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Here then is a little summary of what I need – power, wealth and freedom, wrote the eighteen-year-old Katherine Mansfield in May 1908, already determined to make her way—and her mark—in London’s early 20th century literary salons. An immigrant from New Zealand, the little Colonialist was never accepted into the famed Bloomsbury Group, yet she was respected—even revered—by Virginia Woolf; their historic literary friendship one of mutual admiration and fascination shot through with wary misunderstandings, rivalry and envy.
Katherine’s upward spiraling success as a published writer comes to a skidding halt when, on her thirtieth birthday, her pulmonary specialist orders her to stop writing, move to a tuberculosis sanatorium, and die peacefully. Her heroic response was to go into battle and fight her bacterial enemies who have infiltrated her young body, sapped her energy, derailed her marriage, and forced her into dependency on LM, her devoted caregiver.
Often alone, or accompanied by LM, or occasionally by her husband, John Murry, Mansfield goes on an extended road trip as a wandering consumptive. She travels from London to Paris, then south to the French Riviera, and then high into the Alps in pursuit of a cure for her debilitating disease, her withering soul, and her next inventive short story.
In the autumn of 1922, she arrives at her final home, G.I. Gurdjieff’s Institute for Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, where she achieves her dying wish: I want to be all that I am capable of becoming so that I may be a child of the sun.
Praise
“FitzPatrick deftly captures Mansfield’s fervent dedication to her craft and her unwavering hope that she will overcome her illness. A well-informed, intuitive account of a singular modernist writer whose life is cut short.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“This book will delight all KM devotees, who will relish another chance to live through the extraordinary life of KM—a life which never ceases to fascinate and move . . .”
—Dr. Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield Society
“This is a must read even if you are not a Mansfield aficionado; the novel will move you with undercurrents of emotion that somehow manage to transcend Katherine’s journey itself.”
— Steve Lewis, poet, writing coach and author of Hard Rain
“I did not want this book to end. I purposely slowed down my reading to savor the words of this captivating writer.”
— Joan Altman, Amazon reviewer
“An absorbing account of Katherine Mansfield’s extraordinary life, from the moment she left New Zealand aged 18, through to her early death at 34.”
— Francesca Baker, forbookssake.com
“A beautifully crafted novel that will move and inspire you.”
— Misha, Top Amazon Reviewer