Katherine Mansfield
B. Bennet Alder, Katherine Mansfield in 1913, 1930, Watercolour over photograph, Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Curios-018-011
Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is one of New Zealand's most famous figures. During her life, she attained an international reputation as a writer, poet and critic. Following her early death from tuberculosis aged 34, interest in Mansfield's writing and life has continued to grow.
Biography of Katherine Mansfield – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website
Photographs of Katherine Mansfield in New Zealand - Manuscripts and Pictorial website
Photographs of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry in France – Timeframes website
The National Library, and in particular the Alexander Turnbull Library, has the world's most significant collection of items related to Katherine Mansfield. From translations of her short stories into Hungarian and Portuguese, to her unpublished letters and journals, to portraits and personal belongings, the Library is a treasure trove for researchers and fans alike.
Manuscripts Collection – unpublished material related to Mansfield
The Manuscripts Collection has the world's most extensive and significant holding of Mansfield's letters, notebooks, prose and poetry drafts. These have been the major source for biographical and critical studies of Mansfield.
The Manuscripts collection also holds papers of a number of people important in Mansfield's life, including her husband John Middleton Murry, parents Harold Beauchamp and Anne Burnell Beauchamp, sisters, brother Lesley, and her close friends Ida Baker and Anne Estelle Rice.
The papers of a number of Mansfield scholars, including Margaret Scott, Eric McCormick, Ian Gordon and Vincent O'Sullivan are also available in the Manuscripts collection.
A published guide, 'Katherine Mansfield: Manuscripts in the Alexander Turnbull Library' (1988) is available. Mansfield's letters have been published in several volumes edited by Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott, and her journals have been edited by Scott.
Next to the Turnbull Library, the Newberry Library of Chicago is the main repository of manuscripts by Mansfield. Copies of the Newberry's holdings are available in the Manuscripts collection.
You can search for items in the Manuscripts Collection using the online database TAPUHI.
More about the Manuscripts Collection
Published collections – Mansfield's works and related publications
Copies of all of Mansfield's published works, in many different editions and languages, are held in the National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library's collections. You can search for these using the online National Library Catalogue.
The National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library also hold extensive collections of books about Mansfield's life and writing, collections of her letters, and other related scholarship and publications. These are also listed on the National Library Catalogue.
More about books in the National Library and Turnbull Library’s collection
Timeframes website – pictures of Mansfield
There are a number of images related to Mansfield on Timeframes, the online database of images from the Alexander Turnbull Library collections. These include photographs of the author from throughout her life.
Photographic Archive and Turnbull Library Pictures – photographs of Mansfield
The collection includes a large number of photographs of Mansfield, her friends and family, taken in New Zealand and internationally. It also has photographs of places where Mansfield lived and stayed, and other images related to her life.
Highlights include Beauchamp family photograph albums and a collection of photographs taken by Mansfield’s close friend Ida Baker.
Many of these images can be accessed through the public files in Turnbull Library Pictures and copies of them can be ordered.
Digitised copies of some of these photographs are available on Timeframes.
Records of all the items can be found by searching TAPUHI.
More about the Photographic Archive
More about Turnbull Library Pictures
Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection – pictorial works and personal items
This collection includes portraits of Mansfield, images related to her life, and a number of her personal items, including her typewriter and decorative boxes that she collected.
Digital images of some of these items are available on Timeframes.
Records of all the items can be found by searching TAPUHI.
More about the Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.
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| Collection | Drawings, Paintings and Prints |
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