Mansfield, Katherine

Mansfield, Katherine (1888-1923), pseudonym of Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp, short-story writer, born in Wellington, New Zealand. She is considered one of the great masters of the short story form. At the age of 18 she settled in London to study music and to establish herself as a writer. In 1918 she married the English literary critic John Middleton Murry. She spent the last five years of her life seeking a cure for the tuberculosis that afflicted her.

Mansfield's stories are poetic, delicate, and ironic; they are characterized by a subtle sensitivity to mood and emotion, revealing the inner conflicts her characters face and resolve. Her style, much influenced by that of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, in turn had great influence on later short story writing. Collections of her short fiction include In a German Pension (1911); Bliss (1920), which contains stories evocative of her homeland; and The Garden Party (1922), her finest work. The Dove's Nest (1923) and Something Childish (1924), both edited by her husband, were published after Mansfield's death, as were collections of her poems, journals, and letters.