Tag Archives: Katherine Mansfield

“I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” Happy Birthday, Rebecca West

It is hard to talk about her without referencing the generations of writers she inspired, all of whom admit their debt to her. Robert Kaplan is the most open about it (his Balkan Ghosts, which launched his career, has him … Continue reading

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

“I find that I cannot exist without poetry—without eternal poetry—” –John Keats

I was just beautifying him, don’t you know. A thing of beauty, don’t you know. Yeats says, or I mean, Keats says. – James Joyce, Ulysses Born in 1795 on this day, John Keats was orphaned at fifteen. Because his … Continue reading

Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Rejoyce. It’s Bloomsday.

Some men send flowers to commemorate an anniversary. James Joyce wrote Ulysses. Overachiever. On June 15, 1904, young James Joyce sent a note to Nora Barnacle, who was a waitress at Finn’s Hotel. Barnacle (what an apt name) was a … Continue reading

Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 54 Comments

The Books: Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman; ‘Relics of Saint Katherine: ‘The Journal, Letters and Stories of Katherine Mansfield’, by Patricia Hampl

Next up on the essays shelf: Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman During Anne Fadiman’s reign as editor of The American Scholar (I had a subscription). During her reign, she instituted a regular feature called … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Books: Journal of Katherine Mansfield

Daily Book Excerpt: Memoirs: Next book on the Memoir/Letters/Journals shelf is Journal of Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield lived and worked in London in the years before, during, and after World War I. Her circle included people such as Virginia Woolf … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | 4 Comments

“her commonness”

I’m a little shocked by her commonness at first sight; lines so hard and cheap. However, when this diminishes, she is so intelligent and inscrutable that she repays friendship. — Virginia Woolf on Katherine Mansfield, journal entry, Oct. 11, 1917

Posted in writers | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Feel this teapot.”

Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot … Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain’t going to be no tea. — Katherine Mansfield, journal entry, May 1917

Posted in writers | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Katherine Mansfield on Joyce

The following is a letter written by the writer Katherine Mansfield – who had spent the afternoon with Mansfield and her husband: “Joyce was rather … difficile. I had no idea until then of his view of Ulysses — no … Continue reading

Posted in James Joyce | Tagged , | Comments Off on Katherine Mansfield on Joyce