KMS Newsletter, Issue 10 (December 2011), P
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ISSN 2040-2597 (Online) NNewsletterewsletter Issue 17 April 2014 Published by the Katherine Mansfield Society, Bath, England INSIDE: KMS News and Competition Results Page 2 Book Announcement: Thorndon: Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project, Kirsty Gunn Page 3 ‘Summertime in Paris, with KM’ by Claire Davison Page 4 Announcement: Conference registration, Katherine Mansfield and France, Paris 2014 Page 5 ‘820.07 Mansfield’ by Lana Doyle Page 6 CFP: Katherine Mansfield Studies Volume 7 Page 12 ‘Translating Katherine Mansfield into Slovak’ by Janka Kaščáková Page 13 Announcement: KMS Essay Prize 2014 Page 15 ‘Figures in the Background’ by Jennifer Walker Page 16 CFP: Katherine Mansfield in the Short Story Tradition, Limerick 2014 Page 18 ‘Spanish Serenade in London and Wellington’ by Martin Griffiths Page 19 Announcement: KMS Birthday Lecture 2014 Page 20 Extract from ‘Katherine Mansfield: Fifty Years After’ by Moira Taylor Page 21 ‘Bound in Red’ by Philip Dart Page 26 Portrait of Katherine Mansfield by Rosa Doyle CFP: New Zealand in the First World War, Reproduced with kind permission London 2014 Page 27 Issue 17 April 2014 Page 2 KMS News Welcome to the latest issue of the KMS Newsletter – our biggest issue yet! Inside, you’ll find infor- mation about all the upcoming KM-related gatherings in what is shaping up to be a very busy year. The first of many events will see KM scholars and aficionados assemble in Paris for a major interna- tional conference in June, as Claire Davison discusses in her report on what’s in store for all those lucky enough to attend (p. 4). If you can’t make it to Paris, there will be other opportunities to hear about KM this year, at the Annual Birthday Lecture (p. 20) and another conference in Limerick in November (p. 18); in related news, there’s also the upcoming conference on New Zealand in the First World War, organised by the New Zealand Studies Network in London (p. 27). Perhaps your travels to these events will inspire you to share your KM-story, just as Lana Doyle has done (p. 6); as an ex- tra bonus, Lana’s article is accompanied by an illustration drawn by her sister Rosa, who has also provided the cover image for this issue. There’s news of another KM-story in the announcement of Kirsty Gunn’s new book (p. 3), and a chance to win a copy (detailed below). Elsewhere, you can read about a real first for KM studies – the translation of her work into Slovak for the first time by Janka Kaščáková (p. 13). What’s more, translation will be the theme of the next issue of Katherine Mans- field Studies (p. 12) and the next Essay Prize (p. 15). Scholarship on KM and characters close to her also continues unabated, as is evident in Jennifer Walker’s account of some of the ‘figures in the background’ of her recent biography of Elizabeth von Arnim, KM’s cousin (p. 16), and in Martin Griffiths’ commentary on Serenade Espagnole by Arnold Trowell (p. 19). Another find is detailed by Philip Dart (p. 26) in his article about how a letter by KM’s father Harold Beauchamp came into his possession. Finally, to showcase one of the KMS’s most recent ventures – the KMS Essay Series, available on the Society’s website – we’re pleased to present an extract from Moira Taylor’s fascinat- ing ‘Katherine Mansfield: Fifty Years After’ (p. 21). Thanks to all of our contributors and to Gerri Kimber for their role in putting together what we hope you’ll agree is a bumper issue of the KMS Newsletter. Happy reading, and help make the next issue just as memorable by getting in touch with comments and submissions! Just email the editor at: the usual address: [email protected] Jenny McDonnell Editor, Katherine Mansfield Society Newsletter COMPETITION Last issue we gave you a chance to get a head-start on all things related to KM and France in prepa- ration for the conference in June, by entering our competition to win a copy of Gerri Kimber’s Kath- erine Mansfield: The View From France. Gerri posed the following question: In the winter of 1913-1914, KM and JMM move to Paris and rent a little apartment for a few weeks before returning to London towards the end of February 1914. What is the address of the apartment? The correct answer, of course, was 31 Rue de Tournon. Well done to everyone who answered the question correctly, and particular congratulations go to the lucky winner, Lei Yanni. Your prize is on its way! This issue, we’re offering readers a chance to win a copy of Kirsty Gunn’s new book Thorndon: Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project. To enter, simply email the editor with your answer to the following question: What was the name of the Beauchamps’ family home in Karori, which Mansfield used as the setting for ‘The Doll’s House’? If you’re not lucky enough to win this copy of Kirsty’s book, all is not lost! Just turn the page for more information about how to purchase a copy of your own. Issue 17 April 2014 Page 3 Thorndon Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project Kirsty Gunn ‘If I began asking you questions about Wellington ways there would be no end to it …’ Katherine Mansfield ‘I came home to Wellington, to a place half remembered, half real, half fantasy, half fact, remem- bered and a dream …’ Kirsty Gunn In this exquisitely written ‘notebook’, Kirsty Gunn explores the meaning of home. Returning to the city of her birth after an absence of thirty years, Gunn’s exploration quickly takes on new forms, de- veloping into a ‘Katherine Mansfield Project’. Zig-zagging across Thorndon streets, Wellington hills and New Zealand childhoods, Gunn’s project charts a terrain of emotional attachment and the source of potent imaginative forces. A won- derfully connective work from the winner of the 2013 New Zealand Post Book of the Year. Special offer from Bridget Williams Books: Print Text Within NZ: NZ$14.99 (includes free post) International: NZ$19.99 (includes $5 contribution to international post cost)* (= approx. £10.40 / €12.45 / US$17.60) Digital Text NZ$4.99 – anywhere in the world! (*Note that full cost of international post is not being charged KM Society members) Please contact Megan Simpson at [email protected] to purchase your copy. Issue 17 April 2014 Page 4 Summertime in Paris, with KM The forthcoming Katherine Mansfield in France conference, jointly organised by the KMS and the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III, takes place from 19thJune until 22ndJune, so we’ll be in the heart of the Latin Quarter for the evening of the 21st June, now celebrated throughout France (and elsewhere in Europe) as the ‘Fête de la Musique’ to celebrate the arrival of summer. As the summary below shows, the event itself will be quite a fête, explor- ing every facet of Mansfield’s French life and throwing in a stunning concert of our own. The conference begins Thursday morning, with an inaugural speech by the New Zea- land Ambassador in Paris, followed by the keynote talk given by our honoured New Zealand guest, C.K. Stead. Then after a day of non-stop presentations, we’ll spend the evening at the NZ embassy, where we have a cello and piano recital given by London cellist Joseph Spoon- er (http://josephspooner.net) and London-based, New Zealand-born pianist Kathryn Mosley, followed by a reception hosted by the embassy. The concert programme combines early twentieth-century French sonatas, cello pieces by Arnold Trowell (some of which have not been performed since the 1910s), and also a piece specially composed for the year 2014 by Paris-based New Zealand composer, Nigel Keay (http://www.nigelkeay.com/). A record company is interested in recording this exceptional event, so those who really can’t make it may well have the chance to listen later… Friday maintains the same pace, with another full day’s presentations, the keynote talk by Sydney Janet Kaplan and then an evening reception at the Sorbonne, where we’ll be listening to a poet’s Mansfield-inspired recent poetry, a novelist’s account of writing a fic- tional version of KM’s friendship with Ida Baker, and then a composer’s description of transforming Mansfield stories into song. There will be yet another packed day on Saturday, the last official day of the confer- ence, with papers all day and the keynote by Gerri Kimber. But after so much intensive work, all participants registered in advance will have the opportunity of relaxing in style at the end of the day. This will be at the conference banquet, to be held not at the ‘Bouillon Racine’ as initially announced but, even better, at ‘Le Procope’ off the Boulevard Saint Ger- main, one of Paris’s oldest restaurants, founded in 1689, and destined to become a key meet- ing place for revolutionary figures in the immediate post-1789 years and then a major intel- lectual café and meeting place throughout the Enlightenment. As the link confirms, it’s quite a museum piece in itself, as well as being renowned for its haute cuisine (http:// www.procope.com/). On to Sunday, which is the post-conference day out in the countryside. We’re spend- ing the day in Fontainebleau-Avon, a trip that will include visiting the grounds of the Prieuré where Mansfield died, laying a wreath on her tomb, attending a reception at the local town hall and discovering the outskirts of the forest where there are a number of KM memorial sites.