupants. A pointless feat, since instead of signalling for reinforcements, he sat down in the German trench and began reading a book of poems which he had brought with him. When he went back he did not even report. Colonel Stockwell, then in command, raged at him. The attack on [[Mametz Wood]] had been delayed for two hours because British patrols were still reported to be out. "British patrols" were Siegfried and his book of poems. "I'd have got you a [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]], if you'd only shown more sense," stormed Stockwell.<ref>Robert Graves, ''Goodbye to All That'' (London: Penguin, 1960), p. 174.</ref>}}Sassoon's bravery was so inspiring that soldiers of his company said that they felt confident only when they were accompanied by him.{{sfn|Egremont|2005|p=99}} He often went out on night raids and bombing patrols, and demonstrated ruthless efficiency as a company commander.

Deepening depression at the horror and misery the soldiers were forced to endure produced in Sassoon a paradoxically manic courage, and he was nicknamed "Mad Jack" by his men for his near-suicidal exploits. On 27 July 1916 he was awarded the [[Military Cross]]; the citation read:

{{blockquote|2nd Lt. Siegfried Lorraine{{sic}} Sassoon, 3rd (attd. 1st) Bn., R. W. Fus.

For conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy's trenches. He remained for 1½ hours under rifle and bomb fire collecting and bringing in our wounded. Owing to his courage and determination all the killed and wounded were brought in.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29684 |supp=y|page=7441|date=25 July 1916}}</ref>}}

Robert Graves described Sassoon as engaging in suicidal feats of bravery. Sassoon was also later recommended for the [[Victoria Cross]].<ref name=ODNB>{{Cite ODNB |first=Rupert |last=Hart-Davis |title=Sassoon, Siegfried Loraine (1886–1967) |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35953 |access-date=9 July 2009 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35953}}</ref>

===War opposition and Craiglockhart===
Despite his decorations and reputation, in 1917 Sassoon decided to make a stand against the conduct of the war. One of the reasons for his violent anti-war feeling was the death of his friend [[David Cuthbert Thomas]], who appears as "Dick Tiltwood" in the [[Sherston trilogy]]. Sassoon spent years trying to overcome his grief.

In August 1916, Sassoon arrived at Somerville College, Oxford, which was used as a hospital for convalescing officers, with a case of gastric fever. He wrote: "To be lying in a little white-walled room, looking through the window on to a College lawn, was for the first few days very much like a paradise". Graves ended up at Somerville as well. "How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford", Sassoon wrote to him in 1917.

At the end of a spell of convalescent leave, Sassoon declined to return to duty; encouraged by pacifist friends such as [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]], he sent a letter to his commanding officer titled ''[[wikisource:Finished_with_the_War:_A_Soldier’s_Declaration|Finished with the War: A Soldier's Declaration]]''. Forwarded to the press and read aloud in the House of Commons by a sympathetic member of Parliament, the letter was seen by some as treasonous ("I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority") or at best as condemning the war government's motives ("I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest"<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/887751--war-resisters-also-deserve-a-memorial|title=War resisters also deserve a memorial |author=Peter Smollett |date=9 November 2010|work=Toronto Star |access-date=12 November 2010}}</ref>).

Rather than court-martial Sassoon, the [[Under-Secretary of State for War]], [[Ian Macpherson, 1st Baron Strathcarron|Ian Macpherson]], decided that he was unfit for service and had him sent to [[Craiglockhart War Hospital]] near Edinburgh, where he officially was treated for neurasthenia ("[[shell shock]]").<ref name="ODNB" />

At the end of 1917, Sassoon was posted to [[Limerick]], Ireland, where in the [[Sarsfield Barracks|New Barracks]] he helped train new recruits. He wrote that it was a period of respite for him, and allowed him to indulge in his love of hunting. Reflecting on the period years later, he mentioned how trouble was brewing in Ireland at the time, in the few years before the [[Irish War of Independence]]. After only a short period in Limerick he was posted to Egypt.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sassoon |first1=Siegfried |title=A Limerick Posting |journal=Old Limerick Journal |date=1982 |volume=10 |issue=Spring |pages=29–32 |url=http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/limerick%20posting.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216031640/http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/limerick%20posting.pdf |archive-date=2012-12-16 |url-status=live |access-date=18 September 2020}}</ref>

Before declining to return to active service, Sassoon had thrown his MC ribbon into the sea at Formby beach; some people misinterpreted his description of this incident in ''[[Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]]'' and believed that he had thrown the medal itself away, but this was retained and passed into the care of his family. He stated that he did not do this as a symbolic rejection of militaristic values, but simply out of the need to perform some destructive act as catharsis. His account states that one of his pre-war sporting trophies, had he had one to hand, would have served his purpose equally well. The actual decoration was rediscovered after the death of Sassoon's only son, George, and subsequently became the subject of a dispute among Sassoon's heirs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12779481.Family_in_row_over_Sassoon_war_medal_sale/|title=Family in row over Sassoon war medal sale|website=The Herald|date=2 July 2007 |location=Glasgow|access-date=14 January 2018}}</ref>

At Craiglockhart, Sassoon met [[Wilfred Owen]], another poet. It was thanks to Sassoon that Owen persevered in his ambition to write better poetry.<ref name="LitHub">{{cite web |last1=Korda |first1=Michael |title=How Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Forged a Literary and Romantic Bond |url=https://lithub.com/How-Wilfred-Owen-and-Siegfried-Sassoon-Forged-a-Literary-and-Romantic-Bond |website=Literary Hub |access-date=22 May 2024 |date=16 April 2024}}</ref> A manuscript copy of Owen's ''[[Anthem for Doomed Youth]]'' containing Sassoon's handwritten amendments survives as testimony to the extent of his influence and is currently on display at London's [[Imperial War Museum]].

Sassoon became to Owen "[[John Keats|Keats]] and Christ and Elijah", according to a surviving letter which demonstrates the depth of Owen's love and admiration for him.<ref name="LitHub"/> Both men returned to active service in France, but Owen was killed in 1918, a week before Armistice. Sassoon was promoted to lieutenant, and, having spent some time in Palestine, eventually returned to France by 20 June 1918.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sassoon |first1=Siegfried |title=Journal 9 May 1918 - 2 Feb 1919 |url=https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09852-00001-00013/56 |website=Cambridge University Library |access-date=29 November 2024 |date=August 1918}}</ref>

Sassoon was wounded again on 13 July 1918<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sassoon |first1=Siegfried |title=Journal 9 May 1918 - 2 Feb 1919 |url=https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09852-00001-00013/56 |website=Cambridge University Library |access-date=29 November 2024 |date=August 1918}}</ref>—reportedly by [[friendly fire]] when he was injured by a shot to the head by a fellow British soldier who had apparently mistaken him for a German, near Arras, France (per a 2018 story published by a British online tabloid, it was suggested that the friendly fire incident was not accidental, however the veracity of this claim is in some question<ref>{{Cite web |last=Deacon |first=Thomas |date=2018-07-28 |title=The extraordinary story of how a Welshman shot Siegfried Sassoon |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/extraordinary-untold-story-how-welshman-14963777 |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=WalesOnline |language=en}}</ref>). As a result of this injury, he spent the remainder of the war in Britain. By this time, he had been promoted to acting captain. He relinquished his commission on health grounds on 12 March 1919, but retained the rank of captain.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31221 |supp=y|page=3269|date=7 March 1919}}</ref>

After the war, Sassoon was instrumental in bringing Owen's work to the attention of a wider audience. Their relationship is the subject of [[Stephen MacDonald]]'s play ''[[Not About Heroes]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Alexander |first1=Andrew |title=Review: "Not About Heroes" is a sweeping epic, but it's not for everyone |url=https://www.artsatl.org/review-not-about-heroes-is-a-sweeping-epic-but-its-not-for-everyone/ |access-date=15 January 2023 |work=ArtsAtl.org |date=7 November 2018 |format=Digital publication}}</ref>

==Post-war life==
===Editor and novelist===
[[File:Quiller-couch letter to Sassoon.jpg|thumb|left|upright|An agreement from [[Arthur Quiller-Couch]] to Sassoon to write for ''The Daily Herald'']]

Having lived for a period at [[Oxford]], where he spent more time visiting literary friends than studying, Sassoon dabbled briefly in the politics of the Labour movement. In November 1918, he travelled to Blackburn to support the Labour candidate in the general election, Philip Snowden, who had been a pacifist during the war.

Though a self-confessed political novice, Sassoon delivered campaign speeches for Snowden, later writing that he 'felt grateful for [Snowden's] anti-war attitude in parliament, and had been angered by the abuse thrown at him. All my political sympathies were with him.'<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Sassoon |first1=Siegfried |title=Siegfried's Journey, 1916-1920 |date=1983 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |page=111 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

While his commitment to politics waned after this, he remained a supporter of the Labour Party, and in 1929 'rejoiced that [they] had gained seats in the British general election.'{{sfn|Egremont|2014|p=5954 (Kindle edition)}} Similarly, 'news of the massive Labour victory in 1945 pleased him, because many Tories from the class he had loathed during the First World War had gone.'<ref>{{cite book |title=Ibid |page=7602}}</ref>

In 1919 Sassoon took up a post as literary editor of the socialist ''Daily Herald''.  He lived at 54 Tufton Street, Westminster, from 1919 to 1925; the house is no longer standing, but the location of his former home is marked by a memorial plaque.<ref>[http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ City of Westminster green plaques.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716210428/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |date=16 July 2012 }}</ref>

During his period at the ''Herald'', Sassoon was responsible for employing several eminent names as reviewers, including [[E. M. Forster]] and [[Charlotte Mew]], and commissioned original material from writers like [[Arnold Bennett]] and [[Osbert Sitwell]]. His artistic interests extended to music.

While at Oxford he was introduced to the young [[William Walton]], to whom he became a friend and patron.  Walton later dedicated his ''[[Portsmouth Point (Walton)|Portsmouth Point]]'' overture to Sassoon in recognition of his financial assistance and moral support.

Sassoon later embarked on a lecture tour of the US, as well as travelling in Europe and throughout Britain. He acquired a car, a gift from the publisher [[Frankie Schuster]], and became renowned among his friends for his lack of driving skill, but this did not prevent him making full use of the mobility it gave him.

Sassoon had expressed his growing sense of identification with German soldiers in poems such as "Reconciliation" (1918),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sassoon |first1=Siegfried |title=Collected Poems |date=2002 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |page=91}}</ref> and after the war, he travelled extensively in Germany, visiting the country a number of times over the next decade.

In 1921 Sassoon went to Rome, where he met the Kaiser's nephew, Prince Philipp of Hesse. The two became lovers for a while, later taking a holiday together in Munich.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|p=145}} They had become estranged by the mid-1920s, due in part to geographical distance and in part, as Jean Moorcroft Wilson notes, to Sassoon's increasing discomfort over Philipp's growing interest in right-wing politics.

Sassoon continued to visit Germany.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ibid |page=149}}</ref> In 1927 he travelled to Berlin and Dresden with Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, and in 1929 he accompanied [[Stephen Tennant]] on a trip to a sanatorium in the Bavarian countryside.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ibid |pages=187, 218}}</ref>

Sassoon was a great admirer of the Welsh poet [[Henry Vaughan]]. On a visit to Wales in 1924, he made a pilgrimage to Vaughan's grave at Llansantffraed, Powys, and there wrote "[[At the Grave of Henry Vaughan]]", one of his better-known peacetime poems. The deaths within a short space of time of three of his closest friends – [[Edmund Gosse]], [[Thomas Hardy]] and Frankie Schuster – came as setbacks to his personal happiness.

At the same time, Sassoon was preparing to take a new direction. While in the U.S., he had experimented with a novel. In 1928, he branched into prose, with ''[[Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man]]'', the anonymously published first volume of a fictionalized autobiography, which was almost immediately accepted as a classic, bringing its author new fame as a prose writer.

The memoir, whose mild-mannered central character is content to do little more than be an idle country gentleman, playing cricket, riding and [[fox hunting|hunting foxes]], is often humorous, revealing a side of Sassoon that had rarely been seen in his work during the war years.

The book won the 1928 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize|James Tait Black Award]] for fiction. Sassoon followed it with ''[[Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]]'' (1930) and ''[[Sherston's Progress]]'' (1936). In later years, he revisited his youth and early manhood with three volumes of genuine autobiography, which were acclaimed.  These were ''The Old Century'', ''The Weald of Youth'' and ''Siegfried's Journey''.

==Personal life==
[[File:SiegfriedSassoonGraveMells(GrahamAllard)May2006.jpg|upright|thumb|Siegfried Sassoon's gravestone at {{Nowrap|[[St Andrew's Church, Mells]],}} Somerset]]

===Homosexuality and affairs===
At Craiglockhart, Sassoon had met [[Wilfred Owen]], another war poet. Numerous surviving documents demonstrate clearly the depth of Owen's love and admiration for him.<ref name="LitHub"/> Writing years after Owen died, Sassoon said that "W's death was an unhealed wound, & the ache of it has been with me ever since. I wanted him back – not his poems."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gay Love Letters through the Centuries: Wilfred Owen |url=https://rictornorton.co.uk/owen.htm |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=rictornorton.co.uk}}</ref> Despite sentiments expressed in numerous letters between Sassoon and Owen, there is no support for a physical relationship between them. Both men returned to active service in France, where Owen was killed in 1918. 

Following the war he is believed to have had a succession of love affairs with men, including:
* William Park "Gabriel" Atkin, the landscape architectural and figure painter, draftsman and illustrator<ref>{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Neil|title=Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present|url=https://archive.org/details/outofpastgayand00mill|url-access=registration|year=1995|page=[https://archive.org/details/outofpastgayand00mill/page/96 96]|publisher=Alyson Books |isbn=9780679749882}}</ref>
* [[Ivor Novello]], actor<ref name="Telegraph"/>
* [[Glen Byam Shaw]], actor and Novello's former lover{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|pp=11–}}
* [[Prince Philipp of Hesse]], German aristocrat<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3593051/The-war-poets-long-peace.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3593051/The-war-poets-long-peace.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The war poet's long peace|author=John Gross|website=The Daily Telegraph|date=22 April 2003|access-date=11 June 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[John Beverley Nichols|Beverley Nichols]], writer<ref name="Telegraph"/>
* [[Stephen Tennant]], an aristocrat<ref name="Telegraph"/>
Although Byam Shaw remained Sassoon's close friend throughout his life, only Tennant made a permanent impression.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|pp=11–}}

Introduced by the [[The Sitwells|Sitwells]] in 1927, Sassoon and Stephen Tennant began a relationship which lasted nearly six years.{{sfn|Egremont|2014|p=5387 (Kindle edition)}} Tennant, however, had recurrent tuberculosis, and the strain which that put on their relationship had started to show by the early 1930s. In May 1933, Tennant, then receiving treatment at a sanatorium in Kent, abruptly informed Sassoon via a letter written by his physician that he never wanted to see him again. Sassoon was devastated.{{sfn|Hoare|1991|p=177}}

When he met his future wife Hester Gatty a few months later, he was still reeling from his break-up with Tennant. Sensing a sympathetic nature, Sassoon confided in Hester about their relationship and, at her suggestion, wrote Tennant a letter to put the past to rest.{{sfn|Egremont|2014|p=6765 (Kindle edition)}} While he and Tennant exchanged letters, telephone calls and infrequent visits in the years to come, they never resumed their previous relationship.{{sfn|Hoare|1991|p=274}}

===Marriage and later life===
In September 1931, Sassoon rented Fitz House, [[Teffont Magna]], Wiltshire, and began to live there.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|p=255}} In December 1933, he married Hester Gatty (daughter of [[Stephen Herbert Gatty|Sir Stephen Gatty]]), who was 20 years his junior, and soon afterwards they moved to [[Heytesbury]] House.

The marriage led to the birth of a child, something Sassoon had purportedly craved for a long time. Siegfried's son, [[George Sassoon]] (1936–2006), became a scientist, linguist, and author, and was adored by Siegfried, who wrote several poems addressed to him. Siegfried's marriage broke down after the Second World War, with Sassoon apparently unable to find a compromise between the solitude he enjoyed and the companionship he needed.

Separated from his wife in 1945, Sassoon lived in seclusion at Heytesbury in Wiltshire, but he maintained contact with a circle which included [[E. M. Forster]] and [[J. R. Ackerley]]. One of his closer friends was the cricketer [[Dennis Silk]] who later became Warden (headmaster) of Radley College. He also formed a close friendship with Vivien Hancock, then headmistress of Greenways School at Ashton Gifford House, Wiltshire, where his son George was a pupil. The relationship provoked Hester to make strong accusations against Hancock, who responded with the threat of legal action.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|pp=345–346}}

===Religion===
After a lifetime of grappling with questions of faith and spirituality, Sassoon made the decision to convert to Catholicism in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=2023-10-17 |title=Siegfried Sassoon |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/siegfried-sassoon |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref> His motivation for this conversion has been the subject of much speculation and analysis.<ref name="ODNB" /> Intellectual exploration, aesthetic appeal, spiritual seeking, and the influence of figures like [[Ronald Knox]] were factors for Sassoon's decision to convert.{{sfn|Moorcroft Wilson|2003|p=408}}

==Death and awards==
Sassoon was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1951 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39104 |supp=y|pages=10–12|date=29 December 1950}}</ref> He died from [[stomach cancer]] on 1 September 1967, one week before his 81st birthday.{{sfn|Egremont|2014|p=516}}

He is buried at [[St Andrew's Church, Mells]], Somerset, not far from the grave of Father Ronald Knox, whom he so admired.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 41668). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/sassoon.htm |title=Siegfried Sassoon 1886–1967 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210515031327/http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/sassoon.htm |archive-date = 15 May 2021 |last=Self |first=Cameron|website=poetsgraves.co.uk|access-date=20 April 2017}}</ref> His CBE, MC and campaign medals are on display at the [[Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum]] at [[Caernarfon Castle]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/sassoon-medal-for-museum-display-2254754|title = Sassoon medal for museum display|date = 28 May 2007}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Siegfried Sassoon 23 Campden Hill Square blue plaque.jpg|thumb|left|[[Blue plaque]], 23 Campden Hill Square, London]]
On 11 November 1985, Sassoon was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in [[Westminster Abbey]]'s [[Poet's Corner]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/poets.html| title = Poets of the Great War.}}</ref> The inscription on the stone was taken from [[Wilfred Owen]]'s "Preface" to his poems and reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/Preface.html| title = "Preface", Manuscript and transcription from ''The Poems of Wilfred Owen''.}}</ref>

The year 2003 saw the publication of ''Memorial Tablet'', an authorised audio CD of readings by Sassoon recorded during the late 1950s. These included extracts from ''[[Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]]'' and ''The Weald of Youth'' as well as several war poems, including "Attack", "The Dug-Out", "At Carnoy" and "Died of Wounds", and postwar works. The CD also included comment on Sassoon by three of his Great War contemporaries: [[Edmund Blunden]], [[Edgell Rickword]] and [[Henry Williamson]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ltmrecordings.com/SassoonCD.html| title = Siegfried Sassoon, ''Memorial Tablet'' CD audiobook (CD41-008).}}</ref>

Siegfried Sassoon's only child, [[George Sassoon]], died of cancer in 2006. George had three children, two of whom were killed in a car crash in 1996. His daughter by his first marriage, Kendall Sassoon, is patron-in-chief of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship, established in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sassoonfellowship.org/|title=The Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship|website=sassoonfellowship.org|access-date=10 March 2017|archive-date=10 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610100735/http://www.sassoonfellowship.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sassoon's [[Military Cross]] was rediscovered by his family in May 2007 and was put up for sale.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6695329.stm|title=War poet's medal to go on display|date=26 May 2007|website=BBC News: Scotland|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref> It was bought by the [[Royal Welch Fusiliers]] for display at their museum in [[Caernarfon]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/military/story/0,,2076260,00.html|access-date=10 May 2007|work=The Guardian |title=War poet's medal turns up in attic | location=London | first=Duncan | last=Campbell | date=10 May 2007}}</ref> Sassoon's other service medals went unclaimed until 1985 when his son George obtained them from the Army Medal Office, then based at Droitwich. The "late claim" medals consisting of the [[1914–15 Star]], [[Victory Medal (United Kingdom)|Victory Medal]] and [[British War Medal]] along with Sassoon's [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] and Warrant of Appointment were auctioned by [[Sotheby's]] in 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2008/english-literature-history-children39s-books-and-illustrationsl08411#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.L08411.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.L08411.html/123/+r.o=/en/ecat.notes.L08411.html/123/|title=Auction of medals|access-date=24 October 2015|archive-date=19 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119115952/http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2008/english-literature-history-children39s-books-and-illustrationsl08411#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.L08411.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.L08411.html/123/+r.o=/en/ecat.notes.L08411.html/123/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In June 2009, the University of Cambridge announced plans to purchase an archive of Sassoon's papers from his family, to be added to the university library's Sassoon collection.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009062501| title = University of Cambridge news}}</ref> On 4 November 2009, it was reported that this purchase would be supported by £550,000 from the [[National Heritage Memorial Fund]], meaning that the University still needed to raise a further £110,000 on top of the money already received to meet the full £1.25&nbsp;million asking price.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/04/siegfried-sassoon-archive-award-cambridge|title=Siegfried Sassoon archive likely to stay in UK after £550,000 award•Siegfried Sassoon papers attracted interest from US•Cambridge library still short of asking price|first=Mark|last=Brown|work=The Guardian |date=4 November 2009|access-date=4 November 2009 | location=London}}</ref>

The funds were raised and in December 2009 it was announced that the University had received the papers. Included in the collection are war diaries kept by Sassoon while he served on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] and in Palestine, a draft of "[[s:Finished with the War: A Soldier's Declaration|A Soldier's Declaration]]" (1917), notebooks from his schooldays and post-war journals.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH00F20091218?type=artsNews|title=Cambridge acquires anti-war poet Sassoon's papers|first=Mike|last=Collett-White|date=17 December 2009|access-date=31 December 2009}}</ref>

Other items in the collection include love letters to his wife Hester and photographs and letters from other writers. Sassoon was an undergraduate at the university, as well as being made an honorary fellow of Clare College; the collection is housed at the Cambridge University Library.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sassoon Journals|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/sassoon|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|access-date=1 August 2014}}</ref> As well as private individuals, funding came from the Monument Trust, the JP Getty Jr Trust and Sir [[Siegmund Warburg]]'s Voluntary Settlement.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/8418787.stm|title=War poet Siegfried Sassoon's papers arrive in Cambridge|publisher=BBC News|date=17 December 2009|access-date=31 December 2009}}</ref>

In 2010, ''Dream Voices: Siegfried Sassoon, Memory and War'', a major exhibition of Sassoon's life and archive, was held at Cambridge University.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/21/sassoon-notebook-exhibition-cambridge Siegfried Sassoon archive goes on show at Cambridge] Maev Kennedy, ''The Guardian'', Wednesday, 21 July 2010.</ref> Several of Sassoon's poems have been set to music, some during his life, by [[Cyril Rootham]], who co-operated with the author.<ref>{{cite web|title=Music|url=http://siegfried-sassoon.firstworldwarrelics.co.uk/html/music.html|website=Siegfried Sassoon Bibliography|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314174953/http://siegfried-sassoon.firstworldwarrelics.co.uk/html/music.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Set to music|url=https://sassoon.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?cat=70|work=Sassoon Project blog|publisher=[[Cambridge University Library]]|access-date=19 January 2013|author=John|date=October 2010|archive-date=9 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109070530/https://sassoon.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?cat=70|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The discovery in 2013 of an early draft of one of Sassoon's best-known anti-war poems had a biographer saying she would rewrite portions of her work about the poet. In the poem "Atrocities", which concerned the killing of German prisoners of war by Allied troops, the early draft shows that some lines were cut and others diluted. The poet's publisher was nervous about publishing the poem and held it for publication in an expurgated version at a later date. Sassoon biographer [[Jean Moorcroft Wilson]] said "This is very exciting material. I want to rewrite my biography and I probably shall be able to get some of it in. It's a treasure trove".<ref>{{cite news|last=Alberge|first=Dalya|title=Draft Siegfried Sassoon poem reveals controversial lines cut from Atrocities: Manuscript shows World War I poet toned down piece about British soldiers killing German prisoners|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/03/siegfried-sassoon-poem-atrocities|newspaper=The Observer|date=2 February 2013}}</ref> In early 2019, it was announced in ''The Guardian'' that a student from the University of Warwick, whilst looking through Glen Byam Shaw's records at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, had serendipitously discovered a Sassoon poem addressed to the former, which had not been published in its entirety.<ref>{{cite news|last=Alberge|first=Dalya|title=Student discovers lost Siegfried Sassoon poem to young lover|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/09/student-discovers-new-siegfried-sassoon-love-poem|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|date=10 June 2019|access-date=5 November 2019}}</ref>

==Books==

===Poetry collections===

[[File:SiegfriedSassoonTheHague3.jpg|thumb|Poem "Everyone Sang" by Sassoon on a wall in [[The Hague]]]]
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* ''The Daffodil Murderer'' (John Richmond: 1913)
* ''[[The Old Huntsman]]'' ([[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]]: 1917)
* ''The General'' (Denmark Hill Hospital, April 1917)
* ''Does it Matter?'' (written: 1917)
* ''[[s:Counter-Attack and Other Poems|Counter-Attack and Other Poems]]'' (Heinemann: 1918)
* ''The Hero'' [Henry Holt, 1918]
* ''Picture-Show'' (Heinemann: 1919)
* ''War Poems'' (Heinemann: 1919)
* ''Aftermath'' (Heinemann: 1920)
* ''Recreations'' (privately printed: 1923)
* ''Lingual Exercises for Advanced Vocabularians'' (privately printed: 1925)
* ''Selected Poems'' (Heinemann: 1925)
* ''Satirical Poems'' (Heinemann: 1926)
* ''The Heart's Journey'' (Heinemann: 1928)
* ''Poems by Pinchbeck Lyre'' (Duckworth: 1931)
* ''The Road to Ruin'' (Faber and Faber: 1933)
* ''Vigils'' (Heinemann: 1935)
* ''Rhymed Ruminations'' (Faber and Faber: 1940)
* ''Poems Newly Selected'' (Faber and Faber: 1940)
* ''Collected Poems'' (Faber and Faber: 1947)
* ''Common Chords'' (privately printed: 1950/1951)
* ''Emblems of Experience'' (privately printed: 1951)
* ''The Tasking'' (privately printed: 1954)
* ''Sequences'' (Faber and Faber: 1956)
* ''Lenten Illuminations'' (Downside Abbey: 1959)
* ''The Path to Peace'' (Stanbrook Abbey Press: 1960)
* ''Collected Poems 1908–1956'' (Faber and Faber: 1961)
* ''The War Poems'' ed. [[Rupert Hart-Davis]] (Faber and Faber: 1983)
}}

===Prose books===
[[File:Green plaque Siegfried Sassoon.jpg|thumb|[[Blue plaque|Green plaque]] on the site of Sassoon's former home in Tufton Street, Westminster, London]]
* ''[[Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man]]'' (Faber & Gwyer: 1928)
* ''[[Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]]'' (Faber and Faber: 1930)
* ''[[Sherston's Progress]]'' (Faber and Faber: 1936)
* ''The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston'' (Faber and Faber: 1937)
* ''The Old Century and seven more years'' (Faber and Faber: 1938)
* ''On Poetry'' (University of Bristol Press: 1939)
* ''The Weald of Youth'' (Faber and Faber: 1942)
* ''Siegfried's Journey, 1916–1920'' (Faber and Faber: 1945)
* ''Meredith'' (Constable: 1948) – biography of [[George Meredith]]
* ''The Siegfried Sassoon Diaries'' ed. by Rupert Hart-Davis
** ''Diaries 1915-1918'' (Faber and Faber: 1983)
** ''Diaries 1920-1922'' (Faber and Faber: 1981)
** ''Diaries 1923-1925'' (Faber and Faber: 1985)

==In popular culture==
A 1970 installment of [[The Wednesday Play]] titled ''Mad Jack'' based on Sassoon's wartime experiences and their aftermath leading to his renunciation of his Military Cross starred [[Michael Jayston]] as Sassoon.

The novel ''[[Regeneration (novel)|Regeneration]]'' by [[Pat Barker]] is a fictionalized account of this period in Sassoon's life, and was made into a [[Regeneration (1997 film)|film]] starring [[James Wilby]] as Sassoon and [[Jonathan Pryce]] as [[W. H. R. Rivers]], the psychiatrist responsible for Sassoon's treatment. Rivers became a kind of surrogate father to the troubled young man, and his sudden death in 1922 was a major blow to Sassoon.

In 2014, [[John Hurt]] played the older Sassoon and [[Morgan Watkins]] the young Sassoon in ''[[BBC World War I centenary season#Historical debate|The Pity of War]]'', a BBC dramatized documentary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/ffwp9z/the-pity-of-war-the-loves-and-lives-of-the-war-poets/|title=The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets|author=Alison Graham|website=Radio Times|access-date=9 October 2020}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

A film titled ''The Burying Party'' (released August 2018) depicts [[Wilfred Owen]]'s final year from Craiglockhart Hospital to the [[Battle of the Sambre (1918)]], including his meeting with Sassoon at the hospital. Matthew Staite stars as Owen and Sid Phoenix as Sassoon.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Burying Party|url=http://www.theburyingparty.com/|website=The Burying Party|access-date=3 July 2020|archive-date=12 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812030613/https://www.theburyingparty.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Lauren|title=New Wilfred Owen film 'The Burying Party' on the hunt for filming locations|url=http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/15546873.New_Wilfred_Owen_film__The_Burying_Party__on_the_hunt_for_filming_locations/|work=Wirral Globe|language=en}}</ref>

[[Peter Capaldi]] and [[Jack Lowden]] portrayed Sassoon in [[Terence Davies]]' 2021 film ''[[Benediction (film)|Benediction]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2020/11/jack-lowden-terence-davies-benediction-wraps-shoot-gerladine-james-simon-russell-beale-1234607510/|title=Terence Davies' WWI Drama 'Benediction' Wraps Shoot With Geraldine James, Jeremy Irvine, Simon Russell Beale Among Joiners; First Look At Jack Lowden Pic|last=Wiseman|first=Andreas|work=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|date=November 2, 2020|access-date=January 9, 2021}}</ref>

[[Timothy Renouf]] portrayed Sassoon in ''[[The Laureate]]'', a 2021 biographical film about Robert Graves.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q85321301|id=tt1677615|title=The Laureate (2021)}}</ref>

[[Stevan Rimkus]] portrayed Sassoon in ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'' episode ''Somme, Early August 1916''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Harris M. Lentz|title=Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Film and Television Credits: Supplement 2|publisher=McFarland|year=1994|page=848}}</ref>

Sassoon served as inspiration for [[Alice Winn]]'s novel ''In Memoriam'', Specifically the character Sidney Ellwood.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/12/in-memoriam-by-alice-winn-review-a-vivid-rendering-of-love-and-frontline-brutality-in-the-first-world-war|title=In Memoriam by Alice Winn review – a vivid rendering of love and frontline brutality in the first world war|last=Anderson|first=Hephzibah|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=March 12, 2023}}</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last=Corrigan |first=Felicitas |author-link=Felicitas Corrigan |title=Siegfried Sassoon: Poet's Pilgrimage |year=1973 |publisher=Orion Publishing Group, Limited |isbn=0-575-01721-X}}. (A collection of Sassoon's diary-entries and correspondence marking his gradual spiritual development towards Roman Catholicism.)
* {{cite book |last=Egremont |first=Max |author-link=Max Egremont |title=Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography |year=2005 |publisher=Picador |isbn=0-330-37526-1}}
** {{cite book |last1=Egremont |first1=Max |title=Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography |date=2014 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IOfAwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-1447234784 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hoare |first1=Philip |title=Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant |date=1991 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last1=Moorcroft Wilson |first1=Jean |title=Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet |year=1998 |publisher=Duckworth |isbn=0-7156-2822-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Moorcroft Wilson |first1=Jean |title=Siegfried Sassoon: The Journey From the Trenches, 1918-1967 |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-7156-2971-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Roberts |first=John Stuart |author-link=John Stuart Roberts |title=Siegfried Sassoon |year=1999 |publisher=Richard Cohen Books |isbn=1-86066-151-3}}
* {{cite web |url=http://sassoonfellowship.org/siegfriedsassoonfellowship/id16.html |title=''Siegfried's Journal'': the journal of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131191631/http://www.sassoonfellowship.org/siegfriedsassoonfellowship/id16.html |archive-date=31 January 2013 }}
* {{cite magazine |url=http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/siegfried_sassoon-poetry_article-1920 |title=Sassoon on the War poets |magazine=Vanity Fair |year=1920}}

==Additional reading==
* {{cite book|last=Miller|first=Neil|title=Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present|year=1995|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=0679749888|pages=[https://archive.org/details/outofpastgayand00mill/page/92 92–96]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/outofpastgayand00mill/page/92}}
* Roy Pinaki. "''Comrades-in-Arms'': A Very Brief Study of Sassoon and Owen as Twentieth-Century English War Poets". ''Twentieth-century British Literature: Reconstructing Literary Sensibility''. Ed. Nawale, A., Z. Mitra, and A. John. New Delhi: Gnosis, 2013 ({{ISBN|978-93-81030-47-9}}). pp.&nbsp;61–78.
* [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122533686 Siegfried Sassoon collection of papers, 1905–1975, bulk (1915–1951)] (669 items) are held at the New York Public Library.
* [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122453724 Siegfried Sassoon papers, 1894–1966] (3 linear ft. ({{circa|630}} items in 4 boxes & 13 slipcases)) are held at Columbia University Libraries.
* [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28417042 Siegfried Sassoon papers, 1908–1966] (109 items) are held in the Rutgers University Libraries.
* 'The Jewishness of Siegfried Sassoon' by Martin Sugarman (AJEX Archivist) in the Journal of the Siegfried Fellowship

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Siegfried Sassoon}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Commons category}}
;Digital collections
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/siegfried-sassoon}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2934| name=Siegfried Sassoon}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Sassoon, Siegfried|name=Siegfried Sassoon|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Siegfried Loraine Sassoon}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1697}}

;Physical collections
* [http://archivegrid.org/web/jsp/a.jsp?id=1243&fileloc=122533686&archive=New+York+Public+Library&datatype=master Siegfried Sassoon collection of papers, circa 1905–1975, bulk (1915–1951)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327175557/http://archivegrid.org/web/jsp/a.jsp?id=1243&fileloc=122533686&archive=New+York+Public+Library&datatype=master |date=27 March 2012 }} (669 items), [[New York Public Library]]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* [http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20Add.9852 Papers of Siegfried Sassoon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109073406/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20Add.9852 |date=9 January 2015 }}, Cambridge University Library
* [https://war.web.ox.ac.uk/siegfried-sassoon Sassoon in the War Collections], Oxford University/[[Jisc]]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10714688 BBC Audio slideshow.] Sassoon's papers at Cambridge University Library
* [http://libus.csd.mu.edu/search~S1?/dSassoon%2C+Siegfried%2C+1886-1967/dsassoon+siegfried+1886+1967/-3,-1,0,B/browse Elizabeth Whitcomb Houghton Collection], Sassoon archive
* [http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/sassoon Sassoon Journals] digitised in Cambridge Digital Library
* Archival material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}}
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079591 Finding aid to Siegfried Sassoon papers] at Columbia University, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.sassoon|Siegfried Sassoon Papers]]. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

;Biographical information
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/siegfried-sassoon Profile at Poetry Foundation]
* [https://poetryarchive.org/poet/siegfried-sassoon/ Profile at Poetry Archive]
* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/siegfried-sassoon Siegfried Sassoon profile and poems at Poets.org]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mvl9 BBC Radio 4 discussion, 45 mins] ''[[In Our Time (radio series)|In our time]]'', 7 June 2007
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qnw8SMRAiA WGBH Forum Network lecture] given by Sassoon biographer [[Max Egremont]] (audio and video, 1 hour)

;Other links
* [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/sigfried_sassoon-poetry 1920 ''Vanity Fair'' article by Sassoon]
* [https://siegfriedsfellowship.wixsite.com/siegfriedsassoon The Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship] 

{{Authority control}}
{{Sassoon family tree}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sassoon, Siegfried}}
[[Category:Siegfried Sassoon| ]]
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