Kimber Gerri - Katherine Mansfield - the Early Years

Frontispiece. Katherine Mansfield in Brussels, 1906.

Gerri Kimber

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Gerri Kimber, 2016
Foreword C. K. Stead, 2016

Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun Holyrood Road
12(2f) Jacksons Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7486 8147 1

The right of Gerri Kimber to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Published with the support of the Edinburgh University Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.

All biographers of Katherine Mansfield, New Zealands most celebrated author, must, at some point, make at least one trip to that most holy of all Mansfield manuscript repositories: the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mtauranga o Aotearoa, in Wellington. I was fortunate to make a number of visits during the writing of this biography, thanks to the generous support of several organisations. My grateful thanks go to the Friends of the Turnbull Library (FoTL), who awarded me a research grant in 2015, which enabled me to spend a whole precious month absorbed in the KM archives (and especially to Rachel Underwood and Kate Fortune of the FoTL, who were so generous with their time). Many thanks also go to the following organisations, who generously provided grants to support the research for this biography in New Zealand, for which I am immensely grateful: the University of Northampton (in particular, Professor Janet Wilson and Professor Richard Canning); the New Zealand Society of Great Britain (in particular, Tania Bearsley and Robyn Allardyce-Bourne); and the Society of Authors K.Blundell Trust.

The biography draws in part on the research Ruth Elvish Mantz undertook during a trip to New Zealand in 1931, when she was able to interview the family, friends and acquaintances of Mansfield, whose memories were still sharp enough to provide the young American biographer with rich source material, all of which is now held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I was lucky enough to be able to make two trips to Austin during the writing of this biography: the first thanks to a research grant provided by the University of Northampton in 2013, and the second as the recipient of a Harry Ransom Research Fellowship in 2014, which enabled me to spend several glorious weeks immersed in the rich archives at Austin. In addition, a Mansfield conference in May 2015, organised by Professor W. Todd Martin at the Newberry Library in Chicago, enabled me to spend time viewing their substantial Mansfield archives, again with a generous grant from the University of Northampton.

The librarians at all the above institutions were, without exception, outstandingly helpful and friendly. Thanks in particular go to: in Wellington, Chris Szekely, Fiona Oliver, Jocelyn Chalmers, Linda McGregor, Jenni Christoffels, Gillian Headifen, Amy Hackett (and particularly Fiona Oliver, who spent several hours hunting out an edition of Hans Christian Andersens fairy tales that KM could have read as a girl in NZ, and the indefatigable Jocelyn Chalmers, whose patience with my interminable queries is boundless); in Austin, Rick Watson whose patience and diligence are exemplary Jack Blanton, Pat Fox, Michael Gilmore, Bridget Gayle Ground, Jean Cannon, Jill Morena, Melanie Alberts, Betsy Gushee and Chelsea Weathers; in the Newberry, Martha Briggs, Alex Teller and John Powell. The Alexander Turnbull Library, in particular, was very generous in allowing the use of so many of their images at a reduced rate, for which I remain extremely grateful. In addition, thanks go to the very helpful staff at Kings College London Archives, and especially Lianne Smith.

Enormous thanks are due to Jackie Jones, my publisher at Edinburgh University Press, who believed in this volume from the start, who read and commented on the final manuscript, and whose many kindnesses kept me on track. She is a publisher in a million. Special thanks also go to the team at EUP, James Dale, Adela Rauchova, Carla Hepburn, Rebecca McKenzie, and my meticulous copy-editor, Wendy Lee. My grateful thanks also go to the Society of Authors, who represent the literary estates of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry, for permission to quote from their work, and in particular, Sarah Burton, for her extraordinary diligence. I am also truly indebted to C. K. Stead, an outstanding Mansfield scholar in his own right, who generously agreed to provide a Foreword to the volume.

My most heartfelt thanks go to my friends Susan Price and Beverley Randell, who made a flat in Wellington available to me whenever I wanted it. Their combined knowledge of Wellington and its history is unrivalled and their generosity boundless. I know I drove them insane with my questioning. Only they know how much I owe them. My dear friend, Janine Renshaw-Beauchamp, Mansfields sister Jeannes granddaughter, generously allowed reproduction of some rare family photos. Stephanie Hancox and her mother, Conor Williamson, descendants of KMs cousin, Eric Waters, also generously allowed me to use family photographs and supplied some valuable research material. Very special thanks go to the daughter of Edith Robison (ne Bendall), Barbara Webber, and granddaughter, Lindy Erskine, for permission to use two of Ediths drawings and to reproduce a photograph of Edith at art school, and to Moira Taylor and Elizabeth Nathaniels for introducing me to Lindy.

Two very special friends and colleagues, Professor Claire Davison and Professor Janet Wilson, also read and commented on the manuscript. Their combined wisdom and knowledge of KM have undoubtedly enhanced this biography, especially the footnotes for Volume 4 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield, in large part the work of Claire Davison, whose erudition has considerably enhanced my understanding of KMs early diary entries. The staff at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in Wellington were also unfailingly helpful; special thanks go to the Chair of the Board, Nicola Saker, who invited me to her sumptuous home on Hobson Street and offered me a glimpse of how the Beauchamps might have lived, and the ever-helpful Director, Emma Anderson. I also thank Jennifer Walker, whose knowledge of the Beauchamp family (especially Mansfields great-uncle, Henry Herron Beauchamp, and his descendants) is second to none, and who answered several questions for me and generously made available her own research. Henry Herron Beauchamps papers are held at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California; my thanks to them for permission to reproduce some quotations, and to the librarian, Gayle Richardson, who answered several questions for me. Chris Naylor kindly gave permission for me to quote from his mother Elizabeths wonderfully detailed memoirs of the Beauchamp clan. Dr John Martin, Parliamentary Historian at the New Zealand Parliament, was very generous with his time, answered numerous questions, and showed me the original ledgers where KM and her sister Vera had signed for books borrowed from the General Assembly Library in 19078. At the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Neil Robinson, the library and research manager, answered my questions on the MCC cricket team that went to New Zealand in 1906 on board the S. S.