The History of Literature Podcast | Episode 748

Main Theme:
A triple-featured literary episode with: (1) Gerri Kimber discussing her new full biography of New Zealand short story pioneer Katherine Mansfield, (2) an intriguing tale from recent W.H. Auden scholarship involving love and scandal, and (3) Emerson expert Kenneth Sacks revealing his dream “last book.”
Host: Jacke Wilson
Airdate: November 10, 2025

Segment 1: W.H. Auden, the Sex Worker, and the Burgled Poet

[03:00-10:15]

Overview:

Jacke offers breaking news from recently unearthed letters that reveal a lesser-known, dramatic episode in poet W.H. Auden's life: his friendship with Viennese sex worker Hugo Kirka, who once robbed him but later received his support.

Key Points & Insights:

• Uncovering New Letters:

  • A cache of about 100 letters from Auden to Kirka surfaced, written in casual, ungrammatical German.
  • Auden met Hugo Kirka, a Viennese car mechanic and sex worker, in his mid-50s.

• Nature of Their Relationship:

  • Their meeting was transactional:

    “Our life paths crossed at a moment when you were in need of money and I wanted sex.” (Auden, letter to Kirka)

    • Jacke sardonically notes the bluntness:

      “Sounds like a receipt.” ([06:27] Jacke Wilson)

• The Burgling Incident:

  • After their encounter, Auden lent his Volkswagen Beetle to Kirka, who used it to commit multiple burglaries, including a break-in at Auden's own home.
  • Kirka and his accomplices were caught, risking a scandal for Auden in 1962, an era when same-sex acts were criminalized.

• Aftermath and Loyalty:

  • Auden avoided public exposure; the press protected him, referring to him vaguely as “one of those Americans who got stuck in old Europe with its different, much freer way to live and let live.”
  • Auden did not testify against Kirka; instead, he helped arrange legal aid and continued financial support for Kirka and his wife.
  • Their correspondence and friendship endured, hinting at trust and affection beyond the incident.

Notable Quotes:

• On the nature of Auden’s poetic candor:

  “Posterity, AKA Jacke Wilson, expected something similar from your love poems… Maybe a little more than explaining.” ([06:27] Jacke Wilson)

• On the criminalization and sadness of hidden relationships:

  “It makes me sad that the whole relationship was criminalized… decriminalizing same sex acts would probably have let Auden avoid this by taking some legitimate boyfriends.” ([09:54] Jacke Wilson)

Segment 2: Gerri Kimber on Katherine Mansfield—Life, Art, and Lost Loves

[10:18-49:47]

Overview:

Jacke speaks with Visiting Professor Gerri Kimber, author of Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life, offering a deep dive into Mansfield's personal history, innovative art, and complex romantic life.

Key Discussion Points:

Mansfield and the Bloomsbury Group

• Initial Perceptions:
  • Mansfield appeared on the radar of the Bloomsbury Group in 1916, first visiting Garsington Manor.
  • Lytton Strachey's infamous judgment:

    “Among the rout was ‘Katherine Mansfield,’ if that's her real name, I could never quite make sure…” ([12:11] Gerri Kimber reading Strachey)

  • Virginia Woolf both criticized and revered her, noting,

    “Her writing was the only writing I was ever jealous of.” ([13:27] Jacke Wilson)

Early Life and Family

• Privileged yet Restrictive Upbringing:

  • Born into a wealthy, ambitious Wellington family (“her father was chairman of the Bank of New Zealand”).
  • Educated at London's avant-garde Queen's College, which she loved; resisted returning to New Zealand.

• Rebelliousness and Pursuit of Art:

  • Made herself “objectionable” to escape New Zealand:

    “She was rude, arrogant, she locked herself in her room...went to parties...and started to have unsuitable relationships with other women.” ([16:48] Gerri Kimber)

• First Forays into Writing:

  • Published her first story at age 10; found encouragement through publications in Australian journals.

Unique Qualities as a Short Story Writer

• Why She Stands Out:

  • Master of brevity and implication—“It's almost more important what you leave out than what you say.” ([21:27] Gerri Kimber)
  • Modernist experimentation: Stories often start in medias res, cinematic vividness, and use of free indirect discourse.
  • Example: The start of “The Garden Party”—

    “And after all, the weather was ideal.”
    —conveys mood and context with minimal words.

• Influence on Modernism:

  • “Anyone who's attempted to write a short story will tell you that it's actually easier to write a novel... Mansfield was a genius at it...” ([24:11] Gerri Kimber)

Turbulent Romantic and Personal Life

• Recurring Restlessness:

  • Multiple overlapping relationships with men and women, unintended pregnancies, abortions, and health problems (gonorrhea and likely tuberculosis).
  • Pursued intense, often short-lived romances ("With every relationship...she wanted to cement it immediately...until she got bored or the situation changed." [34:22] Gerri Kimber)
  • Her bold, exploratory lifestyle prefigured the sexual revolution but without the protections of her era.

• Key Partnerships:

  • Marriages and partnerships with George Bowden (married and left after one day), and John Middleton Murry—

    “No man was less suited to being Mansfield's long-term partner than Murray. He couldn't give her the emotional support she needed...” ([36:06] Gerri Kimber)

• Lasting Love with A.R. Orage:

  • Orage, editor of The New Age, was the true intellectual and emotional partner of her life, as Kimber’s biography shows.
  • After her death, Murry erased Orage from records and publications of her life and work.

• Murry’s Rewrite of Her Legacy:

  • Murry published doctored versions of Mansfield’s journals and letters, crafting a posthumous persona and diminishing her actual relationships and writing process.
  • “[Murry] Baudelarized so much and changed so much... The so-called journal that Mansfield apparently wrote... She never wrote a journal. He created it from a mass of loose pieces of paper, jottings in notebooks.” ([45:47] Gerri Kimber)

Recommendations for New Readers

• Best Entry Points:
  • “Either Bliss and Other Stories or The Garden Party and Other Stories. ‘The Garden Party’ was the last collection she personally chose.” ([48:00] Gerri Kimber)
  • Favorite story: “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” for humor, emotion, and character.

Notable Quotes:

• On writing and omission:

  "It's almost more important what you leave out than what you say because you have such a small word count..." ([21:27] Gerri Kimber)

• On her innovative narrative style:

  “You are just presented with a family... You live that moment with those characters, and then it's gone. But in that short moment, you know everything.” ([24:50] Gerri Kimber)

• On her vital energy:

  “By nature, she was gay, cynical, amoral, ribald, witty... extraordinarily amusing.” ([35:16] Jacke Wilson reading Leonard Woolf)

Segment 3: My Last Book – Ken Sacks on Emerson and the Lost Wisdom of Antiquity

[50:49-55:41]

Overview:

Emerson scholar Ken Sacks discusses his research on Emerson's evolving antislavery position and answers a listener's philosophical question about what his “last book” would be.

Key Discussion Points:

• Emerson and Antislavery:

  • Emerson was “always against slavery,” but deliberated deeply over “the best way” to oppose it as an intellectual.
  • Struggled with engagement versus philosophical detachment.

• The Dream “Last Book”:

  • Sacks wishes for the lost Pinakes of Callimachus—a colossal catalog of all books once held in the Library of Alexandria.

  • “My fantasy... someone discovers the long lost manuscript of Callimachus' Pinakes so that we can read the summaries of all the great literature of the ancient world that was lost to us.” ([52:00] Ken Sacks)

• Intellectual Mapping and Loss:

  • Sacks argues the catalog would let us “trace intellectual ideas” of antiquity and create a nuanced intellectual map, despite the inherent bittersweetness of knowing what’s missing.

  • “I'm focusing on the sweet, not the bitter.” ([55:07] Ken Sacks)

• Philosophical Resonance:

  • Jacke agrees:

    “This is humanity and intellectual humanity at its greatest. This is where we get to see ideas coming into being for the first time.” ([55:21] Jacke Wilson)

Selected Timestamps for Key Segments

• Auden’s Letters Scandal: [03:00-10:18]
• Gerri Kimber / Katherine Mansfield Biography: [10:18-49:47]
  • Mansfield and Bloomsbury Group: [10:44-14:00]
  • Early life in New Zealand & rebellion: [14:00-18:49]
  • Artistry & modernism: [20:17-25:50]
  • Complicated love life: [29:32-36:06]
  • Relationship with Murry and Orage: [36:06-45:23]
  • Her posthumous reputation: [45:23-47:43]
  • Reading recommendations: [48:00-49:30]
• Ken Sacks on Emerson and the Lost Library: [50:49-55:41]

Notable Quotes (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• Jacke Wilson on Auden’s blunt verse:

  “Sounds like a receipt.” ([06:27] Jacke Wilson)

• Gerri Kimber on Katherine Mansfield’s writing:

  “It's almost more important what you leave out than what you say because you have such a small word count...” ([21:27] Gerri Kimber)

• Gerri Kimber on Murry’s editorial legacy:

  “He made it all look so seamless... but it really wasn't what she did.” ([47:43] Gerri Kimber)

• Ken Sacks on the pain and value of the lost Alexandrian catalog:

  “I'm focusing on the sweet, not the bitter.” ([55:07] Ken Sacks)

Conclusion

This episode traverses a profound landscape of literary history, gossip, artistic reinvention, and philosophical yearning:

• Auden’s letters show the poignancy of love and loyalty amid criminalization.
• Katherine Mansfield, via Gerri Kimber, emerges as a luminous, complicated genius whose art and life still challenge the limits of literary biography and modern identity.
• Ken Sacks leaves us reflecting on the collective memory of human thought and the bittersweet yearning for lost wisdom.

This is a must-listen for lovers of literary history, fans of modernism, and anyone fascinated by the hidden corners of artists’ lives.