9 January 1923: Katherine Mansfield dies

Katherine Mansfield was the only writer who made Virginia Woolf jealous. When Mansfield died of tuberculosis, aged just 35, fellow modernist writer Virginia Woolf confided in her diary: ‘I was jealous of her writing – the only writing I have ever been jealous of.’ [1]

Katherine Mansfield died on 9 January 1923 of tuberculosis at the age of 34. She had been struggling with the disease for many years, and spent much of her life in and out of sanatoriums in an attempt to manage it.

Mansfield was a modernist writer from New Zealand who is considered one of the most brilliant short story writers in the English language. She left behind a body of work that continues to be widely read and admired today. Her stories often explored the lives of sensitive, intelligent women and the constraints placed on them by society. She was known for her use of stream of consciousness and her ability to convey deep emotions through her writing. Her story The Doll’s House is close to utter perfection, and I adore The Garden Party, The Daughters of the Late Colonel and the superb Miss Brill, a study of loneliness which is heartbreaking to read.

Despite her illness, she continued to write and produce a significant body of work. She is remembered today as one of the most talented writers of the 20th century, and her work continues to be widely read and studied around the world.

There are few short story writers who have ever moved or impressed me as much as Katherine Mansfield. While I doubt I’d have liked her very much as a woman, I admire her courage in the face of devastating illness, her devotion to her craft, and her absolute magic with words. She died at the Hôpital Cochin in Paris, France where she had been living for several years, and is buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles in Paris. I have visited Mansfield’s birthplace in Wellington, her grave in France, and some of the places where she spent time in London and France.

Selected links for relevant websites, books, movies, videos, and more. Some of these links lead to protected content on this website, learn more about that here.