KMS Newsletter Issue

ISSN 2040-2597 (Online)

NEWSLETTER

Issue 20 April 2015

Published by the Katherine Mansfield Society, Bath, England

Illustrated Postcard c. 1915/16 Alexander Turnbull Library ref. MS-Papers-11326-016

Inside: De petits itinéraires littéraires autour de Katherine Mansfield by Bernard Bosque, KMS News and competition results, page 2 page 14

Katherine Mansfield and Antipodean Modernism Margaret Scott Obituary (continued) by C. by Helen Rydstrand, page 3 K. Stead, page 15

An Indiscreet Journey : KM and Francis Carco Announcement : KM Essay Prize, page 16 in Gray by Gerri Kimber, page 7 The Mansfield Garden Party by Martin Announcement : Katherine Mansfield, Leslie Griffiths, page 17 Beauchamp & World War One, Belgium, September, page 11 Announcement : Katherine Mansfield and the ‘Bloom Berries’ in May, page 21 2 Issue 20 April 2015

It has been a great pleasure editing the KMS newsletter for the first time. To take over from Jenny McDonnell was daunting: Jenny has been a fabulous editor and is a hard act to follow. However, I think we have an exciting April edition for you and to keep us up to date with international events we begin with Helen Rydstrand’s report on the conference Katherine Mansfield and Antipodean Modernism, held in Sydney in January 2015. Helen is currently completing her doctoral thesis at UNSW and presented Modernist aesthetics and antipodean nostalgia: Mansfield’s rhythm in theory and practice at the Sydney conference. Also, Dr Gerri Kimber gives us ‘An Indiscreet Journey’: Katherine Mansfield and Francis Carco in Gray, a report on the conference that took place in February near Dijon in France. As a bonus we even have an article in French: Bernard Bosque’s take on the same conference. Further, we have a selection of photographs from the recent Hamilton fundraiser for the Mansfield Garden and an interview with event organiser Marilyn Yeoman. Also readers will see that we have several announcements pertaining to the international symposium on Leslie Beauchamp and World War One, to be held in September in Belgium. We also have news of the conference Katherine Mansfield and the ‘Bloom Berries’ to be held in Chicago, Illinois in May and we provide ordering details for several new books including Gerri Kimber’s Katherine Mansfield and the Art of the Short Story and Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield (ordering details for the latter can be found on pages 5 and 6 of this newsletter). Finally, please be aware that your contributions are most welcome, and that these can be sent to [email protected] Martin Griffiths Editor, Katherine Mansfield Society Newsletter

Competition : We had a good response to our competition question : What is the name of the library in Wellington where Margaret Scott worked and which houses the world’s largest collection of Mansfield material ? Janet Riemenschneider-Kemp correctly named the Alexander Turnbull Library and receives a copy of Scott’s edition of the Katherine Mansfield Notebooks. The prize for the August competition is a copy of my CD ‘Cello for a Song’ which features music by Arnold Trowell. To be in the draw tell us how many KMS newsletters have been published since December 2008. Send answers to: [email protected]

Correction

KMS newsletter would like to offer an apology for an error in the December edition on page 15: Margaret Scott’s daughter Kate (not Kathleen) was christened Katherine, after Mansfield. She is a Professor of Psychological Medicine at Otago University. Her son Jonathan is a Professor of History at the University of Auckland.

Note : the handwritten text on the postcard on the previous page reads, “This is the kind of place that would be so nice, Bogey. You observe we are driving from the sea; and I am sitting with my back to you and the horse to watch the waves. Tig” 1

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Katherine Mansfield Postgraduate & Early Career Researcher Conference, 29 January 2015

Helen Rydstrand

At the end of January I was delighted to welcome a wonderful group of Mansfield scholars to the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, for the Society’s second postgraduate (and now early career researcher) event, jointly hosted with the Centre for Modernism Studies in Australia. Appropriately for our location, the day focused on Katherine Mansfield and Antipodean Modernism.

It was a full and interesting day, opened in great style with a keynote presentation from Emeritus Professor Angela Smith (Stirling), entitled ‘“I am a very MODERN woman”: modernity, modernism and the work of Katherine Mansfield and Margaret Preston’. Professor Smith’s stimulating and wide-ranging paper considered how both Mansfield’s and Preston’s encounters with European modernism’s disruption of realist assumptions resonated with their earlier experience of the indigenous art of New Zealand and Australia respectively. Professor Smith went on to explore how the writer and the painter each balanced design and looseness in their work, delivering sensitive and compelling analyses of both paintings and stories, in particular the deep structure and themes of entrapment in ‘The Man Without a Temperament’.

Three panels of eight diverse papers followed the keynote address, featuring speakers hailing from China, New Zealand and around Australia. In the first panel, Tracy Miao (Auckland) explored Mansfield’s desire for wildness through her depictions of gardens and nature. Next, Yingjie Cheng (Soochow) gave an introduction to Mansfield’s reception in China, before turning to an examination of ‘Woman at the Store’. The final paper for the session was given by Anna Plumridge (Wellington), who drew on fascinating material that couldn’t be included in her new edition of The Urewera Notebook to explore Mansfield’s responses to her interactions with Maori children during that trip. After lunch, Alex Nichols (La Trobe) investigated Mansfield’s influence by the performance culture that she encountered on her first return to London, looking at the young writer’s ‘impression’ of Max Reinhardt’s silent play Sumurûn recently uncovered in the Turnbull Library’s collection. From this, Dr. Elizabeth Pender (UNSW) turned to a close focus on Mansfield’s approach to caricature and sympathy in ‘Life of Ma Parker’. The

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last paper of that panel was my own, on Mansfield’s theory and practice of rhythm, in an essay she co-authored with Murry, and in ‘At the Bay’ and ‘Prelude’. The third panel featured two papers on ‘Bliss’, the first given by Rose Onans (Monash) on the story’s subversive exploration of happiness. The final paper came from Tanya Thaweeskulchai (UNSW), who interrogated the function of the sublime in that exquisite image of Bertha’s pear tree.

The conference closed with a flipped workshop with Dr. Sarah Ailwood (Canberra), who had posted her paper, ‘The Case for Mansfield’s Influence on Australian Literary Culture’, online for attendees to view in advance, which enabled the group to spend an hour discussing this and related questions. Dr. Ailwood was even able to join us, via Skype, from her home in Hong Kong. The session included a discussion of Sarah’s innovative and varied methodology, and helped bring into focus connections between the papers and the idea of antipodean modernism in the day’s on-going discussions – the ideal end to a thought-provoking day!

I am extremely grateful to those who helped to make the day happen: especially my co- organisers Dr. Jessica Gildersleeve, Chris Oakey and Amy Parish, as well as both the Society and the Modernism Centre. Finally, I wish to warmly thank all speakers and attendees for coming to Sydney to share research, ideas, and enthusiasm for Mansfield’s work. It was a great pleasure to spend the day with you all!

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ROW: 1st book : £8.00 Course Name (the last three digit on the back of the card) Every book thereafter: £3.00

Subject

Level No. of Students

Signature Date ISBN

Start Date

Please note that prices and publication dates in this fyer are correct at time of going to press but are subject to change without notice. Department Title Author ISBN Qty Price

Please send orders to: Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Customer Services, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS.

Tel: +44 (0)1256 329 242 Fax: +44 (0)1256 812 558 Email: [email protected]. Library Recommendation Title Author Name Email

www.euppublishing.com 7 Issue 20 April 2015

‘An Indiscreet Journey’: Katherine Mansfield and Francis Carco in Gray

Gerri Kimber

From 20 Ð 22 February, the town of Gray, near Dijon in France, hosted a weekend of celebrations, to commemorate the centenary of the visit by Katherine Mansfield to Gray in order to see Francis Carco. The brainchild of this centenary weekend was KMS member Bernard Bosque (who lives at Fontainebleau-Avon, in the town where Mansfield is buried). Together with the Mairie and the tourist office in Gray, a wonderful weekend of events took place. The New Zealand Ambassador to France, H.E. James Kember, was present for the whole day on Saturday, where there were various talks, including a marvellous reconstruction of Mansfield’s exact movements in Gray by Bernard, as a result of his most incredibly detailed researches Ð even down to the weather. The beautiful and historic theatre in Gray was the venue for most of the activities, where Bernard and Gilles Freyssinet (the biographer of Francis Carco) had set up a truly fascinating and detailed exhibition with many artefacts and manuscripts. The town of Gray also put on a wonderful play in the theatre, reconstructing the events surrounding the rendezvous between KM and Carco, which was very well received. Town Hall, Gray, by Gerri Kimber

Background

Francis Carco (1886Ð1958), who was born in Noumea in the South Pacific, always liked to claim his ‘South Sea’ connection with Mansfield. Together with his Corsican parents, he moved back to France at the age of ten. During the First World War he became Corporal Carco (holding the same rank as ‘le petit caporal’ in Mansfield’s story of the liaison: ‘An Indiscreet Journey’). Mansfield had first met Carco in Paris in May 1912. Having recently begun her relationship with Murry, the latter was eager to introduce Mansfield to his French friend, whom he himself had met a couple of years before when, as a young Oxford undergraduate, he had spent time in Paris. Mansfield and Carco instantly hit it off. Carco noted Mansfield’s apologetic ‘je ne parle pas français’ to him when they were introduced; the threesome spent many evenings in each other’s company roaming the streets of Montmartre, as depicted by Carco in his autobiography of 1938, Montmartre à vingt ans.

The couple met Carco again during their disastrously short attempt at living in Paris during the winter of 1913/14. Carco was constantly on hand and the relationship intensified as a consequence. On her return to England, gradually becoming more and more disillusioned with Murry, and believing herself to be in Francis Carco, 1916 love with Carco, Mansfield was keen to visit him alone. At the beginning of 1915, Mansfield’s younger brother Leslie Beauchamp, over in England

8 Issue 20 April 2015 for a visit, met with his sister in London. With money she obtained from him Mansfield was at last able to visit Carco, now stationed in the war zone, working as a military postman in Gray (Haute-Saône), in north-east France.

On 19 February 1915, Mansfield undertook a difficult journey to the battlefront (forbidden to women), hoodwinking the French Army Officials by falling back on the old tale of a sick relative. She and Carco Ð each emotionally ravenous, though for different reasons Ð fell upon one another, Carco having taken a room in a village house. She describes their encounter quite dispassionately in her journal:

It was like an elopement […] Laughing and trembling we pressed against each other a long, long kiss […] the whole affair seemed somehow so ridiculous and at the same time so utterly natural […] In the most natural manner we slowly undressed by the stove. F swung into the bed. ‘Is it cold?’ I said. ‘No, not at all cold. Viens, ma bébé, don’t be frightened. The waves are quite small.’ His laughing face and his pretty hair, one hand with a bangle over the sheets, he looked like a girl Mansfield, Feb 1915

[…] The sword, the big ugly sword, but not between us, lying in a chair. The act of love seemed somehow quite incidental, we talked so much. It was so warm and delicious, lying curled in each other’s arms, by the light of the tiny lamp […] only the clock and the fire to be heard. A whole life passed in the night: other people, other things, but we lay like two old people coughing faintly under the eiderdown, and laughing at each other. (KM Notebooks 2, pp. 11Ð12)

After four nights with her new lover, she suddenly returned to London and Murry on 25 February, disillusioned, but with plenty of copy. Though Mansfield may have been disenchanted with Carco as a lover, nevertheless she clung onto the relationship for a few more months Ð long enough to make use of his apartment in Paris on the Quai aux Fleurs, overlooking the Seine and the Ile de la Cité.

Postcard, showing Carco’s apartment, Quai aux Fleurs, courtesy of Bernard Bosque

The story ‘An Indiscreet Journey’, which Mansfield wrote in Paris in May 1915 (whilst borrowing Carco’s apartment), is an account of her visit to Gray. Its importance lies in the fact that it is one of the earliest fictional accounts of World War One written in English, and

9 Issue 20 April 2015 what is more, written by a woman, with first hand experience of the scenes she was describing. Though lightly handled on the surface, as with so much of Mansfield’s work, this ‘simple’ story is made the vehicle for a rich freight of ideas and impressions. She summons up the peculiar atmosphere of village life caught up in the middle of war and by so doing, her story eventually ends up speaking for an entire generation, shocked and intimidated by a war that was still in its infancy at the time she is writing.

Here we find, in fiction, and possibly for the first time, a description of the after effects of gas poisoning on a soldier and added to the story of her escapade. It is most probable that she witnessed the effect of this gassing (chlorine gas having only been introduced by the Germans for the first time on 22 April 1915 at Ypres), whilst residing in Paris in May of that year at Carco’s flat Ð for it was to Paris that the dying and injured from the trenches were brought in their thousands Ð and thus that she was able to incorporate what she saw directly into a story which perhaps might be more correctly termed ‘literary journalism’

Gray, 2015

French scholar Bernard Bosque has spent the past year deciphering the clues to this winter rendez-vous, the catalyst for the centennial tribute in Gray from 20 to 22 February 2015.

The weekend featured: • ‘La rencontre’, a theatrical performance of ‘An Indiscreet Journey’ Ð an invitation to discover the train journey to Mansfield and Carco’s reunion, set against the backdrop of World War I, by the theatre company ‘Musical Story’. • Readings of extracts from Carco’s body of work by the theatre company Théâtre En Vie • A talk on the short story ‘An Indiscreet Journey’ by Gerri Kimber. • Katherine Mansfield short story readings by Claire Davison. • ‘Le voyage indiscret’, lectures by Bernard Bosque (analysis of ‘An Indiscreet Journey’, the details surrounding Mansfield and Carco’s liaison in Gray, and the significance of the Gray junction railway station in World War I) Bernard Bosque by Max Oettli

• An exhibition of letters, books, photgraphs and various other artefacts pertaining to Mansfield and Carco by Bernard Bosque and Gilles Freyssonet. • ‘Une rencontre d’écrivains, à Gray, en 1915’ Ð an exhibition Ð visual syntheses via collage and experimental art by students from the Lycée Henri Fertet • ‘Sur les traces de Katherine Mansfield…nos petits pas dans les siens’ Ð an exhibition Ð graphic homage to Katherine Mansfield’s New Zealand by students from the Lycée Augustin Cournot • Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut, 2014 writer-in-residence at Randell Cottage in Wellington, discussed her residency, her current novel and the birthplaces of Francis Carco and Katherine Mansfield at the wonderful Gray bookshop.

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• Screenings of Taika Waititi’s 2010 award-winning feature film ‘Boy’

‘Katherine Mansfield has a strong following in France’, remarks Bernard Bosque. ‘When translations of her short stories became available in the 1930s, French writers like Arland, Bordeaux, Carco and Maurois, who recognised the genius of her writing, actively promoted her work. I liken my Mansfield-Carco research to a police investigation Ð there was more than one suspect, very few documents to go on and it was thrilling for an amateur historian!’ 18th Century Library, Gray, by Max Oettli

Aside from many dignatories, including H.E. James Kember, New Zealand Ambassador in Paris, KMS members to attend this commemorative weekend included myself, Professor Claire Davison from the Sorbonne and Dr Simone Oettli and her husband Max, from Geneva. It is fair to say we were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived, with accommodation paid for by the town, as well as various receptions and banquets. Gray is the most beautiful historic town and we were also treated to a guided tour of its most famous sites. Claudine and Elodie from the Gray Tourist Office, together with the Town Hall, the theatre, and the Hotel Mastroquet could not have done more to make us feel welcome

H. E. Harry Kember, New Zealand Ambassador, by Max Oettli

Theatre in Gray, by Gerri Kimber

Theatre performance, image by Max Oettli

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Katherine Mansfield, Leslie Beauchamp & World War One

An international symposium to be held at Mesen/Messines, Belgium

26 – 27 September 2015

Keynote Speakers: Dr Gerri Kimber and Professor J. Lawrence Mitchell

Call for Papers

Leslie Heron Beauchamp lost his life in Ploegsteert Wood, close to Messines, on October 6 2015. The young Second Lieutenant serving with the South Lancashire Regiment was just 21 when a malfunctioning grenade exploded while teaching his men how to throw these “bombs” and accidentally killed him. “Chummie”, as his family knew him, had just spent two weeks with Mansfield and John Middleton Murry at their home in St John’s Wood, London, while on an army course, ironically on the use of hand grenades. The death of her much-loved younger brother would go on to have a significant impact on Mansfield’s writing, unleashing memories of New Zealand and their shared childhood, which she now felt compelled to record.

This symposium in Messines, commemorating the centenary of Leslie’s death, and close to where he died, aims to encourage a discussion of his life, his relationship with his sister Katherine, and how her own writing was transformed by his untimely death.

The symposium will take place in the theatre on the second floor of the Old Town Hall at Messines over the weekend of September 26 and 27 and will include a visit to Leslie’s grave. Keynote speakers include Dr Gerri Kimber of Northampton University, UK, and Professor J. Lawrence Mitchell of Texas A&M University, USA. The organisers are grateful for the support of the Katherine Mansfield Society, the Mesen/Messines Council and the New Zealand Embassy in Brussels.

Please send 200 word abstracts to Martin O’Connor, symposium organiser at: [email protected]

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 July 2015.

In addition to the symposium, an optional battlefield tour is offered on Friday September 25 Our transport will depart from in front of the Cathedral at Ypres at 8.30 am. We will visit the Messines battlefield of June 7 1917, including the Pool of Peace, the preserved crater of one of the massive British mines exploded that day. We will move on to Ypres and the Menin Gate, then to the Passchendaele battlefield and visit Tyne Cot, the largest of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's cemeteries. We will then visit the Memorial Museum Passchendaele before ending the day at Essex Farm, the site where John McCrae wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields". Lunch will be provided en route.

For all details, please visit out website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/messines-symposium-2015/

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Issue 20 April 2015 13 ! ! Katherine!Mansfield! Leslie!Beauchamp! &!World!War!One! ! An!international!symposium!at! Mesen/Messines,!Belgium! 26#–#27#September#2015# # # Optional!Battlefield!Tour! ! ! A!tour!of!main!World!War!One!sites!on!the!Ypres!Salient!will!be!run!for!those!attending!the! symposium,!on!Friday'September'25.!This!is!optional!only!and!the!charge!per!person!is!85! euros!(€50!for!students!/!unwaged).!The!price!includes!the!guide,!lunch!and!transport.! ! Your!transport!will!leave!at!8.30!am!from!the!coach!park!at!the!front!of!the!Cathedral!in! Ypres!(behind!the!Cloth!Hall).!! ! We!will!visit!the!Messines!battlefield!of!June!7!1917,!including!the!Pool!of!Peace,!the! preserved!crater!of!one!of!the!massive!British!mines!exploded!that!day.!We!will!then!move! on!to!Ypres!and!the!Menin!Gate.! ! We!will!drive!over!the!Passchendaele!battlefield!and!visit!Tyne!Cot,!the!largest!of!the! Commonwealth!War!Graves!Commission's!cemeteries.!We!will!then!visit!the!Memorial! Museum!Passchendaele!before!ending!the!day!at!Essex!Farm,!the!site!where!John!McCrae! wrote!the!iconic!poem!"In!Flanders!Fields".!Lunch!will!be!provided!en!route.! ! Should!time!permit!we!will!also!visit!the!German!Cemetery!at!Langemark!and!the!area!of! the!frontline!where!the!Germans!launched!the!first!gas!attack!in!April!1915.! ! Please!use!the!symposium!registration!form!to!join!this!tour.! http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/messines[symposium[2015/!! ! New!Zealanders!who!are!visiting!for!the!symposium!may!wish!to!do!a!tour!focused!on!the! New!Zealand!Division.!This!can!cover!Flanders,!The!Somme,!Arras!and!Le!Quesnoy! depending!on!how!much!time!is!available!and!can!be!made!prior!to!or!after!the!symposium.! Anyone!who!is!interested!should!contact!Martin!O’Connor!at:[email protected]! ! On!the!weekend!following!the!symposium!a!major!New!Zealand!event!which!will!be! announced!shortly!will!take!place!on!Saturday!October!3!at!Zonnebeke!(Passchendaele).! Memorial!services!are!planned!for!Sunday!October!4!in!commemoration!of!The!Battle!of! Broodseinde!in!which!the!New!Zealand!Division!with!the!Australians!to!their!right!made!a! first!successful!push!towards!Passchendaele.!Eight!days!later!as!they!made!the!push!for!the! village!itself,!the!New!Zealanders!suffered!their!worst!day!in!history!losing!840!dead!in!just! four!hours.! !

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De petits itinéraires littéraires autour de Katherine Mansfield.

A l'instar du cheminement culturel en cours de réalisation sur les traces de l'écrivain écossais Robert Louis Stevenson qui, à terme, conduira le promeneur d'Edimbourg aux Iles Samoa via la Belgique, la France et la Suisse, il apparaît séduisant d'envisager la création de petits itinéraires littéraires dans les pays et les villes fréquentés par Katherine Mansfield. Tout pourrait commencer par la Grande-Bretagne et les nombreuses adresses londoniennes de Katherine, véritable jeu de piste, pour se poursuivre vers les différentes villégiatures de la campagne anglaise, avant de rejoindre l'Allemagne autour de Bad Wörishofen, la France avec Paris, Gray, Bandol, Menton et Avon, la Suisse avec Baugy (Montreux) et surtout Sierre et Crans-Montana, l'Italie avec Ospedaletti et enfin, tracer vers la Nouvelle-Zélande et Wellington une perspective naturelle, retour aux sources mêmes de la vie de l'écrivain.

Vers un réseau de villes partenaires… Avon (Seine-et-Marne) et Gray (Haute-Saône) pourraient être les premiers jalons de ce réseau en devenir. Dans les deux villes, un cheminement culturel autour de Katherine Mansfield est à l'étude.

Gray : Le succès des manifestations du centenaire du Voyage Indiscret les 20, 21 et 22 février derniers, nous encourage à poursuivre et à aborder les prochaines étapes du projet. Au départ de la gare, où la pose d'un écriteau commémorant la rencontre entre Katherine Mansfield et Francis Carco le vendredi 19 février 1915 est envisagée, un parcours sur les traces des écrivains sera réalisé en partenariat avec l'Office de Tourisme "Val-de-Gray". Rappelons que le port de Gray, sur la Saône, importante escale du tourisme fluvial, accueille chaque année de nombreux Néo-Zélandais.

Avon : Avon a reçu Katherine durant les dernières semaines de sa vie au Prieuré des Basses Loges qui abritait alors l'Institut pour le Développement Harmonique de l'Homme (IDHH) de Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. Elle y est décédée et repose désormais dans cette ville d'Avon où elle demeure l'un des hôtes les plus illustres. Dès le samedi 10 juin 1939, un hommage lui est rendu par de nombreux écrivains et admirateurs. Une plaque de marbre est placée sur un pilier du portail du Prieuré, rappelant son séjour et, dans la Forêt Domaniale de Fontainebleau, un rocher (sur lequel un écriteau est scellé) et un carrefour sont baptisés en présence de nombreuses personnalités. Plus près de nous, le samedi 11 novembre 2006, sur une idée de Dame Fiona Kidman et du Professeur Vincent O'Sullivan et en leur présence, un arbre perpétuant le souvenir de l'écrivain est planté au Carrefour Katherine Mansfield, arbre solennellement remplacé le samedi 8 novembre 2014 par Son Excellence l'Ambassadeur de Nouvelle-Zélande en France le Docteur James Kember et l'écrivain C.K. Stead. Un chemin pédestre reliant ces différents jalons est envisagé.

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Et ensuite, Sierre ? Au mois d'août prochain, la Fondation Rainer Maria Rilke à Sierre (Suisse) accueillera une exposition consacrée au souvenir de Katherine Mansfield en ces lieux (du 11 au 16) et le weekend des 15 et 16 verra une série de manifestations autour de Katherine : visite de l'Hôtel de Ville de Sierre (ancien Hôtel-Château Bellevue), promenade-conférence à Crans-Montana en empruntant le funiculaire et enfin conférence rappelant l'importance de ce séjour valaisan dans la vie et l'œuvre de l'écrivain. Nous nous proposons bien sûr d'aborder avec la ville de Sierre la pertinence de la création d'un petit itinéraire littéraire.

Je soumets ces modestes réflexions à la sagacité des membres de la KMS et les assure de ma passion et de mon entier dévouement au souvenir de Katherine.

Je vous remercie de votre bienveillante attention. Bernard Bosque, 28 mars 2015.

Margaret Scott Obituary by C. K. Stead

The obituary note I wrote about the death of Margaret Scott [KMS Newsletter Issue 19 December 2014 page 15] did not do full justice to the achievements of the three children she had to bring up without the help of a partner after her husband, Dr Harry Scott of Auckland University’s Psychology Department, was killed in a climbing accident in the Southern Alps in 1960. Margaret was in fact pregnant with their third child when his death occurred. As I mentioned their daughter Rachel is now Head of the Otago University Press, son Jonathan is Professor of History at Auckland University, and the third child (the one I omitted), Kate, who was named Katherine after KM, is Professor of Psychological Medicine at Otago University – an extraordinary and brilliant group, and a tribute to their solo mother as well as to their own genes and character.

I also said in my notice that Margaret’s editing of the two-volume The Notebooks of Katherine Mansfield was ‘light on scholarship’. Although Margaret’s great strength was in transcribing Mansfield’s difficult hand, I realized when I looked again at her edition of the Notebooks, that this characterization of them was wrong in tone and in substance. There is much still to be explored and annotated, but Margaret was immensely knowledgeable and her work will have prepared the ground for others, most notably Claire Davison and Gerri Kimber, currently at work on the Notebooks for the Edinburgh collected Mansfield.

As I said, I admired Margaret Scott both for her work on Mansfield, and as an elegant, witty and intelligent writer, and I have missed my e-correspondence with her since the shades of dementia began to close around her two or three years ago.

Her work on KM is something we all have reason to be grateful for.

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KATHERINE MANSFIELD SOCIETY

ESSAY PRIZE 2015

The Katherine Mansfield Society is pleased to announce its annual essay prize competition for 2015, open to all, on the subject of:

KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND PSYCHOLOGY

The winner will receive a cash prize of £200 and the winning essay will be considered for publication in Katherine Mansfield Studies (the peer- reviewed yearbook of the Katherine Mansfield Society, published by Edinburgh University Press)

The distinguished panel of judges will comprise:

Professor Clare Hanson University of Southampton, UK, Chair of the Judging Panel

Professor Laura Marcus, Dr Isobel Maddison Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Lucy Cavendish College, Literature, University of Oxford, UK University of Cambridge, UK

Katherine Mansfield distanced herself from the ‘mushroom growth of “cheap psychoanalysis”’ but affirmed her belief that ‘with an artist one has to allow – oh tremendously for the subconscious element in his work’. Her engagement with the models of subjectivity emerging from contemporary psychology was both complex and ambivalent: this volume invites papers that engage with all aspects of the interplay between Mansfield’s fiction and contemporary psychology and psychoanalysis.

Possible topics include but are not limited to: the subconscious and the unconscious popular psychology the psychological novel Gurdjieff Freud aesthetics and psychology Jung

Submissions of between 5000Ð6000 words (inclusive of endnotes), in Word format and using MHRA style formatting, should be emailed to the Guest Editor for this volume, Professor Clare Hanson, accompanied by a 50 word biography: [email protected]

A detailed MHRA style guide is available from the Katherine Mansfield Society website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/yearbook-katherine-mansfield-studies/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 31 August 2015

17 Issue 20 April 2015

Interview: The Mansfield Garden Party

On Sunday 1 February Friends of Hamilton Gardens launched “The Mansfield Garden Party”, the inaugural fundraiser for the building of the Katherine Mansfield Garden at the Hamilton Gardens, New Zealand. Along with many residents including the mayor of the city, I was lucky to sample the readings, vintage memorabilia, music, theatre performance and festive atmosphere at the nearby Rogers Rose Gardens. Afterwards, the chair of organising committee allowed me an hour of her time to talk about the motivation behind the event. Former principal of Tamahere and Insoll Schools and former president of the New Zealand Principals Federation, Marilyn Yeoman is currently president of the Friends of Hamilton Gardens, which has over 400 members. The garden is planned to be built in two parts, the first will be themed around Mansfield's story ‘The Garden Party’ and the second will be a re- creation of the facade of a Wellington home and garden as it would have been during her life.

Martin Griffiths. Apart from raising money for the building of a new garden, what are the Friends of the Hamilton Gardens hoping to achieve by running a fundraising event in support of a planned Katherine Mansfield garden?

Marilyn Yeoman. We wanted to raise community awareness promoting the Katherine Mansfield era because in our belief, the new garden is the most eye- catching of the four new gardens being developed. And with Mansfield’s special place in New Zealand history… it was also a very colourful era, with the art deco and so we thought that if we had dress-ups and vintage cars and jazz bands we could Hillcrest High School choir entertain on stage recapture that while also laying the groundwork for the community to get behind the Katherine Mansfield garden.

MG. Were you happy with the turnout on the day?

MY. We were very happy with the turnout as we thought that the weather would put everybody off… it was the only wet day we had had in the last three months… but people still came and 2

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enjoyed it and dressed up. We are going to repeat it year after year so, as people get to expect it, the event will grow in numbers and in profile for fundraising too.

MG. If the building of the gardens is to begin in 2016, when do you anticipate it will be completed?

MY. The new gardens are to be completed in four years but a lot of that depends on the funding available so everybody is trying frantically to raise money for it at the moment. Once we get the all clear the gardens will naturally follow.

MG. Who designed the Katherine Mansfield garden?

MY. Dr. Peter Sergel, who is the director and design architect for the Hamilton Gardens is responsible for all the new gardens and he has people who recommend planting and what’s possible because, you will be aware that you have a picture in your mind and some things are possible and some things are not. Peter has said that at night-time he can walk through a new garden he has designed with everything in its place.

MG. Yes, it is so seasonal one must allow for change, of course.

MY. Yes, …

MG. So I believe there are two parts to the garden?

MY. Yes there is the house and its round or oval lawn, and the tennis court area with the marquee where there will be a table with maybe 25 different sorts of cakes and sandwiches, with the mock-up cream-puffs. And it will also be used too for community things like the arts Judy Holdsworth reads ‘The Garden Party’ festival, which is on at the moment, to give another area that people can be in.

MG. What features have been taken from the short stories?

MY. The whole thing is based on the story “The Garden Party” which is why you have got the house with the lily pond and the roses and the daisies and the Karaka trees that are behind the pavilion. So the garden is authentic. The building is a façade of a nineteenth century Wellington wooden villa. Katherine Mansfield often uses garden imagery including the specific details of

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flowers in her short stories, which we hope to reproduce.

MG. Why has the Hamilton Gardens been described as a “museum” of gardens? Do you agree with the description?

MY. Yes, I agree with that as it is not like a botanical garden, it is a history of gardening through the centuries…. through the ages from one country to another. I found it particularly fascinating the Tudor knot gardens, which we have just opened here and one of only three examples of its kind in the world, were developed in the same century as the Maori traditional gardens. So our Te Parapara garden and the Tudor garden, which contrast practicality with symbolism and fantasy, reflect two different cultural identities at the same moment in time.

MG. What is the oldest garden?

MY. That is the ancient Egyptian garden…. just a twinkle in the eye at the moment. So the range is from 2000 B.C. to the twenty-first century with our new concept garden.

MG. Is there some tension between this museum garden and the notion of a ‘living” garden?

MY. Well, each garden is a living thing from a particular culture at a particular time; what people aspired to have. There is contrast, between the functional Te Parapara and the decorative Tudor garden… in the way people lived with the beheadings and a barbaric society and these beautiful knot gardens...

MG. Katherine Mansfield was also a musician and was interested in theatre. Had she been alive today, she may have been interested in the recent arts festival held at the gardens. Can you tell us about this festival?

MY. Yes, we went to hear opera in the Italian garden last night, and in the Medici court, which is very intimate they had these stars from opera performing…and it just seems so right in the natural surroundings. Also, we had the Soweto choir at the opening of the festival... and they did a little impromptu couple of numbers in the English garden which you would think was inappropriate but it all blended in perfectly and I think Katherine Mansfield, who was sort of ahead of her time, 4

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and was into everything…she would have had a ball trying out all the activities and making disparaging comments about the people and writing about them in her short stories.

MG. Will there be further opportunity for non-gardeners, or those with a literary leaning, to enjoy the gardens when completed?

MY. Yes, we hope so because the Mansfield celebration day will happen every year… the literary side of it is important to us so, in between times, we hope to have lectures and events in collaboration with the University of Waikato and the Waikato Museum to help promote Katherine. We are confident the celebrations will get bigger and brighter and better each year.

MG. Why was Hamilton Gardens voted international tourist garden of the year 2014?

MY. Because it is unique as a museum providing a history of gardening. As a point of difference, the garden that won last time, [was] the Singapore botanical garden, which cost 6.3 billion dollars to complete... and ours has been done really on the smell of an oily rag. The friends have put in over a million dollars since the gardens started about 25 years ago, and we are committed to one hundred thousand towards the Katherine Mansfield garden. To make up the shortfall we have had huge community buy-in while the Singapore garden was just design and money. So the Hamilton Gardens represents Hamilton City... and has always been supported by the Hamilton City Council, who has levied the ratepayers for help fund the new gardens.

MG. Public readings of KM’s short stories were a feature of the fundraising event. What stories were read and why were they chosen?

MY. Obviously The Garden Party… as well as Feuille d’Album…The Voyage and The Doll’s House. We also had theatre students from the University of Waikato improvising scenes from the era.

MG. Yes, a kind of socio-political or socio-economic perspective of New Zealand society at the time?

MY. Yes, and to me the Doll’s House is iconic in this respect, it had to be included.

MG. Is ‘The Doll’s House’ your favourite Katherine Mansfield story?

MY. Yes, the story portrays life vividly of the time and it is typically Katherine Mansfield...a little bit dark in places. And it portrays the huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. But, the reason I like it is that little Kezia gives us hope for the future... that the children will grow up with different attitudes to the parents. Also, it transports me back to my own youth and my own doll’s house... to me it is a perfect short story. 21 Issue 20 April 2015

Katherine Mansfield and the ‘Blooms Berries’

An international conference organized by the Katherine Mansfield Society, to be held at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, USA

28-30 May 2015

Keynote Address:

Professor Sydney Janet Kaplan (University of Washington)

What better venue to explore Mansfield’s interrelationship with the members of Bloomsbury than the beautiful Newberry Library in Chicago, the world’s second largest holder of Mansfield’s papers. As part of the conference, Huntington University will sponsor an exhibit of some of the library’s Mansfield holdings. Plans for Saturday include a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago to visit its world-renown collection of Impressionist paintings. Other attractions include the Chicago Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium.

For further information please contact Professor Todd Martin: [email protected]

http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/katherine-mansfield-and-the-blooms-berries-chicago-28- 30-may-201/

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Katherine Mansfeld and the Art of the Short Story

This book, based in large part on the author’s limited edition previously-published work, A Literary Modernist: Katherine Mansfeld and the Art of the Short Story (Kakapo, 2008) but having been fully updated throughout with new material and a complete new section, offers an overview to the short stories of Katherine Mansfeld, discussing a wide range of her most famous stories from a number of different perspectives. Clearly categorised into a number of subheadings, the volume elaborates on Mansfeld’s themes and techniques, thereby guiding the reader, via close textual analysis and the use of multiple differing critical appraisals, to an understanding of the author’s modernist techniques. Suitable for the scholar and lay reader alike, it opens a window into the workings of Mansfeld’s craft in a lucid and direct way. With an introduction by Claire Davison.

Contents: Introduction; Claire Davison 1. Mansfeld as Innovator of the Modernist Short Story 2. Mansfeld’s Narrative Technique 3. Dramatic Techniques 4. The Epiphanic Moment 5. Use of Literary Impressionism 6. The Incorporation of Symbolism 7. Sexuality as a Theme 8. Feminist Issues 9. Relationships 10. Portrayal of Children 11. Use of Humour 12. Sun, Moon and Sea Imagery 13. War and Death 14. Mansfeld in Detail Bibliography Index

Author: Gerri Kimber is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Northampton, UK, co-editor of Katherine Mansfeld Studies, and Chair of the Katherine Mansfeld Society. She is the deviser and Series Editor of the four-volume Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfeld (2012-16), and the author of Katherine Mansfeld: The View from France (2008). With Janet Wilson she co-edited Celebrating Katherine Mansfeld (2011) and, with Janka Kascakova, Katherine Mansfeld and Continental Europe (2015). eBook pub details: ePub | 9781137483898 | Dec 2014 | £30.00 | $45.00 PDF | 9781137483881 | Dec 2014 | £30.00 | $45.00 Hardcover | 9781137483874 | Dec 2014 | £45.00 | Discounted Price £36.00 | $67.50 | Discounted Price $54.00 20% off with promo code PM15TWENTY valid until 31st March 2015

This price is available to individuals only. This offer is not available to our trade and library customers. Offer only valid outside of Canada and Australasia and valid only on Harcover copies. Orders must be placed direct with Palgrave Macmillan. To order your copy at this special price, visit www.palgrave.com or email your order to [email protected] (for UK and ROW) or [email protected] (for USA) and quote the above promo code. Publishing peer-reviewed, mid-length research across the Humanities, Social Sciences and Business, within 12 weeks of acceptance.

www.palgrave.com/pivot/

23 Issue 20 April 2015

Patron: Dame Jacqueline Wilson

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR VOLUME 8 OF

Katherine Mansfield Studies

(THE PEER-REVIEWED YEARBOOK OF THE KATHERINE MANSFIELD SOCIETY)

KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND PSYCHOLOGY

Guest Editor: Professor Clare Hanson (University of Southampton, UK)

In a letter of October 1920, Katherine Mansfield distanced herself from the ‘mushroom growth of “cheap psychoanalysis”’ but in the next breath affirmed her belief that ‘with an artist one has to allow Ð oh tremendously for the subconscious element in his work’. As this suggests, her engagement with the models of subjectivity emerging from contemporary psychology was both complex and ambivalent. This volume invites papers that engage with all aspects of the interplay between Mansfield’s fiction and contemporary psychology and psychoanalysis.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

the subconscious and the unconscious popular psychology the psychological novel Gurdjieff Freud aesthetics and psychology Jung

Submissions of between 5000Ð6000 words (inclusive of endnotes), in Word format and using MHRA style, should be emailed to the Guest Editor for this volume, Professor Clare Hanson, accompanied by a 50 word biography: [email protected]

A detailed MHRA style guide is available from the Katherine Mansfield Society website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/yearbook-katherine-mansfield-studies/

CREATIVE WRITING

Pieces of creative writing on the general theme of Katherine Mansfield Ð poetry, short stories, etc., should be submitted to the editors for consideration, accompanied by a 50 word biography: [email protected]

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 31 August 2015