Mansfield Manuscript Collection Displayed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 24

Mansfield Manuscript Collection Displayed

A collection of manuscripts by the New Zealand quthor, Katherine Mansfield and some of her personal possessions are now on display in Ottawa.

The collection has already been shown in Paris, London, New York and Baltimore. Originally it was to have been shown only in Paris, but when interest was shown in London and North American cities, more cities were included. In Paris the exhibition was opened by the New Zealand Ambassador - (Mr R. L. Hutchens) and the collection was on display for three weeks. Many French literary figures and some of Krtherine Mansfield’s contemporaries were at the opening lecture by the French writer, Andre Maurois, and the New Zealand author, Dan Davin, were given while the collection was in Paris. Katherine Mansfield had a long association with France and she wrote the first draft of “Prelude” there. She died in France and the Villa Isola Bella, at Menton, on the Riviera, where she lived for many years, has been preserved by the French as a museum.

Reports of the articles were published by six French newspapers, including “Le Figaro,” “Arts et Loisirs,” and a ha If-page article entitled “La France de Katherine Mansfield” by Andre Bay appeared in “Nouvelles Litteraires.” The French national television network has since decided to screen two of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, “Marriage a la Mode” and “The Singing Lesson.”

Before the collection was sent to the P.E.N. Congress in New York, it was shown for three weeks at the National Book League Exhibition in London. In New York several thousand brochures on Katherine Mansfield’s life and a history of New Zealand literature were given to the 900 delegates to the congress and visitors.

The “Baltimore Sua,” pub-

lished a full-page feature article with photographs of Katherine Mansfield’s home in Wellington and the city in her day, when the collection was shown there for a month.

When the exhibition in Ottawa ends next week the collection will be shown in Tokyo, as Katherine Mansfield’s work is widely known in both translation and the original by many Japanese students. It may also be shown in Australia.

Arrangements to display the collection were made jointly by the Alexander Turnbull Library, the External Affairs Department and the Tourist and Publicity Department.