Katherine Mansfield was born on October 14, 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand. She published her first short stories while still in high school. In 1903, she moved to London to attend Queen’s College; she returned to New Zealand in 1906. She moved back to London in 1908, where her father sent her £100 a year to live on. In 1909 she became pregnant with the child of Arnold Trowell. She quickly married George Bowden, but the marriage was never consummated and she separated from him the next day; they were divorced finally in 1917. She lost the child; this was the first of three pregnancies that were unsuccessful. Mansfield began an affair with John Middleton Murry in 1911; they were married in 1918 after her divorce became final. While they remained married, they lived apart often. She was diagnosed with TB in 1917 and moved to France to escape the English dampness. She suffered from the disease for the rest of her life and tried many treatments that were all unsuccessful.

Katherine Mansfield’s first collection of short stories, In a German Pension , was published in 1911. Most of her collections of short stories were published after her death. Throughout her career she published many poems and short stories and is considered to be one of the best short story writers of the 20th century. Mansfield was a friend of D.H. Lawrence and was the model for the character of Gudrun in Women in Love .

Katherine Mansfield died on January 9, 1923 in Fontainbleu, France.

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