Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield, who lived from 1888 to
1923, is considered to be one of the
most remarkable short story writers of
her time. Using her life experiences as
an inspiration for her short stories,
Mansfield sculpted her ideas into
masterful pieces of literary work.
Mansfield's life was full of interesting
experiences that shaped her outlook
upon life. The diversity of friends and
acquaintances Katherine Mansfield had
over her lifetime also had a great
influence on her career. Even as a child,
Mansfield made decisions about her
life that would create a path for her
career to start on. Katherine Mansfield
was born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp
to Harold and Annie Dyer Beauchamp on
October 14, 1888. The Beauchamp
family called New Zealand their home. "A
Sea Voyage", written by the
young Kathleen Beauchamp, won first-place at
the Karori Village School, the
grammar school she first attended (Nathan 1).
This accomplishment
encouraged young Beauchamp to continue on writing. After
attending grammar
school, Kathleen went on to attend Miss Swainson's Secondary
School.
During this time, she is acquainted with Maata Mahupuka, a native
Maori.
Her interest in Mahupuka later grew into a brief love affair with
him (Nathan
1). After graduating from secondary school, Miss Kathleen
Mansfield Beauchamp
left New Zealand. She decided this after thwarting the
idea of a career in
music. Beauchamp went on to attend London's Queens
College and study literature.
While in attendance at Queens College,
Kathleen made a friend in Ida Baker. Ida
Baker, like Beauchamp, was an
avid writer. Kathleen gave the pen name
"Lesley Moore" to Ida, after
Beauchamp's brother Lesley (Sampson 308).
In the spring of 1907, Miss
Beauchamp held in garden party and invited many of
her acquaintances from
college. The party was a complete success until it was
discovered that a
cottager who lived on the property had been accidentally
killed (Nathan 1).
This event spawned to become "The Garden Party",
Beauchamp's first major
work (Encarta). In 1909, Kathleen Beauchamp became
acquainted with a man by
the name of G. C. Bowden. After only a brief period
they became engaged and
married. The evening after their marriage, Kathleen left
Bowden (Disc.
Authors 1). Leaving Bowden, she ran away with her longtime friend
Garnet
Trowell. Trowell was from Wellington; she was a fairly well known
cellist.
While running away with Garnet Trowell, Kathleen had an affair with a
man who
ultimately impregnates her. When Kathleen finally discovered this
pregnancy,
she returned to her mother for support. Trying to remove Kathleen
from the
distractions of everyday life, Kathleen's mother took her to
Bad
Worishofen, Bavaria to await the pregnancy (Nathan 1). In June of
1909, Kathleen
had a miscarriage. While awaiting the birth of her child,
Kathleen wrote stories
and drew sketches related to her experiences of
Bavaria (Disc. Authors 1). She
wrote most of her work in her room at the
Hotel Kreuzer (Nathan 1). After
battling through difficult times, Beauchamp
made many changes in her life.
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp began using
the name Katherine Mansfield
exclusively starting in 1910 (Nathan 1). Steven
Swift, a fairly well known
publisher at the time, published the first copies
of Mansfield's "In a
German Pension" (Baugh 287). It was originally
advertised as a
"six-schilling novel" (Baugh 287). Only a short time after
the initial
publication, Swift added the work onto his list of "Books that
Compel"
(Sampson 308). During this time, Katherine Mansfield made an
acquaintance with
an important person. J. Middleton Murry was the editor of
Rhyme magazine.
Katherine met Murry for the first time when he was
twenty-two while working in
the same town (Nathan 1). J. Middleton Murry and
Katherine Mansfield became
closer and their personal relationship grew.
Eventually, Murry moved in with
Katherine at her London apartment and
they soon became lovers. John Middleton
Murry and Katherine Beauchamp
Mansfield were married on May 3, 1918. This move
was made in an act of
convenience as well as love, considering Murry was an
editor of a magazine
that also published short stories. After her marriage to
Murry in May of
1918, Katherine went right back to work. In August of the same
year, she
published the short story "Bliss" in the English Review
(Nathan 1). In early
1918, Mansfield was formally introduced to Virginia Woolf
for the first time.
This introduction began a great chapter of women's English
literature.
Although their personal friendship was close, Wolf and Mansfield
were immense
literary rivals. Differences between the two included
"background, taste, and
mode of living". By being the friend of
Virginia Woolf, Katherine
Mansfield aided her own success in her work. Katherine
revised a work titled
"The Aloe" and was able to get it published by
Virginia and Leonard
Woolf's publishing company, Hogarth Press (Mitchell 1).
Several hardships
fell on Mansfield in the years following her marriage to
Murry.
Katherine's brother Lesley was a soldier in World War I. On
October 7, 1915, he
was tragically killed in action (Nathan 1). Katherine
went into mourning for
some time. Even after the death of her brother, her
life and emotions were
greatly effected (Sampson 308). Katherine's brother
had two nicknames Katherine
often called him: "Bogey" and "Johnny". After his
death, she
began to call Murry "Bogey". She used this name in letters and
journal
entries as well (Nathan 1). Near the time of her latest
publication
"Bliss", tragedy struck Mansfield. Her mother, Annie Dyer
Beauchamp,
passed away. Combined with the earlier loss of her brother, she
became grief
stricken. The deaths of these two family members became great
inspiration for
her work. For example, after Katherine's mother's passing,
Mansfield used many
characteristics of her mother as traits for her
characters. Sickness hit
Mansfield during this time as well. Nearing the
end of 1918, Katherine began to
feel weak and sickly (Sampson 308). Mansfield
continued with her literary work,
even though she was pestered with a
constant cough. In 1919, Murry received the
editing job at a new journal
named Athenaeum (Nathan 1). He appointed Katherine
as the novel reviewer for
the journal (Disc. Authors 1). While working through
her illness, Mansfield
began to cough consistently and harshly. After a time,
blood began to appear
with her cough. As soon as these symptoms began, Katherine
immediately went
to see a doctor in London. The doctor diagnosed Mansfield with
tuberculosis
(Baugh 287). This new discovery did not stop Mansfield from
continuing her
work. Katherine finished two works in progress, "The Garden
Party" and
"The Doll House". She also had "Marriage a la
Mode" published near the
same time. With a great many of her short stories
now complete, Mansfield
field had enough works to complete yet another
collection entitled "The
Garden Party, and Other Stories" (Vinson
486). Shortly after this
publication, Katherine Mansfield suffered from her
first hemorrhage from the
tuberculosis. Over the summer of 1922, shortly after
her first hemorrhage,
Mansfield was able to write three new short stories:
"A Cup of Tea", "Taking
the Veil", and "The Fly" (Vinson
486). In October of 1922, Mansfield, in
search of a new treatment for
tuberculosis, entered the Institute for the
Harmonious Development of Man in
Fontainbleau, England. While at the
Institute for the Harmonious Development of
Man, Katherine was lead by
the founder of the institution; his name was George
Ivanovich Gurdjieff,
a self-proclaimed mystic. While being subjected to the
regimen laid forth by
the institute leader, Mansfield's condition quietly
worsened, although not
detected at first by Mansfield. While staying at the
institute, Katherine was
subjected to an extremely strict regimen of diet,
exercise, and rest. For
Murry, the absence of Katherine was mentally draining.
On Jan. 9, 1923,
John Murry visited his wife Katherine for the first time since
she had left
for the institute a year ago. Shortly after Murry arrived,
Katherine
suffered a massive hemorrhage and passed away. She was laid to rest at
the
Cemetery at Avon; she was only 34 years old (Nathan 2). Virginia
Woolf
remarked after the death of Katherine: "I have a feeling that I shall
think
of her at intervals all through life," (Mitchell 1). Katherine
Beauchamp
Mansfield was and still is one of the great short story writers
of English
literature. By using life experiences as inspiration for her work,
Katherine
Mansfield was able to create lifelike short stories.
Remarkably, most of
Mansfield's best works came from the time of her
battle with tuberculosis.
Although only a few of her works have gained
fame, the legacy Mansfield began
for women writers will be remembered
forever.
Bibliography
Baugh, Albert C., ed. A Literary History of
England. 2nd ed. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1948. Discovering
Authors. Computer database. Gale Research
Inc, 1993. "Mansfield,
Katherine". Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1998 ed.
CD-ROM. Microsoft
Corporation, 1998. Mitchell, Larry. "Katherine Mansfield
and Virginia Woolf".
On-line. Internet. 22 Feb. 1999. Available www.texasa&mu.edu
Nathan,
Rhoda B. Katherine Mansfield. New York: Continuum Publishing Co.,
1988.
Sampson, George, ed. The Concise Cambridge History of English
Literature. 3rd
ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Vinson,
James, ed. Great Writers
of the English Language: Novelists and Prose
Writers. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1979.