KATHERINE MANSFIELD

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 13

KATHERINE MANSFIELD

THE NINTH ANNIVERSARY

Nine yeaVs ago tq-day/' in the country town of Fontainebleau, in France, died one who has just claim to the laurels of foremost womap prose writer of New Zealand. The genius of Katherine Mansfield is still with us: her'brilliant imagery, her graceful, almost impeccable style, and her facile descriptive talent give us rare.insight into a powerfully creative personality. ; •; Her reputation has: increased with time. Although, not among, the gods "of world literature, she is. certainly' one of the greatest' prose-writers New" Zealand has produced, and her worthwilliiot dim with age. ■ '■'■■:.■ ■"" •-.- - ■" ::.: , ■

She. was born in 1890 in "Wellington, where sKe ; ;also received her education. At an early:age: she. went Home* where she. resided for .many' yeare. • She- -returned once to New Zealand for a brief visit.

When .nineteen she produced her first book, and though it was doomed to failure through no fault of her own, it later gained considerable success. This was "In a German Pension," published in 1911. ■ It was fresh and full of vitality, but as shs herself recognised, "immature" and "juvenile." For a. few brief months'it "attracted attention. However, the' publisher defaulted and was declared bankrupt. The stereotype plates were confiscated, and with them fled all hope ■ of-■-royalties; Strange to say she was'not disappointed, and as Mr. J. Middleton Murry, later her husband, remarks! "she became indifferent, and. then finally hostile" to the work. In later years she refused to have it republished. "It was not good enough/1 she wrote in response to-a request to revive it. Nothing .could move her in the decision she had made, and it was not until 1926 that the second impression was taken. Following ' this set-back she wrote much but published, little. It was. during these years, too, that she. met Middleton Murry, a critic and prose-writer of considerable ability, who became associated with her in the publication of her literary review "Rhythm."

Rhythm. . . The word expresses^ much as her personality as does any, other in the English language. It was the keynote s of all she saw and felt, indeed of all she'.Vrote. In this she. is like George Eliot—sensitive, almost neurotic, and keenly introspective. ' ? . Her brilliancy, Marked' at the time, achieved perhaps its finest expression in her collection "Bliss,"'which was published hyo years after the war. It may not be too much to say that her style in some of these sketches becomes as real and positive as that of J-.'B. Priestley: some of her work is, indeed, reminiscent of,.his racy style. ~,;.. "* ■

"The Garden' Party" was the last volume she lived'to see published:' it was not a fitting climax to her life, for from the genius that was hers much greater things would have come. Her career was "one of brilliant promise, of small but perfect achievement," and with the maturer vision of years it is possible she would have been placed among those, whose names are known throughout the world as masters of literature. ■ ' ; : .

Several posthumous collections of her ■yvorks were published, chiefly through the industry of her husband. "The Dove's Nest," "Somewhat ; Childish," and a volume of "Poems" were collected and met with instan£ . success. Several biographers' in the last four years have written of her life'; these works have been by her husband, the two Stoiiehills, and now, almost on the' anniversary of her death. Miss Ruth Mantz. • .

In 1927 the "Journal of Katherine Mansfield" was published, ; and in the following year her ■"Letters." ■-. .'.'... It was in. her continual writings for many, periodicals, including Mr.- Middleton Murry'fi "Athenaeum,"1 that her acute critical pbwers were exhibited to their fullest degree, and it is by these that she is remembered. ■-■■■■