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ISSN 2040- 2597 Issue 32 April 2019 Published by the Katherine Mansfield Society, Bath, Photo: Maxime Luce: Notre Dame de Paris 1900 Issue 32 April 2019 2 Contents KMS News and Prizes p. 3 ‘Arthur Ransome and Katherine Mansfield: Lives Lived in Parallel, 1908-1913’ by Cheryl Paget p.4 ‘Arthur Ransome and Katherine Mansfield - Parallel Lives’ by Dayll McCahon p. 11 Conference Announcement: Inspirations and Influences, Krakow, Poland July 2019 p. 13 Review: Katherine Mansfield and Periodical Culture by Gerri Kimber p. 14 Announcement: Katherine Mansfield Society Annual Birthday Lecture 2019 p. 17 ‘Her Bright Image’ – Some Omissions by Moira Taylor p.18 Interview: The music of Gurdjieff transcribed for guitar [with Gunter Herbig] p. 22 ‘My Corona’ by Denise Roughan p.27 Praise for ‘Worldly Goods’ “Alice Petersen’s stories present small worlds containinG biG emotional ranGe. Whether at a luthier’s workshop or sellinG china or teachinG Latin, Petersen’s people work towards truer selves. She presents their efforts in a style that is always clear – clear as a well-played cello.” – Cynthia Flood Alice Petersen’s Worldly Goods is our prize this issue: details below Issue 32 April 2019 3 It is with sadness that we reflect on the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris: this reminded me that KM loved this place and wrote in her journal, May 1915: I am sitting on a broad bench in the sun hard by Notre Dame. In front of me there is a hedge of ivy. An old man walked along with a basket on his arm picking off the withered leaves. In the priest’s garden they are cutting the grass. I love this big cathedral. The little view of it now is of pointed narrow spires, fretted against the blue, and one or two squatting stone parrots balanced on a little balcony. It is like a pen-drawing by a Bogey. And I like the saints with their crowns on their collars and their heads in their hands. [ATL, MS-Papers-4006-03] In the last issue of this newsletter Gerri Kimber’s review of RoGer Lipsey’s new book on Gurdjieff gave me a glimpse of the relationship he had with KM. Here we follow up with a look at Gurdjieff’s music: this time an interview with Gunter HerbiG, a German-born guitarist, New Zealand resident and expert on Gurdjieff’s music. Also we have detailed accounts of Cheryl Paget’s lecture on Arthur Ransome held in WellinGton on January 19th. Similarly fascinatinG Moira Taylor’s reflections on her 1974 interviews with Jeanne Renshaw (nee Beauchamp), Ida Baker and Richard Murry. Chris Mourant’s Katherine Mansfield and Periodical Culture is compulsory reading for those interested in the modernist maGazine contributions of Mansfield and others. We are fortunate to have an insiGhtful review of this new book by our chair, Gerri Kimber. Likewise we are lucky to have obtained Denise RouGhan’s permission to reproduce her bloG concerninG KM’s typewriter. Incidentally, Penny Jackson brought a similar typewriter to Hamilton for her lecture and exhibition in February. It is incredibly small in real life and seems very much like the Edwardian equivalent of a laptop, in both form and function. Finally, I can tell you I am lookinG forward to attendinG my first KM conference in Krakow this July. I hope to see you there! Martin Griffiths, Editor We are deliGhted to announce that Philip Dart, Sue Jamieson & Chris Mourant are the winners of our competition and the recipients of Katherine Mansfield: A Portrait (the colour cataloGue of the recent exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Te PükenGa Whakaata). Thanks to Penelope Jackson for donation two of the prizes and conGratulations to Philip, Sue and Chris who correctly identified Krakow as the city and venue for the 2019 KMS conference. To enter our next competition answer the followinG: What was the title that succeeded Rhythm in 1913? The winner will receive a copy of Alice Petersen’s book of short stories ‘Worldly Goods.’ Entries to [email protected] 1 Issue 32 April 2019 4 Arthur Ransome and Katherine Mansfield: Lives Lived in Parallel, 1908-1913 by Cheryl Paget In 1912, Arthur Ransome, aGed 28, faced two major events in his career as an author. He was sued for libel and his publisher went bankrupt. His personal life was also in turmoil. Desperately unhappy in his marriaGe, Ransome left EnGland for Russia at the end of May 1913. He was not to return permanently until 1924 when his divorce was finalised. New Zealander Katherine Mansfield, aGed 24 and John Middleton Murry lived toGether in domestic, if not wedded bliss in 1912. Their world was to come crashinG down when the publisher of Mansfield’s first book In a German Pension and Murry’s maGazine Rhythm went bankrupt. The publisher Ransome and Mansfield had in common was Stephen Swift & Co. Ltd, alias Charles Granville, fraudster and biGamist who very nearly ruined the careers of these two younG promising authors, who, fresh from Bohemian London both went on to make their mark on modern British fiction. Did Ransome and Mansfield know each other, and if so, could they have first met before the spectacular crash of their publisher in 1912? Mansfield had published her first collection of short stories, In a German Pension, with Stephen Swift in December 1911. Ransome first met Charles Granville in the middle of 1911, when he was well underway with writinG his book on Oscar Wilde for the publisher Martin Secker. HuGh BroGan, Ransome’s bioGrapher states that ‘In Martin Secker he had been lucky enouGh to acquire a first-rate publisher...then Ransome fell in with a mysterious literary operator who called himself Charles Granville...the expansive, munificent sort of publisher, very different from the prudent novice, Secker’ (BroGan 1992, 77). Ransome describes Granville as ‘a remarkable man....He had a maGnificent way with him.’ (Ransome, 1985, p. 145). Granville made Ransome an offer he couldn’t refuse: ‘Granville then beGan to expound a Grand desiGn whereby he should become the publisher of all my books, past present and to come, payinG me a reGular income on account of royalties’ (Ransome 1985, 146). So, in December 1911, after he had finished Oscar Wilde, Ransome started translatinG Remy de Gourmont’s Une Nuit au Luxembourg for Granville, and beGan the process of brinGinG all of his previous books under Granville’s control. Less than a month after the publication of Oscar Wilde, Secker aGreed to sell his riGhts to that book and to Edgar Allan Poe to Ransome and Granville. The sale was completed on 12 March 1912. The very next day, ‘calamity struck aGain, with extraordinary, almost lauGhable precision’ (Chambers 2009, 62- 63). Lord Alfred DouGlas served Secker, Ransome, the printers and The Times Book Club (which had distributed copies to its members) a writ for libel for Oscar Wilde. Secker claimed that he had cancelled his contract with the author ‘by mutual aGreement’ (BroGan 1992, 81), so was dropped from the case, and the printers made a settlement out of court, leavinG Ransome and the Times Book Club to face the trial alone. The case would not be tried for another year. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, a new blow fell. On October 8 Ransome received a teleGram from Cecil Chesterton to say that Granville had bolted: ‘Just as I had put all my eGGs into one basket, the bottom of that basket had fallen out’ (Ransome 1985, 149). Granville 2 Issue 32 April 2019 5 who was wanted for fraud and bigamy had fled the country with his secretary, leavinG Ransome facinG the prospect of losinG all his works of the past five years and everythinG worth republishing, up to and including Bohemia in London first published in 1907. Ransome travelled to London to the office of Stephen Swift immediately, and simply sat there day after day until he was able to establish himself as the leadinG creditor of the bankrupt firm. AlthouGh he temporarily lost control of his earlier copyriGhts he manaGed to keep the most valuable, namely Poe, Wilde and a collection of essays, Portraits and Speculations which was still at the printers. Ransome claims it wasn’t until forty years later that he found out the details of why his publisher had Gone bankrupt. John Middleton Murry, editor of the maGazine Rhythm, started the publication as a penniless underGraduate in the winter of 1911 as a vehicle for writers and artists whose work he admired. Mansfield started writinG for him in December 1911 and became assistant editor in sprinG 1912 after they became lovers. Soon after, Murry and Mansfield realised that the publication was becoming a heavy drain on their finances, and they either had to end it or find a financial backer: Katherine had a brilliant idea. Stephen Swift, her publisher, believed that in her he had discovered a Genius. What more appropriate than that she should persuade him to take over the magazine ... She was confident that she could persuade him, and when Katherine was confident it was impossible to believe that she would fail. Nor did she. Stephen Swift immediately aGreed to her proposal, and took one astonishinG step further: of his own initiative he suGGested that we should have a salary for editinG the maGazine: £10 a month.’ (Murry 1936, 217) Here was yet another offer from Granville that seemed too Good to be true. In AuGust 1912, Murry and Mansfield moved to Runcton Cottage near Chichester, and furnished it on hire purchase. They felt that as Rhythm was no lonGer a burden they were justified in findinG a place in the country to live.
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