Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) was born in New Zealand and educated in England. In bohemian London she became pregnant with one man’s child and married another but left the relationship unconsummated because of a lesbian affair. Recovering from a miscarriage in Bavaria, she read Chekhov and wrote her first story collection, In a German Pension. Her marriage to John Middleton Murry was fraught, though she was creatively productive: “Miss Brill” established Mansfield as a preeminent modernist. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, she died at Gurdjieff’s Institute, after running up the stairs to show Murry how well she was.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- The Child-Who-Was-Tired, a short story, in Fall 2010
- Miss Brill, a short story, in Stories of the Week: 2009–2010