FULL BIOGRAPHY OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27374, 12 June 1954, Page 3

FULL BIOGRAPHY OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD

L Reviewed by

H.L.G.)

~<herine Mansfield. By Antony AIM1 pers. Jonathan Cape. 376 pp. fine and honest biography of Catherine Mansfield is of interest to Zealanders for many reasons. Not it the first attempt at a com)lete biography of our only writer rlros e fame is international; but its .nLhor. a member of a family already Sinanshed in New Zealand letters, z. the first beneficiary of the State iterary Fund. In his childhood. Aniy Alpers lived a few doors away .“ra the house where Katherine MansLy was born, and he went to school , the house where she spent the un.noy months following her return X England m 1907. These fortuitous ■is have no doubt strengthened his sling for her. There can be no quesen at any rate of his sincere devotion nd infectious enthusiasm. He has left o stone unturned in bis investigations Bin' her life. Yet his devotion has not iade him fall into the trap of herorarshipping his subject. Indeed admirers of K.M. who have hitherto sown her private life only from her oumals and letters—and thus onlyrom her own viewpoint—may at first Kl outraged at Antony Alpers’s portait His book makes it clear that she often capricious sometimes even ruel and tyrannical in her relations rith the two people who loved her eSt—her husband. John Middleton ferry and her devoted friend. Ida But if Mr Alpers’s portrait does not fetter, it does not denigrate either. It : rounded and consistent. He guides t reader into making the proper kwances for K.M. on account of her Hess; and he is scrupulously fair to ill the people involved in her life Kth the exception perhaps of her fether. Because Mr Beauchamp (later ir Harold) was not an artist himself at a businessman, because he was reKtant to allow his 19-year-old daughr to go to live in England alone—as itat father would not be?—and berte he made her an allowance, which Alpers considers ungenerous, he is e target of many barbed remarks roughcut the book. One cannot help eUng that oor Mr Beauchamp, who' ter all had the genes that helped to ■reduce the genius, was not a bad ther as fathers go, and deserves betr treatment at the hands of his raghter's biographer. In general, the later part of Katherke Mansfield’s life is better dealt tith by fr Alpers than the earlier rrt which deals with her life in New eland. Mr Alpers is so concerned b insist (no doubt correctly) that she odd not "have developed her gifts in e philistine atmosphere of New Zeakrd that he is led into making some oilier far-fetched statements. He tells B for instance that she could not posbly have made such a friend in New Ireland as Ida Baker, whom she met then she was 14 at Queen’s College London. But Ida Baker, lovable ecetric though she is, could have tourished anywhere as long as she had wmeone to be devoted to; she merely appened to be the bosom-friend of athenne Mansfield’s schooldays which iappened to be spent in England OcGSMMftr, too. there are absurdities of style m the opening chapters. Because Katherine Mansfield’s first modest appearance as a published writer coincided with New Zealand’s becoming Hi-Porcußion- Mr Alpers exclaims It ,? ta moment she had chosen,” and line anks the two events together with I fie resounding comment, “The nation I was ? Re must nevertheless be IgrateM for his careful and detailed | ■eeonstruction of K.M.’s New Zealand | ®ckground. He indicates how and f wnere it was used in her stories rnd Kmhnns the usual view that her best venting was done when she was drawmemories of her in New examination of Katherw Mansfields life m England and £?L has i.?L elded many facts that we oeen hitherto unknown or conyy*2 - Much of it makes very sad a In & tor ner extremely irregular & quite Obviously led to her developconsumption. She lived in 21 DEereilt ’ and usually inadequate

h? first five years awa y from home. Her private life fnllv X S wor*T aU Z i USti " ed StScT a?M < i re i b 1 odlngS - 11 was an exence, as Mr Alpers mildly savs “not ThV y , < M m Syished for ” unc onscious desire for the placidity and protection that her life ablv°»t O ?h fai K e ,* to P rovid e was probwith 4L the . bp ttom of her marriage den h whn U^ fOr l Unat t George Bowshe abandoned on the throu<rt^', d ? y >; was l ort unate that stinted l h s r hfe.she had the uned P lacld ministrations of the Lno g n L ? 5” to fa « back sfeHfind COU d . be cal,ed on to * ~ wn llfe completely and Mur™ 7 ,. to ,, Ka^ eri ne as Middleton Murry could n Q t. He was, after all, hls own pride and his own |hat could not be entirely abanta the needs and whims of his ° ™ uld * , be extraordinarily Mr A1 P ers ’ s careful and sympathetic account makes quite clear. . of K.M.’s letters who have not hitherto felt much respect’for K.M.’s husband will find themselves now forced to admit that his position was far more complex and his actions far more comprehensible than they had thought. Mr Alpers includes in his book the amount of literary criticism proper to a biography.- He explains the private significance of many of the stories and relates each of them to K.M.’s growth as a human being, showing how she developed from the flippancy and cynic- ? f ber early years in London to the state of acceptance and reconciliation with her past that produced her best work. He has been as thorough in his analyses of the stories as in his probing into the facts of her life. And from the rich material of the Letters and Journals, supplemented by all the information he has gleaned from friends and acquaintances, he conjures up some very vivid pictures, full of detail, and pervaded with the warmth and vitality of K.M.’s personality—which is, one must repeat, in no way diminished by his sympathy for Ida Baker and J. M. Murry. Mr Alpers’s book is generously illustrated and well indexed; and as a whole it must be regarded as a credit both to the author and to the State Literary Fund, which supported his researches.