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John Middleton Murry Born 6th August1889 at Peckham, South London. He had one brother,
Arthur, later known as Richard, born in 1902. John’s father
was an ambitious civil servant who also worked at the Penny Bank
in the evenings to make extra money. Though John’s mother
Emily was by nature lively and optimistic, his father was a rigid
disciplinarian, not afraid to use physical force when he deemed
it necessary. John’s childhood was thoroughly miserable
and he found an escape route through his precocious intellect.
He taught himself to read at the age of 3 and was enrolled at
a board school at a time when other children were still in the
nursery. A few years later, he won a scholarship to Christ’s
Hospital and from there to Brasenose College Oxford, where he
was expected to achieve a glittering first class degree. He dropped
out in his final year, having discovered the bohemian delights
of Paris and a vocation for literature, though he did later return
to take his degree (an upper second). |
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| At the
end of his second year, the summer of 1911, John began a literary
magazine called Rhythm,
co-edited with fellow undergraduate Michael Sadler and a painter
called John D. Fergusson he had met in Paris. Rhythm was initially
a great success. Katherine Mansfield submitted a story in the autumn
and they met at the house of a mutual friend. By the spring of 1912
John had become Katherine’s lodger and she was listed as ‘co-editor’
of Rhythm. When the magazine failed financially, it was re-incarnated
as The Blue Review.
Because Katherine was already married, she and John co-habited until her divorce in 1918. There were long periods when they lived apart for practical (and sometimes emotional) reasons. John pursued a career in literature, writing reviews and articles, poetry, short stories and criticism for most of the leading periodicals of the day. His first two full length books were a novel - Still Life - and a study of Dostoevsky, both published in 1916. During the 1914-18 war he worked at the war office, first as a translator and commentator on the foreign press, and then as Chief Censor. John met D.H. Lawrence when he submitted a story for Rhythm in 1913, just after he had run away with Frieda Weekley. Although Katherine did not get on well with Frieda, the two couples lived close to each other on several occasions - first at Great Missenden in Berkshire in 1914, and then at Zennor in Cornwall in 1915. Feelings were very intense - particularly between the men. Lawrence modeled two of his characters for Women in Love on John (Gerald Crich) and Katherine (Gudrun Brangwen). After they quarreled in Cornwall the relationship cooled, but for the rest of their lives they corresponded and occasionally met. John had an affair with Frieda after Katherine’s death. When Katherine died in 1923, John married Violet le Maistre - a young writer who looked very similar to Katherine. There were two children - a girl named for Katherine Mansfield and a boy called John. They were always known as Weg and Col. As well as editing two of the most influential literary magazines of the day - the Athenaeum and the Adelphi, and writing a phenomenal number of books and essays, John also spent a great deal of time editing Katherine’s unpublished work, and her journals and letters. Establishing and maintaining her reputation became an obsession that affected his relationship with his children and his wives. Violet - like Katherine - died of tuberculosis in 1931. John immediately married his housekeeper, Betty Cockbayne, who became violent towards him and Violet’s children. John believed her to be suffering from a form of insanity. She had two children before they separated in 1941. John went to live with Mary Gamble who became his fourth wife when Betty died in 1954. During the last twenty five years of his life (from 1932-57) he became involved in socialist politics and was one of the leading members of the Peace Pledge Union - a pacifist organization. He continued editing Katherine Mansfield’s papers, publishing the last volume of her letters in 1951 and what he called the ‘definitive’ edition of her Journal in 1954. John suffered from the consequences of smoking ‘like a prairie fire’, contracting Burger’s Disease in 1937. He died from a heart attack on 13th March1957, aged 67. He was still talking about Katherine Mansfield on the day he died. |
| "Marriages: Katherine Mansfield 1918-1923 (co-habited, 1912-1918), Violet le Maistre 1924-31, Elizabeth Cockbayne 1931-1954, Mary Gamble 1954-57 (co-habited, 1940-54). Children |
Work by John Middleton Murry: Still
Life (novel) 1916 |
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John
Middleton Murry was also editor of the following literary periodicals. |
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A resource site for the biography of Katherine Mansfield by Kathleen Jones