Illuminating one of the most consequential yet unexplored relationships in her subject's career, Gerri Kimber's Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life offers an intriguing and expert lens through which to appreciate the innovative literary icon's legacy.
At the heart of Kimber's elegant narrative is a charismatic outsider from New Zealand whose "storyettes" made waves in England and whose "disappointing" second marriage to John Middleton Murry left her craving stability. While earlier biographers were restricted to Murry's highly edited editions of his wife's work, Kimber took timely advantage of Mansfield's newly transcribed letters and recent annotated editions of her work to craft a revitalized portrait of the young writer. These materials disclose the true depth of Mansfield's marital unhappiness and in particular reveal her exceedingly close friendship with editor A.R. Orage, an association Murry downplayed. Kimber skillfully draws out subtle yet telling details about her subject's close "sexual and intellectual" association with Orage. It was he, in fact, who helped Mansfield find supporters in France near the end of her life.
Kimber charts Mansfield's arrival on London's literary scene through the eyes of "Bloomsbury gossipmongers" and includes her rivalry with Virginia Woolf. To illustrate her subject's brilliant wit, Kimber shares a letter Mansfield wrote to Princess Elizabeth Bibesco, Murry's mistress, gleefully describing it as "one of the most effective slap-down letters in twentieth century literary history."
This is a pleasurable deep dive sure to be appreciated by readers of previous Mansfield biographies and an excellent introduction for those new to her work. --Shahina Piyarali