V. S. Pritchett
British writer and critic (1900–1997)
Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic.
Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. Among his most noteworthy works of short fiction are "The Sailor", "The Saint", and "The Camberwell Beauty".
His non-fiction works include the memoirs A Cab at the Door (1968) and Midnight Oil (1971), and many collections of essays on literary biography and criticism.
Biography
Victor Sawdon Pritchett was born in Suffolk, the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman, relocated to Ipswich to establish a newspaper and stationery shop. The business ran into difficulty and his parents were lodging over a toy shop at 41 St Nicholas Street in Ipswich, where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after Queen Victoria. Pritchett disliked his first name, having been nearly mauled by a dog named Victor in his youth, hence he always preferred being styled by his initials "VSP", despite formally becoming "Sir Victor Pritchett" after being knighted.
His family moved to Ipswich to be near his mother's sister, who had married money and lived in Warrington Road.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “V. S. Pritchett” as british writer and critic (1900–1997). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1885875. VIAF identifies the subject as 94052985. The Library of Congress control number is n78095632. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1997, 1968 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “V. S. Pritchett” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.