THE PURCHASE OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD MANUSCRIPTS

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIV, 1 March 1960, Page 16

THE PURCHASE OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD MANUSCRIPTS

By C.R.H.T.

Some part of this story takes its beginning several years ago. Not long before his death, Sir Harold Beauchamp, who had earlier provided a fund of £2OO to develop the Katherine Mansfield Collection in the Library, brought to me a group of typed manuscripts of letters written to him by his daughter Kathleen. The originals, he said, had been sent on to his other daughter Mrs. Mclntosh Bell, in Canada, but had gone astray in the post.

Mr. P. A. Lawlor, long a student of and writer on Katherine Mansfield, about 1948 mentioned these letters to John Middleton Murry, who enquired if copies could be obtained. Mr. Lawlor referred this to the Library, and I accordingly wrote to Mr. Murry saying we would be agreeable to letting him have copies. At the same time I enquired as to his plans for the ultimate disposition of MSS. in his possession, suggesting that he might care to consider the Turnbull Library. The ensuing correspondence really makes another story, but Mr. Murry appeared to favour the suggestion.

When he died in March 1957, his will provided that Katherine Mansfield's notebooks, journals, etc., be sold at auction, and that her letters be offered at £I,OOO first to the British Museum and if not accepted, to the Turnbull Library.

The auction was conducted by Messrs. Sothebys in London on 26 November 1957. The several lots were described as follows:

299 MANSFIELD (KATHERINE) The Autograph Manuscript of an unfinished story entitled Three 20th Century Girls. 7*4 pp., including title page, signed and dated on title “June 4th 1901, by K. Beauchamp,” unbound, 4to. V One of the writer’s earliest attempts at fiction, written when she was twelve years old.

300 MANSFIELD (KATHERINE) AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT NOTEBOOKS AND JOURNALS from 1904 to 1922, circa 1,370 11., written in 46 exercise books and on loose sheets, various bindings and sizes ranging from large 4to to small Bvo.

These voluminous diaries, which begin when Katherine Mansfield was fifteen years old and extend to

within a few weeks of her death nineteen years later, constitute one of the most revealing and intimate autobiographies ever written. As a living, day-to-day record of the inner life and spiritual development of a creative genius they are almost unique in our literature, and are worthy of comparison with the collected letters of John Keats. The volumes are composed of diverse materials: drafts of finished and unfinished stories, poems and sketches, notes for stories, vivid impressions of persons and places, intimate confessions, imaginary (unposted) letters to close friends, notes and comments on her reading —everything which could illuminate from within the writer's life and the evolution of her art, “crammed up,” as her husband wrote later, “like some rich thievery.” Two volumes based on these manuscripts, the Journal (definitive edition, 1954) and The Scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield (1939), were edited by J. Middleton Murry after his wife's death. The originals, however, have never been printed as they stand; their rich confusion conveys a sense of immediacy inevitably lacking to some extent in the printed texts, while there also remains an undetermined residue of unpublished material.

301 MANSFIELD (KATHERINE) THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF HER UNFINISHED NOVEL Maata, 42 pp., dated 1913 on title, written in a quarto notebook with two other fragmentary drafts of stories. 50 pp. in all, original marbled boards, paper back. V An important unpublished manuscript. The novel itself (of which there are only the first two chapters, on twenty-two pages) is preceded by a Plan of the entire work, complete in thirty-five chapters, and a list of the characters to be introduced; the Plan is dated at the end “August 2nd, 1913.” The novel was apparently abandoned (it concludes with a blank page headed “Chapter III”) and is followed by the beginning of another projected novel entitled Young Country on five pages. Starting from the other end of the volume is the manuscript of the unfinished story Rose Eagle, abandoned on the third page, with a severe comment on its failure (see Journal, 1954, pp. 117118).

As soon as the sale was announced the Friends of the Turnbull Library launched a public appeal for donations towards a purchase fund, heading it with the sum of £IOO. Sir Arthur Sim contributed another £IOO, the Women Writers Association £34, and a further £152/10/6 came from a number of friends all over the country. The

interest was considerable, and the Department of Internal Affairs was encouraged to make available certain funds reserved for emergencies. The Library invaded its ordinary resources, and at the sale it was possible to authorise Dr. R. M. Campbell, Acting High Commissioner in London, to purchase the principal lots. Of the three groups, the two first were secured, but the unpublished fragment of a novel Maata went to an unknown buyer. The prices realised were as follows: 299, £9O; 300, £2,600; 301, £450.

The miscellaneous papers acquired, however, included fifteen pages of the novel Maata, but whether these are duplicate pages or an earlier draft has not yet been learned from the agent of the purchaser. It was next learned that the British Museum did not propose to purchase the 480 letters of Katherine Mansfield to J. Middleton Murry. They were examined by Dr. R. M. Campbell at the Museum, and upon his report, the Government decided to purchase. They are now with the collection, which has since been augmented from other sources, and includes some typed and photograph copies. A broad synopsis of the rest of the collection ( apart from the notebooks and diaries cited above, and except where indicated) is as follows:

Manuscripts and Typescripts 1-4. Manuscripts and typescripts of verses and stories. 5. H. G. Cook collection of letters regarding K.M., 1939-56. 6. Photocopies of 2 pages of Daughters of the late Colonel. 7-13. Part of the 1957 acquisition of K.M. material. Stories, Toots (a play), verses, fragmentary reflections, brief fragments of stories, journal entries, etc.

Correspondence—Outwards 14. Letter to her mother, 1907. 15. Letters to her cousin Sylvia Payne, 1903-14. 16. Letters to her father, Sir Harold Beauchamp, 1916-22. 16A. Letters to Anne Estelle Rice (Mrs. Drey), 1920. 17- This material is part of the 1957 acquisition of K.M. material. 17. Postcards and telegrams to J. M. Murry, 1915-22. 18- Letters to J. M. Murry, 1913-22. 37. Unpublished letters to J. M. Murry, 1919-22.

38. Letters to Beatrice Campbell, Lady Glenavy, 1916. Photocopies. 39. Letters to Miss Putnam ca. 1907. Photocopies. 40. Letters to Elizabeth von Arnim, 1921-22. Photocopies. 41. Letters to Constance and to Edward Garnett, 1921. Photocopies. 42. Letters to Sylvia Lynd, 19201122. Photocopies. 43. A suburban fairy tale, 1919. Photocopies. 44. Letters to Richard Murry, 1919-22. Photocopies. 45. John Middleton Murry. Six letters to Prudence Maufe, 1919-23 and n.d. It is to be understood that each number refers to a folder of papers, each holding up to 50 or more sheets.