(published posthumously, 1927)
The list of writers nabbed or injured by tuberculosis is staggering. Even Charles Bukowski, at the time living well in Los Angeles, circa 1990 got a dose, and it appears to have opened the door to his death a couple of years down the road.
Kafka, Foster, Robert Louis Stevenson, Orwell, two Brontes–the list of creative minds lost to that disease is staggering. TB, and small pox were very easy to transmit; therefore we should never forget the hardworking people smart enough to do something about them. Now, I do have sympathy for some of the ant-vaccination opinions. A friend who is nearing eighty, a well educated, fair-minded and creative man who has had his left leg in a brace since the 1950s, is no fan of vaccinations. But he broke form and took his vax when his wife (another fine person) had open heart surgery. Personally, I cannot help but feel that the shots prevented far more deaths. I apologize for this little divergent remark, but since it was said and I believe it, let’s let it stand and get on with it.
Katherine Mansfield was one of TB’s victims. She died in 1923 at age thirty-five. She kept a diary, and there was a lot of juicy stuff in it for people scandalized by lesbians and free thinking. I do not know why some people are like that, but since it too has been said, let’s let it be and move onward.
Last year I wrote a piece touting the worthiness of Mansfield’s short story collection. She was born and raised in New Zealand and much like Emily Dickenson and the Brontes, isolation helped her form her own singular mindset. She had several high thinking people in her life, but she also had enough privacy that prevented the entry of an excess of prejudices from affecting her point of view.
I imagine that it would have been difficult for a child growing up in Berlin not to become antisemetic because that was preached like the gospel. Toss in a little want and set the Chosen Ones in the dark light of the villain and, well, you can figure out the rest. And throughout Twain’s work, those featuring Tom and Huck, you clearly understood that they had no reservations about slavery because it too was not only the law but was also taught as righteous from the pulpit. And yet, there are people who can learn, who are able to see past the run of their society. Twain proved it with Huckleberry Finn famously refusing to turn Jim in. This was no small crisis of faith. He had been taught that to do otherwise meant hell. “All right then, I’ll go to hell.” And he meant it.
Katherine Mansfield’s journals convey her integrity of spirit. She confessed her love for a Maori woman, which went against both race and sexuality. And despite it all she made it clear that she wanted her journals up for publication soon after her death. Unlike Twain she had no future generations to provide for (not that she made much money), so she had no problem whatsoever getting her word out immediately after her death.
Her journal (actually a collection of journals) span roughly seven years, beginning in 1915 and closing shortly before her death. They were not focused on sexuality or disease, although both were frequent topics. She mainly made short statements, but she was not one to write petty vacuities. Moreover, Mansfield knew many well known people, such as Virginai Woolf, with whom she had a somewhat catty relationship. I hate the word “frenemy” because one should stop speaking like a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl sooner than what I see happening in this mild hellworld we have called social media. But you can safely say that as a description it has moments of accuracy.
Perhaps the best of it involved the great many pages dedicated to the construction of her work. She had a tremendously witty, facile mind. One wonders how far she would have gone if given the chance.
Dorothy Parker gave Mansfield a fitting tribute in her “Constant Reader” column, which she did for The New Yorker from 1927 to ‘28. Every week Mrs. Parker had a blast eviscerating things that needed it and was one of the rare souls who admitted that she hated A.A. Milne. I do not feel there has ever been anyone funnier in print than Twain and Parker. But in her 26 October 1927 article, Dorothy, obviously moved by the book, apologized to the spirit of Katherine Mansfield for intruding on the private beauty of her thoughts–I quote Mrs. Parker:
“Here, set down in exquisite fragments, is the record of six lonely and tormented years, the life’s-end of a desperately ill woman. So private is it that one feels forever guilty of prying for having read it.”
Yes, this is a tremendous work of art that its creator gave the last of her will and energy to to. Now pushing over a hundred years along, it still haunts and lives at once.
literally stories 
Hi Leila,
This was fascinating.
Three things spring to mind – How many folks who have had something to say have been overlooked until they are dead? – That’s a travesty!
How many folks who have had something to say will always be overlooked? – That’s a travesty.
When we see who have been allowed to succeed, looking at the last two points, which one is the biggest travesty??
All the very best.
Hugh
LikeLike
Hi Hugh
I still believe that “Good” will always rise, but not always in a fair sense. Too many people do better after they die for my taste. I only can hope that they knew they had made it no matter the crap the publishers pushed. I once looked back at “Best of” materials in film, books, music and it was depressing. The Oscars especially, simply a popularity contest –not an honest evaluation, and of course pop music has always been rotten!
Thank you!
Leila
LikeLike
Hi Leila
TB was even worse than I thought. It took down Doc Holiday, so you know it was a bad Mama Jama.
I remember getting tested for it when I was 19, not voluntarily.
All these years later. The vax seemed like a good idea at the time…
Katherine Mansfield is an author that I want to read. This was really enlightening. Dorothy Ps comment sounds like intruding on someone’s death bed. Very powerful.
I like this line too, “mild hellworld we have called social media.”
Excellent!
CJA
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you CJA
I just had my annual TB scratch test and I am pleased to say that I passed. So often people speak of old times and they do not consider seeing faces ravaged by small pox scars or persons emaciated by TB, spreading death wherever they go.
I do hope that at some time down the line that there will be a peaceful and healthy and fair time. But that will probably be the day the earth ends!
Thanks again
Leila
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi L
I’m glad you passed your test. I forgot about it and they don’t make people aware, anymore. They seem to want to open the door to these diseases, again. The strange anti-vaxxer, RFK Jr is in charge, I guess… I’ve never heard such a gravelly voice in my whole life. I don’t think his father or uncle would be very proud of him.
CJA
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi CJA
This RFK Jr is someone who is an apple that not only fell far from the tree but it bounced completely out of the orchard! How he is related to that family, and so closely, is an absolute mystery. I know that his cousin Caroline hates him!
I agree–no need to do stuff to re-invite diseases! We do not need them!
Leila
LikeLiked by 1 person
No bouts a doubt it…Really enjoyed your essay!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fascinating look at a writer I had sort of heard of but hadn’t paid a lot of attention to. My bad (sos. T that’s the 13 year old rearing her little head. I’ll shut her down). I often say in jest Oh we didn’t have gay people back then. What I actually mean is that in my narrow and I’ll informed little existence I wasn’t aware. I regret that. People have been made to face unfair struggles that have taken the joy they should have had. If we ever do a go round I’ll do better. Thanks for this thought provoking piece. dd
LikeLike
Thank you Diane!
Too many people believe that all the terrible things we experience were not around back then. In a way they did “not exist” because child abuse was a family thing and rape too “shameful” to report. And there are the ones who say “another time” to excuse everything. I knew a kid whose mom whipped him bloody with an old fashion extension cord (for you younguns, those cords were nasty looking whips). I think assault is always the same!
Thank you again!
Leils
LikeLike
Leila
This article is far, far better than anything about literature, arts, culture, or biography ever published in The New Yorker these days. Far, far better.
You have a genius for reaching back into the past and conjuring the spirits of great women writers. I make the distinction “woman” writer only because, back in the old days, they faced obstacles that male writers did not. Not that there weren’t a lot of female writers back in the nineteenth century, however. Hawthorne pointed out that there were more best-selling women than men writers when he was writing. And Melville wrote his novel Pierre deliberately aiming it at the woman/female reading audience.
There is something about the disease of tuberculosis that is almost (or just is) symbolic, when it comes to writers. It’s up there with alcoholism as a great killer. Both diseases are very much affected by one’s emotional and mental state, literally and scientifically.
Great work! You make the thoughtful reader want to go read the book, but also make them feel that they already know enough about it from your article that they already know it. Therefore, this is a magical essay from the pen of a master.
Dale
PS
I’d love to read an Auld Author by you on Mary Shelley!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Dale
You are above kind and I know you do not pass out cheap flatteries. Moreover you have keen taste and intelligence.
I appreciate everything you say about me, but I try to get away simply because that is my generation. Ali began breakling that round about 1971, but it was already firmly in me.
As always, thank you!
Leila
LikeLike
PS
I find the best comic short stories of a writer named Leila Allison (I say comic short stories because she has other tales that are more on the realist/serious side) to be at least as funny as Twain and Parker. Just think of THE JUDGE!
And I would NEVER say such a thing if I didn’t mean it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Dale
Just saw this! Thank you, thank you. I will do a Mary Shelley down the line. Never have taken a request before (other than “get out!”)
To make it interesting it won’t be Frankenstein, since she did write others. I also read Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, so there’s always that!
Leila
LikeLike
Leila, this was an great recommendation. I’ve come across few of her stories in collections and it’s been in the back of my mind to search her out and read more. Thanks,
mick
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fine essay. Mansfield’s work, I think, will still be admired a hundred years from now. I’m glad you also worked in a tribute to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For me, it’s the “great American novel,” though a close call with Moby Dick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi David
I think you have Huck placed right, though Melville was awesome. For third I would say The Scarlet Letter, then I guess Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, A Farewell to Arms and To Kill a Mockingbird would be in the genersl area!
Leila
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a great list, Leila.
LikeLike
An intriguing glimpse into Mansfield’s life….she had a lot of romantic and health troubles for sure. Being born into a rich family doesn’t negate that, and it’s interesting the essay states that her journals did not focus on these aspects of her life. She tried all sorts of unorthodox treatments for her TB, to try to live. Her friend author DH Lawrence also passed away from it. It’s amazing that Mansfield was able to be so prolific, she must have had an amazing will.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Harrison
Thank you
I would think that she bypassed directly dwelling on her problems because she already knew about them and instead she focused more on creation than lament. Yet, of course, her illness and, like the rest of us, her personal affairs did affect nearly every thought, toward the end.
Thanks again,
Leila
LikeLike
Hi Mick
You have brought many worthy bits back from “ago” to now that it makes thisan easy work to undertake!
Leila
LikeLike