Details
MANSFIELD, KATHERINE. In a German Pension. London: Swift [1911]. 8vo, original green cloth, preliminary leaves mildly foxed. FIRST EDITION of the author's first book, a connected series of short stories, HER HUSBAND JOHN MIDDLETON MURRY'S COPY, inscribed by him in ink on inside front cover: "John Middleton Murry May 1, 1920," and with his pencilled shelfmarks on front free endpaper. In very good condition.
Murry, with Michael Sadleir, had founded the avant-garde quarterly Rhythm in 1911. Katherine Mansfield sent a few stories to the periodical, with which Murry was very impressed. "At about the same time I bought...a reviewer's copy...of her In a German Pension which was published in December 1911. I was still more, and more intimately, impressed by this collection of stories which seemed to express, with a power I envied, a revulsion from the brutality of life akin to my own" (from Murry's Preface to The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, London, 1928). The two met in 1912 and were married six years later. By the time of Murry's dated signature in this copy, Mansfield was tubercular and was living most of the time in Italy. She returned to England in late April 1920, but by August her illness forced her to return to the Continent. Apparently Murry acquired this copy (perhaps from Mansfield?) just after her return for this brief stay with him. She died in January 1923 at the age of 34.
Murry, with Michael Sadleir, had founded the avant-garde quarterly Rhythm in 1911. Katherine Mansfield sent a few stories to the periodical, with which Murry was very impressed. "At about the same time I bought...a reviewer's copy...of her In a German Pension which was published in December 1911. I was still more, and more intimately, impressed by this collection of stories which seemed to express, with a power I envied, a revulsion from the brutality of life akin to my own" (from Murry's Preface to The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, London, 1928). The two met in 1912 and were married six years later. By the time of Murry's dated signature in this copy, Mansfield was tubercular and was living most of the time in Italy. She returned to England in late April 1920, but by August her illness forced her to return to the Continent. Apparently Murry acquired this copy (perhaps from Mansfield?) just after her return for this brief stay with him. She died in January 1923 at the age of 34.