A KATHERINE MANSFIELD ENTHUSIAST

Turnbull Library Record, Volume VIII, 1 November 1951, Page 19

A KATHERINE MANSFIELD ENTHUSIAST

By P. A. Lawlor

The Work of Guy N. Morris

In 1936 the Unicorn Press Auckland published Professor Arthur Sewell’s critical essay on Katherine Mansfield. It was one of the finest estimates written of New Zealand’s famous writer, and of such typographical excellence as to appeal to any booklover. Guy Norman Morris, Magistrate of Whangarei read the booklet and it moved him to such an extent that he decided to spend most of his spare time investigating and assembling everything he could lay his hand on regarding the life and work of Katherine Mansfield.

If genius is a capacity for taking pains our friend Morris was a genius. From that day until the time of his death on May 21st 1949, Morris put the world of literature through the fine comb of his enthusiasm in his engrossing search. His correspondence with many people in other parts of the world was immense. Because his capacity to interest and please others was a reflection of a kind, generous and enthusiastic heart, he rarely, if ever, failed in achieve ing his purpose. Shortly, indications of his labours were apparent from articles, letters and references in papers overseas, from The Times Literary Supplement in London to The Times in New York. At this stage he had retired from his position as Magistrate, and to his home in Mount St. John Avenue, Auckland, the postman conveyed letters, cuttings and books from many parts of the world. There were letters from Middleton Murry, from William Orton in U.S.A, whom Guy Morris alone discovered knew so much

about one colourful patch in the brilliantly/hued life of Katherine Mansfield; early and sometimes priceless first editions of her work from London booksellers; then a letter from Mencken, or de la Mare or Frank Swinnerton or Conrad Aiken, for none of those who had known of or spoken to Katherine Mansfield during her lifetime escaped the unerring needle of enthusiasm in the directing compass that guided Morris. One great day he received his first original A.L.S. If my memory serves me right, it was a small postcard Katherine Mansfield had sent to William Orton. Another time, Murry sent him a complete set of Katherine Mans/ field translations, charging him —except the postage! Incidentally, this may provide material for psychologists regarding the strange mind of Murry.

By the time Morris made his first approach to me, his collection and his knowledge were considerable. Like most human beings lam susceptible to flattery, so that the thought of Morris seeking my aid appealed to me immensely. So began what was to me a wonderful friendship. Rarely a week went by without some request from Auckland to secure a photostat or typewritten copy of an article or a poem of Katherine Mansfield interest. For every new item I secured for my friend he gave me half a dozen. I confess I battened on his knowledge and soon I was adding to my Katherine Mansfield books and clippings. Even so I never came within echo distance of Morris. It was his enthusiasm that inspired my approach to Isabel Clarke, resulting in the publican tion out here of her satisfying biography. My Katherine Mansfield Bibliography was checked over and added to by Morris who also wrote the introduction. Only my ‘Maata’ was self/inspired, but it would never have eventuated but for the interest of Guy Morris. And here it will be interesting to quote his opinion of the ‘Maata* mystery. This comment was to have been included in the book (The Mystery of Maata) but was too late for publication. I include it here therefore for the first time in print. It is in tune with this appreciation I am writing of my friend, because it gives further light to his balanced analytical mind: ‘You have said yourself that you have not been able to produce the body. Continuing that metaphor I would say first that that is not nowadays absolutely necessary in an inquest. You have still cleared the air considerably. You have I think both definitely located a body and established that it is the one you were looking for. You have satisfied me

at any-rate that your Maata is the genuine article, and that she has the MS. There are two psychological points where I differ. I state them but I am not pressing them. I don’t think that Maata’s reluctance is a matter of Tapu. My experi/ ence is that if a Polynesian has possession of something unique he is most jealous about giving it to others, even in part. I could back this with chapter and verse from my island experience, but I will spare you. I think your main danger is that Maata may destroy the letters and MS when she thinks she is near her end. The other point is that I do not agree there was an overlap with Maata and Prelude. K.M. was a rebel here in New Zealand; she left in that frame of mind and I think it continued until her brother came to her in England. Maata was surely identified with that rebel/ lion and I don’t wonder that her teachers and her family were worried about Maata’s friendship with K.M. and Chaddie. It was only those few weeks with her brother that brought K.M. home again—made her forgive the clipping of her wings here, with which process both New Zealand itself and her own family were concerned. Then he was killed and Prelude came out of her agony. She said so herself. From then on she wrapped New Zealand in phantasy as a sort of glorification of her dead brother. This being so I don’t believe she touched her work on Maata again—it was identified with her period of rebellion, now over for ever. I say again that this is my own view of it, and I may be wrong.

‘Reading this over I perceive that I have devoted most of my space to being critical. Don’t get any impression that I am in any way disappointed with this book. On the con/ trary, I have enjoyed myself thoroughly with it and within the limitation of copyright I don’t see that you could have made it any more convincing. I sincerely hope that I am wrong about the possibilities of getting Maata into a different frame of mind, but seeing that she, in spite of all her troubles, has never endeavoured to turn her treasure into cash I am really afraid that what she values is the feeling that she has something priceless which she can at will either destroy or turn over to the world, and if that is true the odds are against you.’ There is logic in what Morris has written.

Of the articles written by Morris, many have been published in New Zealand, the more important, from the bibliographical point of view, in History and Bibliography. Of particular general interest were his articles in the New Zealand Magazine. Very early in his Katherine Mansfield quest, he wrote for the Railways Magazine. His most important article, a 45,000 word essay, has not been published. I have read it. It reaches a high pinnacle of achievement in his knowledge and understanding of Katherine Mansfield. Other posthumous essays from his pen include a remarkable bibliography of unpublished references. A small numbered edition of his History and Bibliography articles is planned. The text of his last brilliant address, so sadly unconv pleted because of his sudden seizure, is an important manuscript and should also be published.

As an inspiration to literary investigators in this and other spheres, I propose to quote briefly from several letters among the many I received from him. These quotations serve as an indica/ tion of his methods: Writing from Whangarei on April Bth 1939: ‘Herewith a bundle of duplicate K.M. Articles, all of which you may keep. I may say that my collection is growing fast since I last saw you, and I now have 228 items, including both books and articles. I have managed to secure a copy of The Spectator containing that latest story of K.M.’s. So your tip has borne fruit and I am duly grateful. I suppose you have seen the story before now. Two years later, after many further enquiries:

‘I am thinking of doing an article for The Book Collector's Quarterly on some of my K.M. discoveries. I know you have a file of this as you lent me one number to copy an article. Would you be good enough to give me their address, and if there are any instructions to intending contributors I should like to have the gist of them as well. If you have a chance of searching a file of John O’London, I should like particulars of the K.M. stories which are said to have appeared in it during or about October last.* Even the family tree comes under his microscope: ‘Many thanks for the clipping. I had not seen it before, but before there was any publicity, I had picked the General

for Elizabeth’s son. This clipping has however added a few details. Scholefield is wrong in one particular. The family tree went: John Beauchamp Henry Herron Arthur Elizabeth Sir Harold General von Arnim K.M. Sir Harold was Elizabeth’s first cousin and K.M. and the General were cousins. The authority is Sir Harold’s own book. ‘Thanks too for putting Maurice Hurst on to me. I have just finished an article for him on Katherine Mansfield in Fiction and have said a little about “Daughter of Time” which I liked very well as a portrait.*

Early in 1942 I was fortunate in securing what appeared to be a first edition of In a German Pension. I wrote to Morris, giving him a description of it and here is his reply: ‘I am intrigued by the copy of the German Pension you have found. I do not think it can be a first edition if only because I paid sterling for mine. On the other hand the only editions other than the first are the 1926 Constable edition and the Knopf American —also 1926. Your find cannot be either of these. I don’t know if you have a copy of the Bibliography, but in case you have not I will append a few facts for you to work on. ‘The last page of the actual text is numbered 25 1 and on the back of that page there is just one line; the riverside press limited, Edinburgh. After that should come 4 pages of ads. numbered 1 to 4 and then 32 pages of ads. numbered 1 to 32. These you say are missing. The dimem sions are 8f in. x 4! in. Colour green with lettering in gold. The cover has an alf over design of arrows and books. The front cover has an oblong free from the design and lettered:

IN A GERMAN PENSION Katherine Mansfield The spine has in a german pension Katherine Mansfield —then a design of two open books with a pair of crossed arrows between — Stephen swift. Page i —The half-title page reads in one line: in a german pension.

Page 3 — The title page reads: in a german pension by Katherine Mansfield. There follows a design of an open book in the centre of which is a black circle containing two S’s. Below is: London Stephen swift & co. ltd., 10 John Street, Adelphi. • Pages 2 and 4 are blank. Pages 1 to 4 are not actually numbered. The first numbered page is 5 with table of contents, the back is blank and the text begins on page 7. Page 17 has the letter B to left of page number at foot of page, page 33 has the letter C, 49 has D and so on to Q on page 241. There is no reference in the Bibliography to proof copies but I suspect that what you have been offered is something of that nature. From the above information you should be able to identify it definitely as of the first printing or not, and in any case it should be worth 10//. I shall be interested to learn how it checks up.’

To this letter I replied indicating that the size of my copy was 7i in. x 4! in., and that the binding was in brown with plain black lettering. The answer was as follows:

‘To me it seems fairly certain that you have a library copy and possibly by writing to The Times Book Club and describing it pretty fully you might make a certainty of it. Despite Murry I do not think there were three editions. Miss Mantz mentions only one in the Bibliography for which Murry wrote a preface. In it he states that he “was deeply impressed by the evidence it showed of careful determination to unravel matters which, I fear, I myself had sometimes unwittingly helped to confuse”. He says he has revised the manuscript and has furnished any information which might add to or in a few cases correct her own. Hence prima facie any reference elsewhere to three editions is a mistake of Murry’s. Looking at other evidence, there is the fact that judg/ ing by the reviews I have seen the book was regarded at best as promising, and that does not argue for more than one edition. As to royalties K.M. got as an advance and no more. The publishers went bung during 1912. This means that if there were three editions they have been issued in a matter of months, i.e. before the bankruptcy. ‘That does not square with the mild reception the book got. Taken together the above sets out my reasons for disregarding Murry’s remark about three editions. The first edition is rare

all right. I paid sterling for mine. Since then the only sale I have recorded is in New York in February, 1940, —82.50 dollars.’ Again his thoughtfulness and generosity. Writing to me July 1 th, 1938: ‘Have just received a bound set of the three numbers of The Blue Review from HefFer and as I already had the first number— 1913 —I now have that to spare. This short/ lived magazine was edited by Murry with K.M. as sub/ editor and the May number contains her story “Pension Seguin’’. It cost me 15// in England which is 18/9 here. I will hold this till I hear from you, but don’t take it unless you want to as I have others who want material. I have nothing to send you at the moment but if you see a book about called The Last Romantic by William Orton get a look at it. The Catherine of Chapter Seventeen is K.M. and the poems in that chapter are her own and not hitherto published. This came from Murry himself so it is not just a guess.

And now a jump to December 1948, when he wrote as follows: ‘Just back from Niue and find a heap of mail to reply to. There is an S O S from Alpers regarding an article by “S.J.” which appeared in the Public Service Journal of July 1933. He wants to know who “S.J.” is. You seem to be the best man to apply to. Also the Dominion of 3rd March, 1913, contains a K.M. poem. The “Floryan” is one of the Poles she met in Bavaria and the German word means “in retrospect”.’

And in the last letter I ever received from him March 17th, 1949: (‘arrah good luck to it’ he wrote with his dear old touch of humour never missing): ‘Your note arrived today. I have never seen a full set of The Open Window advertised before, but I think I paid 15// for the single number containing “A Fairy Story”. In short if you don’t feel like taking that set at I will have it for myself very willingly; and I can’t say fairer than that. ‘Have you seen Newsview for February ? There is an article on K.M.’s first story “In a Cafe”. Mostly an interview with Brady but there are photographs of certain correspondence between K.M. and Brady and also the story is, with his per/

mission, reprinted in full. You should be able to raise this in Wellington. I did not know of it until today when a neighs hour brought me in her copy.’ So you may glimpse his methods, which would stand out in full force did space permit me to quote from ninety/nine other letters. And yet each and every letter was in other respects removed from what, but for the generous human mind behind it all, might have degenerated into ruthless foot/rule investigations. Interlarded were kindly enquiries, humorous quips and turns and generous word of gifts and tokens. I was privileged to see the so far unpublished MS. of Guy Morris’s 45,000 word critical biography of Katherine Mansfield. He entered this MS. for the Centennial Essay Competition in 1940 and if I remember right was placed third. Morris sent the MS. to me in December 1945 asking for a critical estimate, also as to whether I would be prepared to publish it for him. In reply I wrote him as follows:

As you have given me a liberal time margin with your Katherine Mansfield, I just waited until the urge came and then I read it —in several sessions, all in one day. This for a 45,000 word MS. is for me a sufficient indication of its reader interest. Here are some of my opinions: (1) You have written the most comprehensive and under' standing study of K.M. I have yet read. (2) It is analytical to a degree, is well balanced, and very human. (3) You have shown a knowledge of your subject that to me is amazing. One would think you had known her intimately. This has come from your continued and painstaking research. (4) I disagree with your psychological probings, bespectacled as you are with Freud, James Joyce and Cabell. (5) As you are dealing with a woman who was a craftsman of words, I consider your study should be carefully revised so as to improve the rhythm and balance of your prose. The literary quality is good, but it should be better. (6) Finally, I do not think you should call your study an essay. A 45,000 word critical biography cannot be called an essay. At all events, from a sales point of view, it should not be called an essay.

I think you could find a publisher overseas even as the MS. stands at present, but to be worthy of the subject and to make it a readable and quotable book for all time, it should be revised with an eye for literary niceties. I could not under/ take publication; it is too ambitious for me and also as you might guess, there are points in your MS. that jar my over delicate conscience (the second of last line on p. 28 for instance). I do not agree with you that K.M. was convinced that to be at once a Catholic and a great artist was impossible. Who could believe such a thing remembering the notable Catholics (some of them saintly men and women) who were truly great artists ? However this outstanding study of yours should and must be published. How the Centennial Essay people let it go without some effort to retain the rights or to preserve the MS. beats me. I hope that before you seek a new publisher you bring it up to date with some reference to Nelia Gardner White. Finally I appreciate more than I can tell the opportunity of reading your MS. and thank you.

And the final chapter. He came to my house the Sunday night before his lecture and was then full of life, enthusiasm and humour. He was the best of bookish friendshe revelled in my books as if they were his own. He called at my office on the Tuesday. I next saw him as he waited to give his lecture at the Turnbull Library. He looked nervous but confident. Normally he was an interesting speaker. That night he was brilliantthe fierce flame of the high/power globe before the final flicker. What a perfect setting for the last scene of his thirteen years of unselfish labour. Around him were men and women who had known Katherine Mansfield in her girlhood, there were students who knew her intimately through the written word, there were bibliophiles who enthused over the many rare editions grouped for the occasion about the room. And the radiant centre of all these memories, personalities and printed records, was Guy Norman Morris, inspired to excitement by the occasion and what he had to impart. I noticed that when he rose to speak he was holding himself in check, those long, strong arms of his were wrapped around his chest. He opened up brilliantly and with wonderful clarity. He said he was going to trace the psychological development of Katherine Mansfield and to give his theories as

to her unhappy life. First, he referred to the all/pervading influence of Murry who, even though his wife was now dead, distorted by over/emphasis or suppression the many aspects of her life. He was satisfied, however, that Antony Alpers was about to write the true life of Katherine Mansfield. Then, in a most interesting manner, he drew a parallel between the life of Frances Newman (author of The Hard Boiled Virgin) and Katherine Mansfield. They had many things in common in their ambitions and frustra/ tions. At this stage his address was so clear and vital, almost overwhelming in its interest, that I looked around those present and saw them all engrossed in what he was saying. Suddenly a strange manner came over him. His voice became low and more rapid. His wife who was sitting next to me whispered, ‘Guy is ill.’ I went over to the chairman, Alan Mulgan, and suggested that Morris should give his address seated, that he would feel more at home. However, he hurried on only more rapidly, his voice dropping lower. I gently suggested that he should take his seat, and then he seemed to collapse. . . .

His wife was heroic. Her view, in my opinion the right one, was that he died as he would have liked, speaking on his favourite subject in the Turnbull Library with all the beautiful Katherine Mansfield books around him. Guy Morris had a story to tell but it was so terrific that the telling proved too much for him. When the call came he tried desperately to persevere; like his heroine Katherine Mansfield he died —still seeking. . . . ‘lt’s always the next story which is going to contain everything, and that next story is always just out of reach/

The accompanying plate illustrates the several forms of armorial devices used by Alexander Turnbull upon books bound for him by the greater English binders. The Turnbull family derives from Peebleshire in Scotland, and the name has belonged to the border country for centuries, since, as legend has it, the name was given to the founder of the family by King Robert Bruce, about 1320. Thus Alexander Turnbull adapted the Turnbull arms which included essentially the bulls* heads.

Horaqualeanimaleche'per la dolceefca.lo occulto dolo non perpen de.poftponendo el naturale bifogno,retro ad quellaumana nota fen cia mora cum uehementia la uia.io andai. Alla quale quando ragioneuolmentearbitraua.inaltra parte la udiua,Oue& quando a quelloloco properanteeragiunto.altrondeapparea eflercaffir mata«Etcufi como gli lochi mutaua piufuaue&deledeuo' leuoOemutauacumccrlefficonccntw Dunque per quefta inane fatica, Sc canto cum molefta letecorfohauendo.me debilitai tanto.che apena potcua io el laflo corpo fuften tare. Et gli aifannati fpiritihabili non eflfen do el corpo grauemente affaticato hogi mai foftenire.fi per el tranfado pa uore, fi per la urgente fete, quale per el longo peruagabondo indagare, & etiam per le graue anxietate, & per la calda hora , difefo , Sc relido dalle proprie uirtute, unquantulo defiderando ne appetendo.fe nonadledcbilitate membra quieto ripofo. Mirabondo dellaccidente - cafo.ftupidodellamellifluauoce,&molto piu per ritrouarmc in regione incognita & inculta, ma aflai amoeno paefe. Oltra de quefto,forte medoleua.che cl liquentc fonte laboriofamente trouato.&cum tanto folerte inquifito fuffe fublato & perdito da gliochii mei. Per lequaletutecofe.ioftetti cum lanimo intricato de ambiguitate,& molto trapen- • fofo.Finalmenteper tanta la(fitudinecorrcpto,tutto el corpo frigefcen-