Heritage

By V. Sackville-West and Mint Editions

Heritage (1919) is a novel by Vita Sackville-West. While she is most widely recognized as the lover of English novelist Virginia Woolf, Sackville-West was a popular and gifted poet, playwright, and novelist in her own right. A prominent lesbian and bohemian figure, Sackville-West was also the daughter of an English Baron, granting her a unique and often divided perspective on life in the twentieth century. Heritage, her debut novel, is a semi-autobiographical tale of desire, secrecy, and family. “[H]er name was Ruth, and she was gleaning. She moved by stages across the field, throwing out her long wooden rake to its farthest extent and drawing it back to her until she had gathered sufficient strands into a heap, when, laying down the rake, she bound the corn against her thigh, rapidly and skilfully into a sheaf.” While staying on a farm in rural Kent, Malory finds himself enthralled with Ruth Pennistan, the daughter of his host. Intrigued by her dark hair and olive complexion, he attempts to discover the secret of her birth. Known for her tumultuous, heated affairs with men and women alike, Sackville-West is an artist whose works so often mirror her life. This edition of Vita Sackville-West’s Heritage is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781513212098

V. Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1952) was an English novelist, poet, journalist, and gardener. Born at Knole, the Sackville’s hereditary home in west Kent, Vita was the daughter of English peer Lionel Sackville-West and his cousin Victoria, herself the illegitimate daughter of the 2nd Baron Sackville and a Spanish dancer named Pepita. Educated by governesses as a young girl, Vita later attended school in Mayfair, where she met her future lover Violet Keppel. An only child, she entertained herself by writing novels, plays, and poems in her youth, both in English and French. At the age of eighteen, she made her debut in English society and was courted by powerful and well-connected men. She had affairs with men and women throughout her life, leading an open marriage with diplomat Harold Nicholson. Following their wedding in 1913, the couple moved to Constantinople for one year before returning to settle in England, where they raised two sons. Vita’s most productive period of literary output, in which she published such works as The Land (1926) and All Passion Spent (1931), coincided with her affair with English novelist Virginia Woolf, which lasted from 1925 to 1935. The success of Vita’s writing—published through Woolf’s Hogarth Press—allowed her lover to publish some of her masterpieces, including The Waves (1931) and Orlando (1928), the latter being inspired by Sackville-West’s family history, androgynous features, and unique personality. Vita died at the age of seventy at Sissinghurst Castle, where she worked with her husband to design one of England’s most famous gardens.