Ebook: Katherine Mansfield and Russia

Examines the 'Russian influence' on both Mansfield’s craft as a short story writer and her life choices

Katherine Mansfield’s passion for Russian literature and culture is well documented in her letters and notebooks. Anton Chekhov was not just one of her most significant literary influences, but also a mythological presence with whom she mentally communicated every day. The emotional bond became even stronger when she discovered that the two of them shared the same deadly disease. But her fascination with Russia and its culture extended beyond Chekov and included the Ballets Russes and an interest in Russian politics, in part sparked by Maxim Gorky. She also read and assimilated several other Russian writers, including Fyodor Dostoevsky and Marie Bashkirtseff as well as Leo Tolstoy. This volume presents essays that engage with many aspects of Mansfield’s response to all things Russian as well as to the Russians she met in England and France. In addition, the volume presents a collection of images of Gurdjieff’s Institute at Fontainebleau, several of which have never been seen before

About the Author
Galya Diment is Joff Hanauer Distinguished Professor in Western Civilization at the University of Washington in Seattle where she is Professor in the Department of Slavic Language and Literature. She is the author of three books, among them A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury: The Life and Times of Samuel Koteliansky (2011), and editor or co-editor of another three.

Gerri Kimber is a Visiting Professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Northampton. She is co-editor of Katherine Mansfield Studies and Chair of the Katherine Mansfield Society. She devised and is Series Editor of the four-volume Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield (2012-16).

Todd Martin is Professor of English at Huntington University where he currently holds he Edwina Patton Chair of Arts and Sciences. He is the Membership Secretary of the Katherine Mansfield Society and co-editor of Katherine Mansfield Studies.