Comprehensive information and links about Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield

Biography

Born into a socially-prominent Wellington, New Zealand family, Katherine's first published stories were in the High School Reporter, the Wellington Girls' High School magazine, in 1898 and 1899. Beauchamp moved to London in 1902. A talented cellist, she was not at first attracted to literature, and after finishing her schooling in England, she returned to her New Zealand home in 1906. Weary of the provincial New Zealand life, Beauchamp returned to London two years later.

It was upon her return to London that Kathleen Beauchamp began writing short stories and entered London's cultural circles, where she met such contemporaries as D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. At this time, she became pregnant by a family friend from New Zealand, Garnet Trowell, a shy violinist; her mother sent her to Bavaria (it is not apparent whether this action was taken because of Annie Beauchamp's knowledge of the pregnancy or because she suspected that Kathleen was putting into practice the lesbian tendencies that had so shocked the family in her adolescence). While in Bavaria, Kathleen suffered a miscarriage, apparently brought on by lifting her trunk off the top of a wardrobe. Back in England, her work drew the attention of several publishing houses, and Beauchamp took on the pen-name Katherine Mansfield upon the publication of her first collection of short stories, , in 1911. She also contracted gonorrhoea around this time, an event that was to plague her with arthritic pain for the rest of her short life, as well as to make her view herself as a 'soiled' woman.

Discouraged by the volume's lack of success, Mansfield met and moved in with her future husband, fellow writer John Middleton Murry. Though she continued writing between her first and second collections (Prelude, 1918), she rarely published her work, and sank into depression. Her health declined further after a near-fatal attack of pleurisy when she contracted tuberculosis in 1917. It was while combating the disease in health spas across Europe, suffering a serious hemorrhage in 1918, that Mansfield began writing the works she would become best known for.

"Miss Brill," the bittersweet story of a fragile woman living in an ephemeral life of observation and simple pleasures in Paris, established Mansfield as one of the preeminent writers of the Modernist period, upon its publication in 1920's . The title story from that collection, "Bliss," which involved a similar character facing her husband's infidelity, also found critical acclaim. She followed with the equally praised collection, , published in 1922.

Mansfield spent her last years seeking increasingly unorthodox cures for her tuberculosis. In February 1922, she consulted the Russian physician Ivan Manoukhin. His "revolutionary" treatment, which consisted of bombarding the spleen with x-rays, caused Mansfield to develop heat and numbness in her legs. In October 1922, Mansfield moved to George Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France, where she continued to write despite her failing health. After publishing an additional two volumes, one of poetry, and the other short stories, Mansfield suffered a fatal pulmonary hemorrhage and died suddenly in January 1923. She was buried in a cemetery in the Fontainebleau District in the town of Avon.

Proving to be a prolific writer in the final years of her life, much of Mansfield's prose and poetry had been unpublished before her death. John Middleton Murry took on the task of editing and publishing her works. His efforts resulted in two additional volumes of short stories in 1924 (Something Childish) and 1930 (The Aloe); as well as three volumes of Mansfield's previously unpublished letters and journals. A collection of unfinished works came nine years later.

Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill" and later works such as "Prelude" and "The Fly," are frequently cited (by who?) as the best short stories ever written (source?). Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing. The fact that Mansfield died at a relatively young age only adds to her legacy.

Garden Party, and Other Stories, 1922 - includes the stories 'Prelude' and 'Je ne parle pas francais'